Sweet Gratitude is My Favorite Attitude! by Author Jan Nash

Thanks for the blog invite to The Seven Scribes, Katy! It’s great to be here. My debut novel, POWERLESS CONSENT, is available at: (Amazon, B&N, and SMP) Pop over to my website www.janetnash.com for details on my book. Here’s a little hint: You’ll never talk on your cell phone the same!

Sweet Gratitude is My Favorite Attitude!

I decided to skip the standard author Q and A and chat about Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday.

So…Thanksgiving night, just before I slipped into my jammies and bellied up to my laptop, a flash of indigestion reminded me of how much I’d eaten. Turkey smothered in gravy, sweet potato casserole, crescent rolls slathered in butter, pecan pie…oh what a feast. Did I mention the second piece of pecan pie? Though decadent and yummy, my dancing taste buds weren’t the highlight of my Thanksgiving. What I savored most was spending dedicated time in gratitude. Ah, sweet gratitude is my favorite attitude.

Hubby and I make an extra effort to spotlight all our blessings during the Thanksgiving season. It’s become a treasured tradition. We focus on the simple, yet joyous things we normally take for granted and try to come up with creative ways to bless others. Here’s one…I’m so blessed to own an oven. I can bless a neighbor or friend by baking cookies. An added bonus is that a few cookies manage to fill my cookie jar. For me, focusing on how blessed I am always ignites a sense of fulfillment and serenity. And that night was no exception.

It didn’t take long for my happy thoughts to be interrupted by another Black Friday commercial. The chatter actually started around November 1^st.  Surely, you’ve heard all the buzz. Super sales, blowout prices, save up to 80%; stores open at noon Thanksgiving Day. All I could think about was what happened to celebrating and giving thanks with family and friends?  Don’t get me wrong, Christmas shopping rocks and who doesn’t like a great bargain? But couldn’t it wait until early Friday morning? I still wanted to savor the true meaning of Thanksgiving.

I didn’t want to end my favorite holiday as a Debbie Downer, so I started thinking of what would add to the Thanksgiving spirit. I know. A smile splashed across my face. What if instead of calling it Black Friday, we tagged it Blessed Friday, and spent the day blessing others instead of spending money? Oh, I liked that idea. Personally, I’m not a super shopper, so the Blessed Friday concept sang to my soul.

Either way, shop till you drop or pay it forward, I’m staying in the zone of my attitude of sweet gratitude.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to blog!

Readers: What are you grateful for?

Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of my book, Powerless Consent.

 

 

 

Katy Lee here: Jan, you sure have blessed me with your post today! You put in words how I have felt all week.  I used to work in retail and the term “Black Friday” was thrown around by the back-office managers trying to make sure they didn’t end in the red for the year. It has since become a publicly used term and now an annual event, usurping the day President Lincoln deemed a special day to remember all of our blessings. It seems only right to spend the next day paying those blessings forward.

Jan, I am so excited to have you part of the Soul Mate Publishing family! Welcome!

And READERS: Don’t miss Jan’s latest book, Powerless Consent. Don’t you just LOVE the cover? Check it out here.

Powerless Consent

Kate Ballard thinks attending a gala on a luxury yacht honoring her old college friend will be the time of her life, but secret cell phone video threats to her family’s safety, and a hidden sniper force her into a world of deception and lies. Can her faith erase such horror? Though powerless, she relentlessly tries to outsmart her captor and return to the love of her life.

Her husband, Tom, refuses to accept his wife’s decision to leave and discovers that he must revisit his past. With the help of an unlikely ally, he finds evidence of theft and murder tucked away in an old storage locker. When his investigation starts to uncover the truth, he struggles with whom to believe. Will he trust his heart, or the deception before his eyes? One thing’s for sure, nothing can stop him from reuniting his family, not even a force as great as Invisible Surveillance.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, darlings! Suze here, writing to you from the deck of my cabin in the woods. I woke in time to see the sunrise over the lake. A flock of ducks just came in for a landing on the water below me. A bald eagle just flew past (I never, ever fail to be thrilled, no matter how many times I see them!). And if I’d remembered to set up the coffeepot last night, I’d be enjoying a cup right now, making it pretty much a perfect morning. We make our own electricity here and must be frugal with what we have, so it’s an old-fashioned top-of-the-woodstove percolator for us–no Keurig machine!

I have so much to be grateful for, more this year than most, perhaps. So I’m making a Thanksgiving resolution: to live more mindfully and to practice gratitude in some form every day.

