We planned to barbecue the turkey. (You do that kind of thing in California in November.) My “perfect” Thanksgiving dinner was “less than perfect.”  When Steve went to light up the grill, we were out of briquettes.  All was not lost, however. After a quick trip to the store, we were ready to get cooking. The turkey cooked a lot faster than I expected, so it ended up being done long before the “enchanted broccoli forest.”  Even though my timing was not perfect and some dishes were served cold, I was so proud of our barbecued turkey. It was cooked to perfection.

Steve was pleased that we could have Thanksgiving at our house because that meant lots of leftovers.  Steve’s dad carved the beautiful bird. He put the remainder of the carcass that still had some meat on it in the refrigerator. We had heard that the meat would stay moister if left on the carcass.

After several days, Steve commented that it would be nice to have a turkey sandwich.  “Oh yeah, we have turkey in the fridge,” I replied. I filed that information in my brain to be retrieved at a later date, like the next day.  

After a couple more days passed, I noticed this…uh…smell coming from the refrigerator.  Being a couple of months pregnant, I made a mad dash to the bathroom.         My mind began to race.  What do I do?  I wonder if Steve would mind if I called him to come home from work for this? No, probably not a good idea…The garbage man doesn’t come for a few more days, and I can’t leave that smelly thing in the garbage can. I must take action—now!

I opened the refrigerator and as fast as I could, I pulled the neatly wrapped carcass out.  Without breathing, I ran to the garage, put the turkey down, then ran back into the house and took a deep breath. 

Now what do I do?

A brilliant idea popped into my head. I will put it into someone else’s garbage. 

I opened the garage door and ran the carcass out to the car. Oh no! I don’t want that in my car.  I put it on the hood.  That’ll work! 

I got in the car and began to drive.  I kept looking behind me.  I was sure I would be found out.  Nope, no dogs chasing me yet.

I found a dumpster, heaved it in, and ran back to the car.  Whew! I made it.  Driving back to the house I felt like I had somehow participated in a great feat of espionage. I should have worn a dark coat on my adventure.

My thoughts returned to why I put the carcass in the refrigerator in the first place. Oops!   Now that that’s taken care of, how am I going to make Steve a leftover turkey sandwich?

Since my little carcass incident, I have made a Thanksgiving motto.  As soon as the turkey is carved I say, “Out with the carcass!” I have learned since then that it is okay to take all of the turkey off the bone.  It is even okay to freeze it. I just cut up all the leftover turkey into bite-sized pieces and fill up Ziploc freezer bags with about two cups of meat in each bag. Of course, you should label and date the bags so you don’t forget what is in them or forget how old the meat is. I only tell you this because I forget to label everything and you should learn from my mistakes.

What are some of the mistakes you’ve made around the holidays? Do you have any funny stories to share?

The number one reason most resolutions fail is because we are focusing on the negatives that we want to change. I know some of you are saying (with a snotty attitude), “So, It’s good to become a better person.” I’m going to go on record right now to tell you –

• YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH!
• YOU ARE AN AWESOME PERSON!
• YOU ARE ALREADY A BETTER PERSON!

The problem I have with all of these themes of change in our lives is that it forces us to focus on the negatives or weaknesses in our lives. In an effort to be a better person we try to get rid of the negatives. What that does is it makes us put so much focus into those negatives.

This year I would like to challenge you to not create resolutions, but rather New Year’s Enhancements!
The Bible tells us that we are created in His image, that we are a temple of the Holy Spirit, and that He knit us together. That is incredible!

My New Year’s Enhancements are going to be based on those three aspects of my created being.
If I believe that I am created in His image, then He has created me with the strengths he wants me to have. Make a list of your strengths – go ahead, take a long time. It really is okay to think about the strengths that you have. In our weakness, He is made strong. Let Him have your weakness, you enhance your strengths.

One of my strengths is that I maintain a positive attitude in spite of extreme difficulties. I am almost ashamed to admit this, but there have been times that I’ve attempted to stifle that positive attitude, because I thought it would come across to others in a negative way. How dumb is that?! This year, I’m not going to squelch my strengths! I’m going to enhance them.

