1. Have you ever been on a cruise? If so where did you go and how did you like it? If not, do you have any desire to take a cruise someday?
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Our second cruise was a St. Lawrence Seaway cruise in 2011. Again, we really enjoyed it and when we disembarked in Boston, we stayed 2-3 days touring around. This cruise was with a much smaller cruise line, Holland America and our first was with Celebrity. We much preferred the smaller ship because that meant fewer people and more enjoyable in our estimation.
2. Tell us about your Thanksgiving plans...are you hosting? cooking? eating out? turkey or some other main? is it stuffing or dressing in your house? homemade cranberries or cranberries in a can? are pies on the dessert menu? what kind? what are your 'must have' sides? Tell us one thing you're especially grateful for this year.
We will be eating at our country club. They will have any and everything that one could possibly want on the buffet and it is generally very good. We show up, enjoy and leave the clean up and left overs to them. They will be serving dressing and so would I if I were doing the meal and it would be cranberry sauce. I will be making two desserts today to have, our family favorite, Almond Pound Cake and a Pumpkin Crunch.
And, hands down, what I am most thankful for this year is this younger brother of mine. Joel has enjoyed perfect health all 57 of his years. This year found him facing two very serious health conditions. He faced a Melanoma surgery on his Achilles Tendon and then immediately afterwards he faced having to have his Aortic Valve replaced. There is so much to both of these but, I'll spare all the details and just say, God led him every step of the way down to the best of doctors and complete recovery. It was such a huge shock to all of us and I spent some very anxious days with much concern. He and his wife will arrive around noon today and it will be our first time seeing him since the heart surgery in August. I've got a really big hug waiting on him.
3. If someone approaches you and asks for money do you give it to them? Do you drop money 'in a tin cup' that belongs to a person on the street? Do you have a specific charity you support during the holiday season and/or year round?
I can't remember the last time someone approached me asking for money but I have certainly passed a lot of folks on on street corners or outside a business. I have a big giving heart when there is a REAL need and I generally will give, even if I am not sure if it is a genuine need. I feel I have been abundantly blessed and it is the right thing for me to do.
Hubby and I have dear friends that do incredible mission work all over the world and we support them year around. Their ministry has led literally thousands of people to the Lord. I can't think of a better return on the dollar.
4. Have you started decorating for Christmas? Is your tree up? Shopping done? Wrapped?
I generally do not put any Christmas decor until after Thanksgiving but I did put out the front porch decor last weekend. Our tree will go up next week and a few other touches but nothing like I use to do.
Yes, my shopping is done and everything boxed and ready to wrap. I hope to get started on that next week. 90% of my shopping was done online, the Grans mothers send me the links to what the Grans want, I click on it, pay for it and boom, it's done. Wayyyy to easy!
5. Create your own acrostic using the word THANKS.
Just so you know, this stressed my poor brain. ~smile~
T - trust (in God)
H - hope (in God)
A - answers (to prayer)
N - nice (what we all should be)
K - kind (what we all should be)
S - sincere (what we all should be)
6. Insert your own random thought here.
This is Darya, our awesome tour guide. I would put Darya up against any tour guide around and she would win the award I'm quite sure. She is a Christian Jew that knows the Bible inside out and backwards, knows Israel inside out and backwards and before becoming a tour guide she was a Pediatric Nurse. Oh, and she speaks 3 languages. One amazing woman! A lot of tears were shed when we told her good-bye.