That being said, I’m thankful for all of you, my friends!

Now that the mushy stuff is over, how about a no-longer-secret recipe? I make my Black Friday stew every … Black Friday! I’ve never shopped on Black Friday, and don’t intend to (except maybe once as a bucket list kind of thing). It takes a while, but it’s easy, and it’s a great way to use up leftovers.

SUZE’S BLACK FRIDAY STEW

Pick as much meat as you can off the turkey frame and refrigerate the meat. Get a big stock pot and put the frame in the pot, breaking it up if you need to. Toss in the wing tips, and any other bones that people didn’t gnaw on (legs, thigh, wings), as well as a quartered onion, a couple of bay leaves, a few carrots, a few stalks of celery, and a parsnip if you have one. Fill the pot about 2/3 full with water, cover, and put the pot on the stove. (I make mine on a woodstove here at the cabin). Bring the water almost to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for several hours. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Strain out all the solids, discard, and return broth to the pot. (I find it works well to use two strainers—one with larger holes nested inside one with finer mesh).

Now comes the fun part. Add in:

-2 cans of cream of celery/mushroom/chicken soup, undiluted, or a combination of soups

-3 cans of creamed corn

-Leftover mashed potatoes

-Leftover gravy

-Leftover corn (or a can of corn, drained)

Stir to combine, and heat through (10 or 15 minutes is plenty). A few minutes before serving, add leftover turkey and heat for a couple more minutes.

Ladle into big bowls, and serve with a green salad and a loaf of French bread (I’m a fan of the Pillsbury French bread, the kind that comes in a tube in the refrigerator section).  Don’t forget leftover pie for dessert.

This feeds a crowd! If you don’t have a crowd, freeze the rest. It’s nice to pull out a tub of homemade soup for a quick supper or lunch on a cold winter day.

Have a wonderful day!

I Want Candy. . . Candy Dot Scarf Giveaway

Happy Friday everyone! Casey Wyatt here.

The Winner of the candy dot scarf is – Alli-cat Sharron!! Congratulations Alli-cat! I will contact you through e-mail.

Don’t forget to visit me at my website before 2/13/12. I’m participating in a blog hop – Romancing the Valentine Giveaway hop. I’ll be giving away an e-book of Mystic Ink.

But don’t leave yet. Or you’ll miss the fun giveaway here.

I have two favorite holidays.

My first favorite is Thanksgiving. The other is Valentine’s Day. Or as I like to think of it – Chocolate Day!

Seriously, even if you don’t love chocolate, I bet you like candy of some kind.  In honor of Valentine’s Day, I have crocheted a candy dot scarf. And I am giving it away to one lucky commentor (open to US residents only).

In case you’re wondering what the heck is a candy dot scarf and why would I want one, remember those little tiny dot candies? The ones on the white paper? Pink, yellow and blue?

I think candy dots are the closest I’ve ever come to intentionally eating paper. You know, in all fairness, it’s kinda hard not to eat the paper.

Anyway, back to the scarf. I crochet and knit things when I want a break from writing. Or when I’m avoiding an unpleasant chore like creating a synopsis or query letter.

But I don’t just craft to avoid writing. Sometimes I pick up knitting needles or a crochet hook to let my mind wander and think about something other than writing.

I made a candy dot scarf for myself last January and ever since I’ve had several offers to buy it.

I did not invent this pattern (nor have I ever sold my scarf). Twinkie Chan deserves all the credit. If you like this scarf, you can find the pattern and many other yummy food themed scarves in her book – Twinkie Chan’s Crochet Goodie for Fashion Foodies.

As you can tell from the book cover, many delights await you inside. Don’t send me hate mail, if you find yourself in a crochet frenzy. I’ve made several of the scarves and they’re a lot of fun.

Yes, this could be yours…

So who wants a candy dot scarf? What is your favorite sweet confection? And what fun thing do you like to do when procrastinating or taking a break?

Reminder the drawing is open to US residents only and you must comment to be entered. And don’t forget to visit me at my website before 2/13/12 to enter for a chance to win an e-book of Mystic Ink –  Romancing the Valentine Giveaway hop.

A Tale of Two Turkeys

Happy Thursday again, and Happy First Day of December, you wonderful Scribe fans!  Suze here.  It’s great to see you all again after the long Thanksgiving weekend.