After you make your strengths list, write at least one sentence for each strength of how you can enhance that strength. Using the example of “Being Positive” – When a positive thought enters my mind, I will either speak it out loud or type it.

I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. I’ve often heard sermons on this that are horribly negative. The preacher will say things like, “The Holy Spirit doesn’t want to dwell in a body that is fat, or smoking, or whatever…” WHAT? Since when did the Holy Spirit require that we get cleaned up first?

My New Year Enhancement is that I am going to be cognizant that the Holy Spirit has chosen to dwell in me – in my present condition. He has not given me a list of things I must do in order for him to stick around. He likes me. He likes to hang out with me. I want to enhance His dwelling place.

God knitted me. I am one of his creation. How cool is that? I’ve often thought that I was a huge disappointment to God. But when I think about that He created me, without even saying, “oops” – that truth enhances my life!

I’m going to challenge you to try to throw away the idea that you have to become something you aren’t. Spend some time reflecting on what you really offer to the people around you. This year, rather than focussing on changing the negative, enhance those things that make you uniquely you!

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How does your family open presents? Do you have a Santa or elves who pass out all the gifts, then at the count of three everyone begins an opening frenzy? Or is it very orderly, one gift at a time? How do you decide who goes first? Oldest to Youngest? Youngest to Oldest?

I have always been one of those people who likes to mix things up, mess with the expected. The first few years we would switch from the order of oldest to youngest, then youngest to oldest. I realized with eight children, a lot of the kids missed out on being the first to open their gifts. I saw disappointment on their faces when the “order” was announced.

My creativity with gift opening was finally allowed to flourish a few years ago. A couple of years ago, I printed the story of Christmas from the book of Luke, verse by verse on strips of paper. Each verse was folded and numbered. Another strip of paper contained names of Children to correspond with their gifts. They each had three gifts, so there were three strips of paper with each child’s name on it.

The first name was drawn – Cathy! Since she was number one, she read paper number one, the first verse of the Christmas story. She was then able to choose a gift and open it. After opening her gift, she chose a name from the name strips. That child then read #2 and chose a gift. The kids really enjoyed this. It made the opening of the gifts a slow, yet inspirational process. There was excitement throughout as to who would get to open a gift next.

Last year I bought a printer paper box for each child. I wrapped the box and lid separately. Within the box, many of the gifts were also wrapped. There were no names on the boxes so no one knew which box contained their gifts. The recipients name was placed inside the box. I began by choosing the first name at random. Briana! Briana chose a box, opened the lid to see who would get to open their presents first. Briana picked her own box! She was excited! She then chose the next name. David. David picked a box, opened the lid, and had to turn the box over to John because it was John’s box. John was now able to open his gifts.

One of the neat things about the boxes is that you can wrap the CD to look like a CD, but no one knows it’s there because it is inside the big box. The boxes can be used to place the gifts back in while the unwrapping takes place. The boxes can also be used over and over again. We also use the boxes to store the Christmas decorations, stockings, special candles, etc.

I need a new idea for opening presents this year.

What are some creative ways that you have used to determine who gets to open next?
UPDATE – How we did it this year….

I used the same pre-wrapped boxes, with three wrapped presents inside. I labeled the inside gifts, but nothing on the outside that would let anyone know to whom the presents belonged.

I put a Snickers candy bar in each child’s stocking, except one had a Three Muskateers. The stockings don’t have names on them either. I had each child choose a stocking. The one with the Three Muskateers got to go first.

It was Bryan. He chose a box. I told him to open one gift from the box. This was NOT his own present. He opened a present that belonged to someone else. He held up the gift as everyone guessed who the gift belonged to. All the kids pointed to David. David was now given the box to open his two remaining gifts. After opening his gifts, he chose a box and opened one gift. It was Brianas.

So, that’s how we did it this year. Every child opened one gift that didn’t belong to them. It was a fun way to open the gifts.

I like the time of gift giving to last awhile. I think this was about an hour and a half. We had a roaring fire in the fireplace and talked about how incredibly blessed we are. They were told the stories of the secret santas who provided the gifts for the children. I know many of them had tears as they thought of how wonderful it is to have strangers (and friends) help us during this temporary difficulty.

Amazing!

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