26 & Counting

Since 2009 the hubby and I have selfishly taken over the holiday of Thanksgiving.  I say selfishly because we host both sides of the family which means we don't have to bounce houses for once.  The first year two years we had 27 people.  This year we had 26 as my cousin Richie wasn't in attendance.  You are probably wondering how we pull off such a feat.  Well, we have a wonderful sunroom which converts very nicely into a long dining room.  We borrow tables and chairs from the local high school where my mom works and everyone brings a dish to pass and/or a dessert.  My sister-in-law and I take care of the turkey, the stuffing, and a couple sides that we can make on the stove top (since oven space is at a premium).  I will tell you the first two years were chaos.  Year one was just mainly because we had no idea what we were doing, our timing was off, and we over did it on food.  Year two would have been perfect except for the fact that the turkey took forever since it was still a tiny bit frozen inside.  This year was a piece of cake.  We had a 26 lb turkey and he was thawing in the fridge since the Thursday before the holiday.  This year I can especially count as a success because the left overs fit in one fridge.  The prior two years we had so much food left over that a majority of it ended up in fridge out in the garage, aka Jay's "man cave."   I guess it's like they say "third time's the charm."  

Every year seeing all of our family in one place makes me feel extremely blessed.  Usually one of the kids, either a cousin or a sibling of mine, will say the standard "Bless us oh lord" grace, however, this year my Grandfather came prepared.  He said such a beautifully touching prayer over the meal and followed it up with "and that was from Dear Abby" which of course had us all chuckling, but the prayer itself was awesome enough that I thought I'd share his version on here:

Dear heavenly Father:

We thank you for the food we are about to enjoy here today and 

we ask you to help us to remember the hungry.

We thank you for our health and ask that you help us to remember the sick.

We thank you for our family and friends here with us tonight and 

ask that you help us to remember those who are without.

We thank your for our freedoms and ask that you help 

us to remember those who are oppressed.

For all these blessings we are thankful in Jesus name, Amen.

Parking

I'm going to let you in on a little pet peeve of mine.  If you have off-street parking available to you, USE IT.  It bugs me to no end to drive down cramped side streets to get to work and see that you have a 30 foot driveway but you are parked on the street in the way of oncoming traffic.  How many times does someone have to clip your mirror before you decide it's a good idea to use the driveway?  Does your driving-in-reverse skills suck that bad?  Or are you that lazy that when you finally get off your duff to go to work you merely have to turn the key and put it in drive since you are already in traffic?  Well, you have been warned.  I'm going to print a bunch of these buggers up one day...

FEMA Housing

As many of you are aware, Upstate NY got slammed in September by two storms causing much of some counties (i.e. Schoharie) to call for aid from FEMA.  Over the past month or so, probably close to sixty or more FEMA houses have found their way to a lot within a mile of my house, however that is where they have stayed.  Empty.  It makes me wonder how much help these houses are offering for those who have been without homes since the storms occurred in September.  We're already midway through November.  What's gives?

In talking with a coworker who has friends awaiting housing, she indicated that many cannot afford to take on a FEMA house due to the inability to pay for septic, water, and electric hook ups.  Not to mention that these units are "rentable."  So even though your house was destroyed and you probably still have to pay a mortgage on it, now you are faced with the costs of renting a unit from FEMA and paying to have septic, water and electric hooked up?  I don't know as though this makes any sense to me.  Sounds like just another way for the government to make a buck off those who don't have fifty cents to give.  Keep in mind however, that I am merely reiterating what I've heard.  I don't know how this process works for sure.


Is anybody else familiar with this process?  Good, bad, indifferent?