Before we get to the “meat” of this post, some business.  If you’re a writer and you haven’t entered CTRWA’s Write Stuff contest, what are you waiting for?  There are still a few days left.  First prize in each category is a hundred bucks, which you know you want.  Go for it!  Click here for details.

Now, I know you’re all dying to find out what happened last Thursday at my mom’s house.  Remember?  The turducken?  Click here for a link to last week’s post so you can get yourselves up to speed if you missed it.

The Famous World War I Flying Ace - Suze's favorite balloon!

Mr. Suze and our son and I spent the morning at our remote woodland cabin, alternately watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and an awe-inspiring trio of bald eagles circling not too far overhead — two golden brown juveniles and an adult with a snowy white head and tail.  Once the parade and the aerobatics show were over, we headed over to Mom’s.

She wasn’t home.   We knew she wouldn’t be there yet, because she was doing volunteer work at her church.  So we brought in the box of turducken, and I set about preparing it for cooking.  Hmmm. A frown creased my forehead.  A distinctive aroma permeated the kitchen, and it wasn’t coming from my still-raw Turducken.  A tiny orangey light caught my eye.  Not a Faulknerian Light in August, but a very suspicious Light in the Oven.

I investigated further.  I strode to the oven.  I threw open the door.  A blast of hot air hit me in the face as I discovered — you guessed it — a 20 pound turkey, skin brown and crispy, hissing poultry steam from the vent holes in the old blue enamelware roaster pan.

Nearly four hundred years of family Thanksgiving tradition simply could not be denied.  Mr. Suze just shook his head.

I pulled out the cooked bird and replaced it with the turducken, prepared according to the package directions (leave it in the cooking bag and place on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven).  Mom came in the door shortly afterward.

“Oh, good,” she said.  ”My turkey’s done.”  She had the grace to look a little sheepish (pardon my mixing of farm animals here).  ”I had to cook the turkey.  Ooh, is that the turducken?”

She never did say why she “had” to cook the turkey.  Was it because the turkey was about to spoil and “had” to be cooked?  (unappetizing, but entirely possible)  Or was she simply compelled by a force greater than herself to cook that bird on the fourth Thursday of November?  The world may never know.

As for the turducken, reviews were mixed.  Like most prepared foods, this bizarre hybrid concoction was overly salty, or at least the rice stuffing was.  Maybe a “homemade” turducken would be better, but I can tell you that personally I will not be deboning and stuffing three birds anytime soon.  The turkey layer was judged to be fine.  The duck layer was generally not hated, but not really liked.  As for the chicken core, it tasted pretty much like the turkey layer, which is probably why chicken and turkey are never mixed together in recipes.

The other turkey ended up being sliced up for sandwiches the next day, and I made my famous Black Friday Stew with the carcass.  (I’ll give you that recipe soon).

What about you?  Do you have habits that you just can’t break, no matter how hard you try?  Inquiring Scribes want to know!

Bursting at the Seams

The following is a true story that happened to me this week. Enjoy…

Friday morning I walked into my parents’ kitchen to see my seventeen year old brother eating a cake. Not a piece of cake, not a sliver, or a slice, but the enormous hunk of homemade chocolate cake that my mother had made for Thanksgiving. The kid didn’t even have a plate. I watched him for a moment before I asked, “What are you doing?”

He looked at me as if my question was stupid. “I’m eating cake.”

Duh! ”All of it?” I asked in a sort of horrified wonder as he shoved a giant forkful in his mouth.

“Planning on it.”

“But I didn’t get any!”

“So?”

As I stared at him I knew he would eat all of it because that’s what little brothers did. So I got a fork and sat next to him and starting eating cake too.

“Stick to your side.” He told me with his mouth full. I did and we ending up eating cake for breakfast.

Wanna know what I had for lunch? Apple pie and ice cream. I swear it wasn’t my idea. Upon arriving home from Black Friday shopping I see two of my brothers,( the one from that morning was one of them) sitting at the table with the biggest tub of vanilla ice cream in the world and a whole homemade apple pie.

“You want some?” The older one asked. I was about to say no, my conscience kicking me in the butt.

“Just give her some,” the younger one said. “I don’t want to hear her b*&ching later that she didn’t get any.”

“You two are going to eat the entire pie?”

They both looked at me like I was stupid. In hindsight  I guess it was stupid question. The older one plopped the pie on a glass pie and put it in the microwave, while the younger one got out three clear glass mugs. We waited in silence for the microwave to ding and when it did I watch as they placed steaming pie at the bottom of the mugs and the a layer of ice cream and finished it off with more pie.

