November is such a sweet month. The weather is cooler but not yet bitter cold. More importantly it is filled with family and holiday fun.Ā Thanksgiving is one of many people’sĀ favorite holidays and the winter holidays are just around the corner.
Let’s see what is on the calendar for this month.
November 1st is All Saints Day – All Saints Day is a feast honoring all of the saints both known and unknown. Also called All Hallows Day, it is celebrated November 1st following Halloween and preceding All Souls’ Day.
November 2nd is All Soul’s Day – All Souls’ Day is celebrated on November 2nd following All Saints Day. The celebration, also called Defuncts’ Day or Day of the Dead, is a time to commemorate the faithful departed.
November 6th – Daylight Saving Time ends
November 11th – Veterans Day is the U.S. holiday celebrating the official end of World War I on November 11, 1918. It commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War I and was originally celebrated, and still in some countries, as Armistice Day.
Remembrance Day is November 11th in Cananda – Remembrance Day also known as Poppy Day and Armistice Day is celebrated to commemorate the end of World War I, World War II and other wars and the sacrifice of veterans and civilians.
The American Cancer Society is marking the 36th Great American Smokeout on November 17th by encouraging smokers to use the date to make a plan to quit, or to plan in advance and quit smoking that day.
November 24th is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a U.S. Holiday to give thanks for the harvest season. It is a time for family and friends to gather together for a dinner or feast.
November 2011 is Observed as:
American Diabetes Month
Lung Cancer Awareness Month
Native American Indian Heritage
National Healthy Skin Month
National Family Caregivers Month
Happy Birthday to everyone out there celebrating a birthday in November. Let us know in the comment section if it is your birthday so we can wish you a good one. As always, please use this post for anything you would like to discuss.
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There is a cool video up on the sidebar today. Has anyone seen this one before? Rains sounds by clapping
My beautiful daughter turns 19 on November 24th. She’s my Thanksgiving baby!!! Man these years have went by fast!
My little boy will be 6 on November 2 and my oldest daughter will be 16 on November 13.
High school basketball officially kicked off with a scrimmage last saturday. My younger kids still have a few more weeks of soccer, things get a little crazy trying to juggle getting everyone where they need to be but it always works out.
Weather is cooler here, we aren’t seeing 90’s anymore just mid to upper 80’s, in a few weeks we will only be reaching the upper 70’s. Our coldest weather tends to happen in January.
Just watched the video of the day, that is cool!
I love Thanksgiving. I wish you could all eat some of my mom’s cooking or at least take some leftovers. We live for my mom’s Thanksgiving dinner. So much so, that we talked her into making a smaller one for Easter of this year.
Does anyone have a good recipe for roasted butternut squash soup? I finally have 3 good ripe ones. The rest are toast because of the frost. But I have about 80 lbs of it. Yikes. All I have ever had was the store bought soup. Can someone help me? LOL
Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup
3 cups peeled, diced butternut squash, (about one small)
2 cups thinly sliced carrots
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon butter
2 14 ounces canned chicken broth (can use reduced sodium)
1/4 teasppon white pepper (can use regular pepper)
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup half and half or light cream
In a large covered saucepan cook squash, carrots and onion in hot butter over medium heat about 8 minuts, stirring occasionally. Add broth. Bring to a boil, reduce heat. Simmer covered for 25 to 35 minutes or until vegs are tender. Cool slightly.
Place one third of the soup in food processor or blender. Blend until almost smooth. Repeat until all is blended. Return all to covered saucepan. Add white pepper and nutmeg, bring just to a boil over medium heat. Add half and half, heat through. Can garnish with roasted pumpkins seeds. Enjoy!!
Thanks snickers I was looking for something easy that I had all the ingredients. Do you think I could use frozen carrots though? I dont have any fresh.
Sure you can use frozes carrots, they will cook down. You will be blending the soup mixture, so it wouldn’t make a difference. I hope you like this.
frozen, to tired to type, lol. ^^^^
Snickers,
Thank you for the recipe. I really liked it. I ate 3 huge bowls of it for lunch and will be doing the same thing next few days. Your recipe was easy and simple just what I wanted. And it was good too.
