Monday, October 8, 2012

another Thanksgiving update - and this one is not a sad one!

so after the sad events of saturday night/sunday morning, jambaloney and i woke up at about 1pm. we were expected at our friends' C&G's for 4:30pm. we were tired and hurting, considered cancelling, but these people have been so welcoming and warm to us...they have accepted us as family - how could we cancel? so we dragged our tired, sorry and sad butts outside on the deck, held hands, cried, talked for about an hour and that's when we remembered - OH MY GOODNESS WE PROMISED TO MAKE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS - ARGHGHGHGHGHGH!

shrugging off all sadness and going into basic training mode - we started whipping up the blueberry muffins. you will remember that jambaloney went blueberry picking at our friends' E&D's blueberry farm which is here in our community. their blueberry bushes are huge and so are their blueberries. they paid jambaloney in blueberries so let's just say that we got tons! we are eating them regularly and there isn't a blueberry on the planet that can match these.

anyway, while jambaloney was out helping them pick them, our friends E and S told jambaloney that i should make blueberry muffins for them. when jambaloney told me, i thought that they were just kidding. but then at last week's dance it came up that i hadn't made the blueberry muffins. i asked them if they were serious and they said yes - they wanted their muffins. so i told them that we would make a batch for E&D and a batch for S&D for thanksgiving weekend.

so Operation Blueberry Muffin Making began. we were so tired. and emotionally drained. but we had been called to task and we are soldiers. the worst thing - we only have one muffin tin!!! oh crap - we had to make 2 batches in less than 2 and 1/2 hours, and shower and get ready and show up on time. i did the calculations. we would never make it on time. so i called G and told them that we would be running late. "no worries" was the reply. as always.

muffins are made. we are dressed and ready to go. we arrive late and everyone has arrived. and has been waiting for us. not a word about us being late is said. a million hugs, kisses and welcomes. the house smells divine. C has put on a beautiful spread. the adults were assigned to one table, the kids to another table (the youngest kid is 16, the rest are over 20. including B and C who are older than us but wanted to be sitting with the kids!). we were honoured that we were seated at the adults table - bahahahahahah! V, our matriarch, was assigned to sit at the head of the table. she gave her seat to jambaloney so that he could sit next to me instead of across from me. well, that and the fact that she really loves jambaloney...and he really loves her. and i love the both of them!

C and G had the turkey and all of the fixins ready for all of us. we filled our plates and then filled them again. we talked and laughed and listened to the others in the other room talking and laughing. everyone in that house was related - minus a girlfriend, a boyfriend and me and jambaloney. we couldn't tell the difference at all. these people welcomed us into their family from the first night out when we met E's son, M, who we love, we love all of her sons....but right from the get-go this family has welcomed us. as had S and D's family.

we had a great time. after everyone else had left, C and G gave us the keys to their house. they live in Dartmouth on the mainland and plan to move here full-time in 3 years. between now and then, they will work on their cottage. they need someone to do the mudding on their walls. jam and i are pretty good at that. C's brother B has been doing all of the remodelling and putting in new sub-floors and floors but they need someone to mud and asked us to do it. of course we said yes. so they handed us the keys to their house and we will mud their dining room so that they can paint it.

i feel that because we handed our keys to Jimmy and Barb 3 years ago and they took such good care of our place that we need to pay it forward and this is the right opportunity.

we had a wonderful time with our family yesterday eve/night. we love E's boys, they are such good boys and they invigorate us. we love everyone in the family and it is such a nice feeling to sit down with such a large family of people who have known each other for their entire lives, people who have only known us for less than 2 years, and yet - we felt such a part of them.

thank you C and G for inviting us, feeding us so well, making us feel so welcome and leaving us your keys and entrusting us to do a good job for you. we promise to do our best. our absolute best. your trust means the world to us...we are so grateful.

19 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great family and just the day that you both needed. Glad you were able to relax and have a good time

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    1. Katidids - this family is made up of fantastic people who are just ordinary people but so special it is hard to describe. going to their house with all of their family, eating, laughing and talking was exactly what we needed. we feel healed. thank you.