“Let the ice cream melt some,” the little one said. ”And then mix it up. It’s damn good.”

I did as he said and then tasted it. He was right it was good and the three of us proceeded to eat a whole pie and a half a gallon of ice cream.

Wanna know what I had for dinner? Stuffing. That was it. A big bowl of stuffing.

I gained 1.4 pounds between Wednesday and Saturday. Which brought my total weight gain from the summer up to five pounds and after spending a year losing forty-five pounds it served as a sharp blow to my sluggish system.

I decided to leave my parents house that day and return to my own. I blame mybrothers for my weight gain, especially the youngest one.(He MADE me eat that pie!) The boy is jacked. He’s got pecs and biceps and a stupidly flat belly and he hasn’t eaten a vegetable in years. He eats cheese fries for breakfast and waffles for dinner and he looks great. Did I mention that I hate him?

Like a lot of you I’m constantly fighting to lose and keep off weight. Every pound lost is a mini battle. Every day is a struggle to make the right choices, to say no to that brownie and yes to that banana. The truth is that there is no secret diet. Eat less. Move more and make the right choices. If you aren’t hungry enough to eat an apple then you really aren’t  that hungry at all.

So, this morning I trekked to the grocery store, avoiding the frozen pizza that has become a staple in my diet and spent a fortune on fresh fruit, vegetables and things I actually have to cook. Mentally, I feel better already. Physically I’m suffering from the shakes because of pie withdrawal and wondering how I can keep up my word count and still exercise at the same time.

Your turn! What’s the worst thing you ever ate? Have a brother you’d like to smack? What’s your diet been like lately? Love pie? How was your Thanksgiving? Any and all comments are welcome.

Turkey Talk

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!  Suze here wishing you all a most special day. I’m writing to you today from my cabin on a cliff in the north woods.  A woodfire is crackling in the stove, I’ve got a cup of hot perked coffee and a Pillsbury orange cinnamon roll in front of me (trust me, try these), and the surface of the lake below us is smooth as glass.

The view from my cabin window a couple of years ago

The air is quiet except for the occasional crack of a rifle off in the distance — it’s hunting season, after all, and while I love venison, I’m secretly rooting for the deer.  Soon the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade will start.  We get one channel here, and this is the only time we ever watch television at camp.  (DVDs, yes. Television no.)    After that, we will head out to my mother’s house for Thanksgiving dinner.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband, who bless him does the grocery shopping for our family (one of my most-hated chores), informed me that he wanted to buy a turducken for Thanksgiving.  For those unfamiliar with this not-quite-mythological beastie, a turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey, all bones removed.

Rare Who roast beast? Nope, it's the elusive turducken!

Cool, right?  Sounded like fun.  Except he then proceeded to inform me that I should tell my mother not to make a turkey.  Let me just make sure you got that.  He wanted me to tell my mother not to make a turkey.  On Thanksgiving.

Now, of course he was right.  There would have been far, far too much food if both a turkey and a turducken were cooked.  But I dreaded this phone call and put it off as long as I could.  Who was I to mess with the centuries-old tradition of a big fat gobbler on Thanksgiving?  My ancestors came over on the Mayflower and lived in Plymouth.  Carried blunderbusses, wore buckled shoes and buckled hats, and had their unprepared English hineys saved from starvation by Squanto and Massasoit.  John Alden and Priscilla Mullins?

Miles Standish, Priscilla Mullins, and John Alden in a scene from "The Courtship of Miles Standish" by Suze's distant cousin, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

They’re my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents.  The turkey tradition runs deep, I tell you.

Finally, I dialed the phone and made the announcement.

There was a pause.  A long pause.  I chewed my bottom lip and pulled the phone away from my ear in a preemptive attempt to save my hearing when the explosion came.

“Turducken,” Mom said thoughtfully.  “You know, I was watching Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Channel a couple of weeks ago and Guy ate turducken.  That sounds like fun!  I won’t make a turkey.”

So I invite you this Thanksgiving day, in addition to counting your blessings, enjoying the time with your loved ones, and remembering the loved ones who are no longer with you, to do a couple of things:

• Don’t be afraid to tell your mother stuff — she might surprise you; and
• Examine your personal traditions and beliefs.  The ones you thought could never, ever be changed, for any reason.  What seems inviolable might just be . . . violable.  And it might be an opportunity for you to grow and for creativity to expand.

