Yes, I still have the flu.

I haven't been online yet today, so I don't know if GuestWorld is back up or not. On Sunday, the notice read that it would be up by noon Pacific Time on Monday. Shortly after noon yesterday, it said it would be up by 6PM. I wasn't online that late yesterday. In fact, I've been feeling so sick that I only went to one site yesterday. But, I haven't a clue as to how many have been to my site. With the main guestbook down, (I have a second guestbook on my second page) and the Geocities counter not being worth anything, I can't tell if I've been visited or not. (I should replace the counter, but I love the look of a counter that tells me that almost a million people have been to my site!)

When I was very young, we were extremely poor. As a result, ever since my mother has gotten in better financial straits, her cupboard has always been stuffed and the freezers as well.

My youngest brother and sisters were born after the hardest times were over, so they have no memory of my mother doing anything other than going overboard when it comes to holiday feasts. I tend to do that as well.

Today I will probably make the pumpkin pies. Tomorrow, I will chop the onions and the celery and store them for the stuffing on Thursday. I will also poach a chicken and save the broth for the stuffing. I probably should cook the yams then as well.

I will probably get up about 6 on Thursday morning. Before a half hour has gone by, I will be skinning and browning Italian sausage. The Italian sausage will go into the stuffing along with the celery, onions, and chicken broth.

The turkey neck and giblets will go into a large pot with some celery and onion to simmer until I'm ready to make gravy with it.

After the turkey is stuffed and the extra pan of stuffing is ready to go into the oven, I will make the pudding pies. White chocolate pie should add a different taste to the desserts this year.

Then I will make a batch of special cranberry sauce because the kids love it and my son hates regular cranberry sauce. But, cranberry sauce that's mixed with crushed pineapple and mandarin oranges is really special to them.

The regular potatoes will have to be peeled and left in water until it's time to cook them for mashed potatoes and the yam casserole will be prepared for baking.

I will get the ham ready to bake by affixing pineapple slices with whole cloves and putting a lot of cloves on the end piece that will be for Delton. (Delton hates turkey. His family tradition was roast chickens and ham. For the past 25 years ours has been turkey and ham.)

Thank God for the inventor of the microwave oven! It greatly facilitates the timing of these large dinners.

After a green salad has been made, I can probably relax a bit. When it comes time to cook the regular potatoes, I can put the corn on the cob on to cook and heat oil to deep fry some okra. Some peas and maybe some brussels sprouts will round out the green vegetables. Somewhere along the line, I will have turned off the giblets and allowed them to cool enough to handle, so that I can shred them and add them to the gravy.

If someone walks away from our house on Thanksgiving hungry, it's their own fault!

Thanks to for the border background.