Lynn,
I’m glad you liked it, and not much fuss to make it!! Good for the Mommy to be. :)))
If you like cute baby videos be sure to check out the video of the day. It’s an overdose of adorable.
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Raise your hand if you’ve already heard Christmas Carols. I was at WalMart this morning and they were playing away. Not ready for that yet.
Lily, it is a great video!
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Stxmom, sounds like your weather is a lot like ours. You are one busy mom.
Here I am again, talking about the video of the day. But it was so sweet. It put me in a holiday mood.
I agree, Lily. Ann found that one.
That was a beautiful video! Thank you. A great reminder of what is so special about this season. Makes me want to have a little one around again so bad!
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Happy Birthday to the November babies. And Happy Birthday to my mom who is celebrating up in heaven!
Didn’t know where else to put this but did anyone watch All American Muslim yesterday? I only saw bits and pieces and realized I am completely ignorant of Muslim American culture. I liked it and I will keep watching.
Teresa, I have it on my DVR – I forgot it was on Sunday so I taped it yesterday. I’m very interested to watch it – I heard it was pretty even-handed.
Oh, BTW, LOVE that video! So precious!
we talked her into making a smaller one for Easter of this year. So sweet. We do that too. We have mini-Thanksgiving every now and then.
I would love to have some of your mom’s dinner!
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Oh, I love roasted butternut squash soup. I have also substituted canned pumpkin in a soup recipe and it is delicious. I switch out the nutmeg for curry though.
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I love nutmeg + cream in anything. So good!
Teresa, I watched the American Muslim show. It was pretty interesting; I’ll watch it again.
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One thing I found weird, though – the one guy who was Irish Catholic and was converting to marry has Lebanese Muslim girlfriend. There was no acknowledgement that it was quite clear he was only converting for her, not because he actually had any inclination towards the Muslim faith. Even as an agnostic, this bothered me a bit. I mean, if it’s okay in the Muslim religion, fine, but I guess I wish they’d addressed it. I don’t know too much about how most religions deal with converts – I believe Judaism makes it a bit hard to convert, but most of my knowledge is gleaned from the episode of Sex and the City where Charlotte wants to convert so she can marry her boyfriend, so I guess it should be taken with a grain of salt. I would just expect that any religion would want/require you to profess some actual faith. Maybe I’m wrong.
I don’t know how the Muslim faith handles converts, but when I married my baptist husband, my catholic faith didn’t require him to convert for us to be married in my church. He had to agree raise any children we had in the Catholic tradition, and he has. So I would imagine all faiths (dependent on the pastor/imam/priest) can give a bit of leeway.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
My kids have school Monday & Tuesday and my oldest daughter has basketball games both nights and she will practice on Wednesday morning. My husband and oldest son are out of state hunting. Our high school football team is still in football playoffs, they play again the day after Thanksgiving in the Alamodome in San Antonio, we will be there to cheer them on. Other than all that we really have no plans for Thanksgiving, we usually eat out that day, usually IHOP and its tradition to get milk shakes from Whataburger for dessert.
STXmom, luck you – not having to cook! Sounds like a busy week for you. Some of my family deer hunt and the season started this past Saturday.
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I do have most of my groceries but I will need to make a trip to Honey Bake Ham for a ham and a few side orders.
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Good luck to your football team. The team that my nephew coaches on just won state!
I just wanted to wish everyone a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving. Of course, as usual, I will be the chief cook again. I have several things already made and in the freezer. We are thankful for the harvest season being over and waiting for our first snow to come. I can almost taste that turkey and homemade rolls. š
So snickers, what are you cooking? Inquiring minds want to know?