Or maybe that’s just your stomach growing and expanding after that last piece of pumpkin pie today!

Because you can never have too many cranberry recipes around the holidays, I’ll leave you with a no-longer-secret family recipe.  As far as I’m concerned, no Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is complete without Cranberry Relish.  My grandmother, Margarette, would haul out her giant metal food grinder, the kind that clamped to the table and was heavy enough to use as a weapon, and make this every year.  Now that we don’t have to work so hard for our food, we use a food processor.  Enjoy, and have a wonderful day!

MARGARETTE’S CRANBERRY RELISH*

• One bag fresh whole cranberries (see Viv’s instructions for cleaning and inspecting these bouncy beauties)
• One whole seedless orange, peel and all, chopped into a few pieces (an orange with seeds is fine as long as you remove them)
• One whole apple (a green one is pretty, but any firm apple will do), cored and chopped into a few large pieces
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar, depending on taste

This is best made the day ahead, or at least several hours before you want to serve it.  Fit up your food processor with the regular chopping blade.  Place all ingredients in the bowl, starting with the half cup of sugar (you can always add more later if it’s too tart).  Pulse everything until it’s in fine pieces, stopping short of pureeing the mixture.  Taste and add a bit more sugar if necessary, and serve in a clear glass bowl so you can admire the jewel-like colors.

Delicious with turkey, chicken, or even ham.  My favorite post-holiday leftover is a turkey, cheddar and cranberry relish sandwich.  Enjoy!

** To be fair, I don’t know where my grandmother got this recipe.  It could have been from her own mother, Gladys.  There may be some bickering going on among the angels right now over who should get the credit.  Love you still, girls!

Recipe for Success

Happy Holidays everyone! PJ Sharon here, writing to talk with you about recipes. I’m not talking about my recipe for my fabulous homemade cranberry-pear sauce which you can find over on the Scribe’s savory treats page.

Yummy cranberry-pear sauce!

I’m talking about a recipe for success.

I’m a relative newbie to the publishing industry and working hard to figure out the ins and outs of what it takes to succeed in this complex and unpredictable business. What I’ve learned so far I can boil down to this:

 Product + Product Placement + Visibility + Consumer Satisfaction = Success

Let me break this down:

1)      You need a quality Product. That’s easy, right? Write a great book. Okay…easy is a relative term here, but you get the gist. Create a stunning cover, hire a fabulous editor, and put out a professional product. Hard work for sure, but this is a no brainer.

2)      Product Placement refers to getting your work out there in as many sales channels as possible to make it accessible for your readers. As an indie author with little hope of ever seeing my books on a shelf in B&N, I need to have a wide, on-line distribution plan. Heaven Is For Heroes is available on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, CreateSpace, Books On Board, Good reads, and I’m looking at All Romance e-readers. I have the first chapters of my books available on Wattpad and excerpts on my website as well. Also on the to-do list is to contact libraries and try to get my books distributed to public as well as High School libraries. This is a time consuming endeavor and is on my schedule for the first quarter of 2012 (or when I can eventually afford to hire a personal assistant, hahaha).

Sidebar: There is another school of thought that narrowing your distribution to just Amazon will help to drive your ranking toward the top 100 list faster because all of your sales will be there. I’m of the mind that I want my books to be found wherever readers are, so using multiple distribution channels fits that model.

3)      Visibilty is by far the hardest and probably the most important and laborious ingredient in my recipe. Blogging, tweeting, FB, blog tours, book signings, and generally hoing the book and yourself out to whoever will listen, and doing this without making a nuisance of yourself, seems to be what it takes to sell books. I’m all for working smarter, not harder and I’m trying to gain an understanding of how to not only reach readers but those readers who have purchase power. These are two different animals in the YA world. Teens are reading books, but parents are still the ones buying the books. So although my target audience is teen readers who will say to Mom or Dad, “I’ve got to have PJ Sharon’s latest book or I’ll simply die,” it’s Mom or Dad who is forking over  the cash for said book, and will want to know what they are buying and why they should buy it. Thus, my target audience is also adults, whether they read Contemporary YA or are buying it for the teens in their lives. This is a good thing in that it gives me a broader target market, but not so good in terms of focusing my efforts. I’m still figuring out how a pinch of this and a dash of that will affect my sales in the long run. I’ll keep you posted on what’s working and what’s not.

