Good ol' Family Fun

Food, we all love it, especially when someone else is cooking it! My family used to be well known for gatherings; whether you were family or friends everyone was welcome to pull up a plate. We had a big family that my mom loved to cook for and she is a good one at that. Our family celebrates traditional holidays Christmas,Memorial Day,4Th of July etc...) like a lot of other families. More often before everyone grew up and; said Author Garrison Keillor of "A Wobegon Holiday Dinner", "the next year we....and after that we broke apart into separate single-family Thanksgivings" (227) moves away. Once all the kids flew the coop mom and dad started eating out more. When asked why, mom told us that it was too hard to cook for two people when you are use to cooking for eight most of your life. If you ask me, I could get used to cooking for only two people instead of my six.
The family holiday that meant/means the most to me is Christmas. For reasons of not only giving and worshiping, but for the gathering of family, friends and FOOD For years are family did our traditional ham and turkey (to please all) and the rest of the wonderfully delicious salad and side dishes. Rolls, yummy, soft, melt in your mouth without butter rolls where always left up to grandma to make. Wow, my mouth is watering, is yours? My aunt would always make her potato dish and other people brought their favorite dishes as well. Mom of course did the ham and turkey but also the desserts. Mom made a special dessert for everyone of us kids and of course dad. Nobody else knew that they were specially made for us. She made the traditional pumpkin pies and berry pies to suffice others, but ours were special. Dad was made a strawberry rhubarb pie, one of my younger sisters would get a German chocolate cake, another would get her cheesecake and another would get an angel food cake. Me, I got the best dessert of all, it was called, the "chocolate surprise". In a second post, I will gladly share my recipe with you, and you too can see why it is the best!!!!!
After years of the same old thing, mom actually wanted to try something else. What is it you ask, well I'll tell you. Each year we took turns of picking something out that we wanted, something out of the "norm". One year it was homemade pizza, next Chinese, then a seafood feast, tacos and many other wonderful food. Every meal that we had in our house you could always find dad to be the first one seated. Also, dad was always seated at the "head" of the table and mom got whatever was left over. We are all grown and have family of our own and some live in different states; it is very rare if we all make it to one holiday together anymore. I wish we could be together every holiday, "Life is good. Even when it is lousy it is still good..." (231) quoted from "A Wobegon Holiday Dinner", by Garrison Keillor. All I have to do is think about the smells of mom's kitchen, and I'm home!!!!

"Being a cancer survivor is a community"

In everyday life there is someone who finds out they or a loved one has cancer. It can be the most devastating "C" word you ever hear. Everything runs through your mind from "Am I going to live long, will I lose all of my hair to who is going to help care for my kids"? Maybe not in that order, but these are things that I caught myself thinking about. I am surrounded daily by people who are cancer survivors and who are still fighting to be a survivor. These people are the most courageous but scared people you will ever meet. All of my strengths are their weaknesses and their weaknesses are my strengths. You stick together, you are always supportive and we never stop raising money to help fight cancer. These elite group of people walk around you and me everyday. This includes are grandparents, moms, dads, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives, last but not least, our kids....! You don't always know it because they don't always show it. The last thing we need is a bunch of pitty. Believe you me, we have our own pitty parties when needed. This may include but not limited to lots of chocolates, ice cream , chips dips, candies and whatever else we aren't suppose to have. We all share the need to survive, the need to protect our families from the pain and the interest to find a cure. Tension can build at times when tests don't come back good but yet you feel good. Doctors not returning calls on time, being sick from treatments and of course exhausted and just wanting to go home from the hospital to your own bed.
I am a survivor, as well as my fiance, sister, aunt, cousin and two of my closest girlfriends. But I will not forget to mention the ones we have lost and all the new and wonderful people I have met and listened to their stories while attending cancer walks and other fundraisers to fight this battle. I will continue to be in this community and raise money to find cures for all the different types of cancers; so my kids and family as well as yours never have to worry about that world stopping "C" word.