My menu is huge, I will have some kind of company here for 5 days. I use a lot of my garden stuff I froze. I make a carrot casserole, corn, green bean casserole, a broc, carrot, califlower casserole with rice and cheeze whiz, and fried cabbage. Two kinds of potatoes, mashed with gravey and sweet potato’s casserole. A 20 lb turkey and a 14 lb ham. I make pickle rolls up, raw vegs and dips, several kinds of cubed chesse. I make several salads, a snicker candy bar salad, mac. salad, a layered jello with cream chesses, amd a lettuce salad. I can always throw a clowslaw out of the freezer also. I will make several pies, cherry, apple, pumpkin and a cheesecake. Homemade rolls, a lime sherbert punch and hot apple cider. I love it when people can just enjoy the days while here. In between, I ususally make a breakfast casserole, sandwiches and one night we all make homemade pizza. It’s crazy and wild, but we love the activity of everyone here. We always have room for anyone who does not have a place to go. We do make 2 take out meals and deliver them to out elderly neighbors. Our weather forecast is great, no snow!! I will also have a few pieces of homemade candy to share as they leave in little gift boxes to start the holiday season off. This one week is the week I don’t work the foodbank, but we do share with them also. Please everyone, drop a few cans in a donation box at your local stores for people who need a little help this year. God Bless you All. š
Drat, forgot the stuffing!! Burning the midnight oil this week. š I have many things made and in the freezer, so I can pull out if I need to. I do have some ham balls made, and will make some soup also this week.
I think snickers should invite me for Thanksgiving!!
What are ham balls?
Snickers, I got tired just READING your menu!!!
Ham Balls:
2 lbs ham loaf mixture
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup cracker crumbs
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp mustard
Mix first 4 ingredients together. Form in to balls, (I usually make them a little larger than a golf ball). Bake for 45 minutes at 325, then cover with sause made of the last 4 ingredients. Pour over meatballs and continue to bake for 30 minutes, turning balls to baste. This will make aprox 20-24 balls depending on the size you make them. I cook in oven and then place in crockpot to keep warm until serving. You can use 1/2 pound of Italian sausage or pork sausage if you want some kick, just reduce the ham loaf mixture by a 1/2 lb.
Yum, ok what do you mean by ham loaf mixture?
Snickers,
I just got my plane tickets. Please expect four more. š
Pam,
It’s made at your local meat market, it’s just called ham loaf mixture. You can grind your own ham to make it, but I don’t know what they put in it. It is already seasoned. Come on over, it gets so loud here, I do look forward to next week being quiet. LOL. I have a long bar in my kitchen area, and on Fri morning family lines up their computers for Black Fri specials. Just think, it about 4 weeks, I start over with Christmas dinner. š I will spend next week starting more candy and goodies. As you can tell, I love the Season!!
Thanks snickers, I am aware of ham salad but have never heard of ham loaf mixture. I have never seen that out here.
Pam
You can go online, and just type in ham loaf mixture and many ideas come up in how to make your own. I use the pre-made for time value.
On Thanksgiving Day, all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment – halftime. ~Author Unknown
I just realized that the 49ers are playing on Thanksgiving – I’m excited!
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Less excited about having to make a 1-hour round trip at 11:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving to drive my niece to her first day as a seasonal cashier at Macy’s (trial by fire – Macy’s on Black Friday!). She doesn’t drive, and I’m not about to make her take public transportation, if it’s even available at that hour (it’s a train and two buses; I think I’m going to be driving to Marin a lot in December!).
Today I was in my 8 yr olds 3rd grade classroom helping with a few Thanksgiving crafts, the teacher asked each student what they are thankful for 1 little boy who has lived at the foster care shelter I volunteer at for over a year said he was thankful for moving in with his forever family tomorrow. The entire room of 8 & 9 year olds was completely silent for a few seconds. Makes the problems in my life seem very unimportant.
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, count your blessings, I hope they are many.
Jennie, I have heard all the stores are opening at midnight or earlier on Thanksgiving. Good grief. Good luck to your niece.
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stxmom, how wonderful for that little boy. May he enjoy this Thanksgiving and many more with that family.
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Happy Thanksgiving to all of the “Imperfect Women” out there and their families.
Thanks for the update on this story, stxmom. https://imperfectwomen.com/texas-justice-family-court-judge-outed-as-child-abuser/comment-page-1/#comment-44992
Jennie…Good luck to your niece, trial by fire indeed! Be careful and I hope you all have a happy thanksgiving!