4)      This leads me to Customer Satisfaction. If the cranberry-pear sauce is too sour or too sweet, or gives you indigestion, you aren’t likely to make it again. Nor will you necessarily trust my next recipe. I think every writer worries that their next book might not be as good as their last book and that with every new effort, they risk ridicule and failure. Artistic angst is like chocolate for the doubt monster. But somewhere along the line, you have to believe that if you work hard and put your best product out into the world, chances are someone will love it. Those are the people who will follow you anywhere and buy all the books you write–your customer who you will work and slave to please, because they are the wonderful people who are supporting your ability to sit down and write another cool story. There will certainly be those people who don’t love your product for various reasons, but as one wise writer once said, “then that isn’t your audience.” Not everyone loves cranberries. However, if I’ve done my job and written a great book, produced a professional product, and made it accessible and visible to readers who want to find it, there should be nothing stopping me from reaching my goal to succeed as a published author.

Join me next week, when I’ll define what those goals are and see if they might be your goals too. Congratulations to Stephanie Queen who won a copy of Heaven Is For Heroes for leaving a comment on last Tuesday’s blog. To further thank my supporters, Heaven Is For Heroes is up for sale for .99 through the end of December. If you haven’t gotten a copy, now’s your chance to get it at a great price! You can order it through Amazon, B&N, or Smashwords.

I’d love for you to share YOUR recipe for success!

 

Card Sharks and Apple Pie

As long as I can remember my family has done the same thing every year for Thanksgiving. We all gather at my parents house. We drink the same brand of sparkling cider, take

Family Game Night

our annual family picture and eat till we can’t move.

And every year we have the big family fight, um, I mean… argument. Maybe I should call it a spirited debate. It’s always over something stupid, never about politics or religion, or anything that gets most people heated. One year it was about my uncle’s decision to date women who were closer to my age than his own.(Yikes and eww!) Another year it was about modern music versus oldies.(They don’t call them classics for a nothing.) Last year we had a big discussion about my brother’s unfortunate fashion choices. (Tiny tee-shirt to show off his bulging muscles and low riding pants… to show off his underwear?)

But most arguments on Thanksgiving day stem from one thing: Games. My mother’s side of the family are notorious cheaters. My grandfather, wily old man may he rest in peace was, their leader. At a certain point during childhood in my family, one realizes that Poppy is a big fat stinky cheater, and if you are going to play with him you have to expect that if you get up to go to the bathroom he will steal your cards, or stack the deck or make up the rules to the game as he goes.

There are some children who accept the challenge and begin the process of learning how to out cheat the cheater. There are others like my middle brother, who watch in honorable horror. My father, who grew up in an honest, well-behaved family, refuses to play with us unless we promise to play fair. (Poor sap.)

Card games are ridiculous, from Gold Fish to Rummy 500 I don’t think a fair game has ever been played in our household. When we play Spades rules don’t apply at all, cards are freely traded and adding ten to fifteen extra points to your score is permissible.

Trival Pursuit became a family favorite after smart phones came out. More than a test of knowledge it became a test of who could google the fastest.

Scattegories … ah. The game we wait for every year and the cause of our loudest family arguments. For those of you who don’t know Scattegories, the objective of the 2-to-6-player game is to score points by uniquely naming objects within a set of categories, given an initial letter, within a time limit. For example… A college major that begins with the letter W.

My mother said Witch Craft. My uncle hotly refused to let her have the point. But when it came around to his wife’s turn and she said Weeding,my uncle being a good husband defended his wife’s answer, stating that Horticulture was indeed a college major and that she should not only be given the point, but an extra for being so clever. (Gag and what a big flipping cheater!) And that started the fight-argument-spirited debate of that year.

 Then after every blow out we have apple pie and ice cream and go on like nothing ever happened.Our guests always gaze at us in amazement and wonder how so many crazy people got put in one family but they always leave with smiles on their faces.

 

The truth is Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a little cheating, a little screaming and my father shaking his head, wondering why the hell he married into this family.

Sidenote:It’s an unspoken code that we keep all cheating confined to our house only. Because honestly, nobody likes a cheater.

Another sidenote: Since we spent our childhoods trying to out smart my grandfather we know the rules like the back of our hands, and we’re all SUPER competitive. Oh and we’re gloaters. (Bad sportsmanship  I know. ) Don’t invite us for game night unless you’re prepared to go down.

Your turn. Is your family as nuts as mine? Do you have a weird family tradition? Any tradition? No tradition? Like games? Wanna play me in SPIT? Any and all comments are welcome.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!