I’m grateful to see hope despite our current circumstances, and optimism despite so many challenges. There are many reasons to not be thankful, to not have hope, but I choose to celebrate all we do have.
In a time-challenged world, we give thanks too rarely. Feelings of gratitude don’t easily crack the daily to-do list. But, when you sit down at any moment this holiday season with family or friends, the idea of being blessed makes much more sense. Somehow the holiday season has managed to force its way into our busy lives and make us delight in the good things that often slip by unacknowledged.
We should give thanks for our families and friends. We should be thankful for our freedoms and for all our servicemen and women who risk their lives so that we can live in peace. And where health and wellness are abundant, give thanks.
Take some time for yourself to stand back and contemplate what you have, and as you do, ordinary life becomes the extraordinary thing it is.
Posts tagged ‘thanksgiving’
Attitude of Gratitude
Some fun Thanksgiving crafts
There are signs of the change of the season is occurring with some of the trees changing colors, bushes showing off their fall colors and the desert cooling down. This is the beginning of the holiday season, and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of year.
Here are a couple of craft ideas that you might want to consider doing with your children to teach them about being thankful and let them have fun at the same time.
Giving Thanks Place Mats
The goal of this craft is to create a collage filled with drawings and pictures of all the things your children are thankful for. Cut photos from magazines or print some photos from your computer. Older children can write captions under the photos or draw their own. Be sure to put the child’s name and year on it.
If you make this collage from two standard letter-size pieces of construction paper taped side-by-side, you can take the completed collage to a copy shop when you’re done and have it laminated. It then becomes a placemat that you can use every Thanksgiving for years to come.
Turkey Apple
Turkey apples are a fun craft to make with the kids as well as a healthy snack. You will need an apple, six toothpicks, one large marshmallow and five miniature marshmallows, as well as some raisins and one piece of candy corn for each turkey.
Set the apple stem up on a flat surface. Stick a toothpick in the top part of one side of the apple. Add the large marshmallow to the top of the toothpick. Decorate the face of the turkey with two raisins as eyes and stick the candy corn in upside down into the marshmallow to make the beak.
Thread each of the remaining toothpicks with three raisins, and then top it off with one of the miniature marshmallows. These will be the tail feathers of your turkey. Stick the four toothpicks, evenly spaced, on the opposite side of the top of the apple.
“Have an attitude of gratitude in all things.” This is a saying submitted by Carol Aston, Pa., to the Dove® candy company. It was selected and put into a candy wrapper. I think it’s a saying worth remembering.
The Interactive Producer’s Approach to Thanksgiving Dinner
I have reason to suspect that many home cooks are natural born project managers. Consider the extensive detailed planning involved in a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The end goal of pulling off a successful Turkey dinner is made possible only through the succession of individual tasks (the cooking and preparing of the Turkey and various appetizers, side dishes, and desserts; the setting of the table and preparing the house for guests; and the careful management of family drama), each requiring resources and careful time management. Poor planning leads to a chaotic fiasco in the kitchen, and the grumbling disappointment of your project stakeholders: the family and friends that arrive to partake in the grand feast.
In managing interactive projects, chaos is not a situation that a diligent Interactive Producer will tolerate. And like websites, widgets and apps, the food not only has to look good, but it has to function well and meet spec: i.e. the food should smell good and taste good, have the proper texture and form, and be consumed by the user/guest in the expected manner. Where an average person may tremble at the thought of choreographing such a delicate and important family tradition, the Interactive Producer (or the natural born project manager) goes forth boldly, meeting the challenge with structure and efficiency.
As a newlywed, I found it appropriate this year to volunteer to cook the family Thanksgiving dinner and contribute to a great family tradition. And as an Interactive Producer, I’m bursting with confidence and excited to take on this new project. As I posted on Facebook last week, I’ll use my “mad project management skillz to plan Thanksgiving dinner.” I even made a Gantt chart.
An unconventional approach to a traditional holiday? Perhaps. You would be hard pressed to find a Gantt chart in Norman Rockwell’s famous “Freedom from Want.” However, the skills I’ve learned as an Interactive Producer give me clear direction for something that I’ve never attempted, eliminating the fear and apprehension that I might otherwise experience taking on this task.
This is my methodology. First, before anything else, state the objective. “Coordinate and deliver a complete Thanksgiving Day meal to feed, satisfy, and impress 10+ family members by the deadline of 3:00 pm, Thursday, November 26th 2009.” Nice.
Next, identify the project requirements. At the bare minimum is the turkey. However, a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by moi would include the whole enchilada: not just any turkey meat but a whole 20-pound oven roasted turkey, brined for at least 12 hours. Of course, homemade stuffing and turkey gravy to accompany the main attraction. Butter and herb mashed potatoes, candied yams, green bean casserole. Don’t forget the rolls, the cranberry sauce, and maybe another veggie dish – corn pudding perhaps? Other project requirements include hors d’oeuvres (to hold over those fasting family members counting down the hours and minutes to the turkey carving), a salad/soup course, and who could forget dessert? I’m thinking stuffed baked apples with vanilla ice-cream, and my homemade pumpkin pie. Yum.
Next, project scheduling. I have a standard kitchen oven, two portable roaster ovens, a stove and a crock pot to do the heavily lifting. There’s a range of dependencies and deadlines associated for each recipe, or task. And these culinary tasks require specific resources, the aforementioned ovens, stove and crockpot. Resources also include my suppliers (i.e. the grocery store), human resources (i.e. Mom), and informational sources (my favorites: FoodNetwork.com, RecipeZaar.com, and when all else fails, Google it!).
With my tasks, deadlines, resources and dependencies identified, a project schedule can be created easily using one of my favorite programs, Microsoft Project. With Project, I have been able to create a simple (it doesn’t look simple but I swear to you it is) Gantt chart. Interestingly, I had to change my tasks from the default “As soon as possible” constraint type to “As late as possible.” Otherwise Project would suggest that I preheat my oven two days in advance of the next step! Food projects are unique in this way, digital assets do not go stale or cold the way that food does.
Using my Gantt chart, I can clearly see that certain dishes like the corn pudding and sweet potatoes can be started earlier in the timeline, to create efficient and reduce the number of tasks that must be completed in the last few hours before dinner. This is a time savings made obvious only when I had a roadmap for the project. Though I’m sure a seasoned Thanksgiving cook would have realized this much sooner and without so much work. This kind of sophisticated project planning comes natural to them.
And for those who may not be quite ready for a sophisticated project like Thanksgiving dinner, there’s always the alternative: outsourcing. (i.e. Chinese takeout).
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