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  2. Yay! I'm glad you had those special moments.

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    1. there were a lot of special moments in the 5 hours that we were there...and it felt really good. thanks 1st Man!

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  3. Sis - You've tuckered me out just reading about your day ! What a whirlwind of activities you've had lately. I'm glad you had such wonderful times with good friends, but for crying out loud - go rest already ! Bahahahahaha !!!!!!!!!!!!

    Love you always, forever and a day !
    xoxoxoxoxo

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    1. bahahahahahaah! sis - we had to turn and burn the next day and make 2 more batches of muffins! guess what's on our next town day list? MUFFIN TINS! bahahahahahah! seems everyone around here loves muffins! we have nothing scheduled for the rest of the week, thank goodness, and we plan on just flumping today. we need it! i love you always, forever and a day sis! xoxoxoxox

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  4. ever tried using empty metal food cans to bake small cakes?

    or empty tuna cans for muffins?

    Wildflower

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    1. Wildflower - i can't say that i have ever done it. good thing to know, though. thanks!

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  5. Glad your holiday ended on an upbeat note. Bless you both!

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    1. Mr. Smythe - the next day we went to an 8yr olds birthday party and that really sealed the holidays on an upbeat note. Bless you, too, Sir...and thank you!

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  6. kymber,
    On Saturday, I bought three six-pack muffin tins for a quarter each. For 75 cents, I can bake 18 more muffins! And, these are old, heavy ones, not teflon. You could have borrowed them! Living where you do in a friendly, blueberry paradise, maybe a yard sale or Santa could enlarge your cupcake-baking capacity. Or, next time you could borrow the cupcake pans from the house where you are taking the goodies.

    It all sounds like fun. I laughed at "Basic Training" mode. I have never been in basic training, just had three little children to get ready at once and bake, too. Those were good days, at least in retrospect...lol.

    I laughed at adults at the kids' table.

    If you use muffin papers, you can snuggly set the empty papers in a cake or pie pan and carefully fill them to bake. however, you are welcome to drop by and borrow my muffin tins.

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    1. PracticalP - if you were closer, yer darn tootins i would have been borrowing your muffin tins - bahahahahah! i love the old style baking stuff - they just don't make them like that anymore. good idea about borrowing tins though...wish i had of thought of that on my own and sooner!

      if you raised 3 little kids AND baked then you have certainly been in basic training mode - maybe worse - bahahahahaha!

      ya, we were pretty sure that we were gonna be put at the kids' table - in fact we wanted to sit with they young'uns but had already been assigned seats at the adults table!

      thanks for the offer - i just may take you up on it!

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  7. I'm glad that you and Jambaloney had such a nice time...and so many wonderful friends!!!

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    1. Donna - we still can't believe how fortunate we are to be here! the people here are so caring and loving and kind and generous - and have accepted us right into their families. it's just amazing! and yes - a fantastic time was had by all!

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  8. Your community sounds wonderful! So glad you have all that support around and with you, through good times & bad.

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    1. DFW - like i keep saying over and over - we can't believe that we like everyone in the community and they seem to like us - a lot! that, or they are really good actors! everyone treats us so well and always hugging us and smiling and it just blows our minds. and they are all there - through the good and the bad. we love it here!

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  9. I am glad you got out and had the family dinner..ND loves blueberry muffins, guess I should make him some. We went to a friends house as well on Sunday. Senior and I did not want to be there..but then I am glad We did..kind of shook us of the "blahs"

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    1. thanks gurlie. i got your email and i really appreciate your comforting words. response coming soon. ya make that kid some muffins - bahahahahahah! i understand having the blahs and not wanting to go out visiting, we felt the same way. but did we ever shake the blahs off of us and i am glad that you and Senior did, too. lots of love to you and yours!

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  10. Sweet Kymber and Jambaloney,
    There is nothing better than having a community so caring and loving. I'm happy you two were around friends on this special day and had a blast eating and entertaining. Did you save me a muffin?? Bahahahaha, just teasing!!!

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