Friday, November 28, 2008

Black Friday



I hope this finds everyone recovering from your Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday. We were blessed with the company of Tersie, Britt, T~Bear and Michael (Tersie's Friend) for Thanksgiving Dinner. It was a great having them here. T~Bear made her sugar free chocolate cheesecake for desert. The best way I can express how good it was would be to say "Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!"
After stuffing ourselves yesterday, I made a big pot of Cabbage Soup for dinner today. The left over turkey is going to go into a pot and with a few more ingredients will become turkey and sausage gumbo. Now that will be a treat in a few weeks as we sit by the woodstove and watch the snow coming down outside.

It was heartbreaking to hear the news of the terrorism that is going on in India. So many innocent lives snuffed out like a candle. This news hits especially close to home for us. Our Brit children, Angela and Nick (Nick is British) are living in Abu Dhabi for now. Nick works for Conoco Phillips and is there overseeing the construction of a new refinery. After listening to the news this afternoon, I decided out of curiosity I would search out a map of the area and see just how close Abu Dhabi, UAI is to Mumbai, India. From the map it looks to be just stone's throw away. Please keep Angela and Nick in your prayers and pray for the safety of all that are in harms way.

Today was Black Friday and of course all of the retailers baited their hooks with their best deals in the hopes of getting out of the red before the end of the year. Anyone that has been reading my post for a very long time knows that I just don't get out there and do Black Friday. I am perfectly content to browse through the different retailer web sites and do my shopping from my kitchen while sipping a cup of coffee. The news last night showed hoards of people running through the parking lot at the Jeffersonville outlet stores. It sort of reminded me of the running of the bulls. Then today it was reported that a Wal-Mart associate in Long Island (I think that is the location) was trampled to death by shoppers as he opened he doors to let them in. Somewhere else in the states at a Toys-R-Us store an argument took place and it resulted in someone getting shot.

As a final note the news Wednesday night told of the two turkeys that were invited to the White House so Bush could issue a presidential pardon. I thought big deal, there have been a lot of turkeys (not of the feathered variety) pardoned over the years that really shouldn't have been. As the story went on, I felt my jaw dropping as the reporter took the viewers on a tour of a plush luxury hotel where the two turkeys spent the night and were fed a gourmet meal prior to visiting the White House. Following the pardon, one of the turkeys would fly first class to Disney World where it was to lead the Main Street Parade and then live out the remainder of it's life there. This of course is all good, except for one nagging question in the back of my mind. Who paid for all of this? I mean really...... A night in a luxury hotel eating gourmet food and a first class ticket for an airplane ride can't come cheap. On the off chance that none of this was donated, considering the economy, do we really need to be spending tax payer dollars like that?
Have a blessed weekend.
~Jo

3 comments:

Lib said...

Hi JO,
Hope ya'll are doing well!
Seems there's so much sad news everywhere! I'll be praying!
The clip I saw about the 2 turkey's , the owner said Disney is paying for everything. I'm with you with the economy like it is the $ could of been spent a better way.
Have a Blessed wk.
Blessins',Lib

Mountain Mama said...

I'd like to see the recipe for your cabbage soup. My mom used to make one but it had no meat in it.

Black Friday. Well the name says it all. I think I tried shopping that day once several years ago. It was disgusting and many of the shoppers were rude and ugly, I decided never again. In my family we are centering our Christmas around Christ. There are no gifts exchanged at our big gathering.
As far as the 'first class turkey' is concerned, I would be impressed if Disney donated that money to buy shoes for poor families. They could give them the turkey too for that matter.

farmlady said...

We keep "pardoned" turkeys in luxurious accommodations and kill a poor, underpaid employee in our pursuit of material stuff that we don't need. What a strange society this has become.