Thanksgiving 2012 Recap

Thanksgiving is usually a low-key, uneventful holiday around here now that most of my sisters are married. It's just my youngest sister Chandra at home with Mom and me since my other five sisters are all married. Four of them live out of state and the one that does live here usually spends the Thanksgiving holiday in Ohio with her in-laws. Although it would be fun to have a house full of company, my mom, Chandra and I always manage to have a fun time together, along with whatever friends we invite over. 

This year my Uncle Paul from Atlanta decided to visit for Thanksgiving, and we also invited my wheelchair technician, Larry, to have Thanksgiving dinner with us. (Larry and I go way back… he's the same man who has worked on my wheelchair and other specialty equipment ever since my injury nine years ago. He's divorced and doesn't always have his kids on holidays, so we like to have him over since he's such a nice guy.)  

Even though we had a small gathering and things were uneventful, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving. (I couldn't believe it when I looked at the clock and more than an hour and a half had passed since we'd sat down to the dinner table!) All of our food tasted so good, and I think it was the best tasting Thanksgiving dinner I ever remember having. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of our food or of us gathered around the dinner table, but I did manage to get a picture of the "important" stuff… the desserts!  

My mom made a traditional pumpkin pie for Paul since that's his favorite Thanksgiving pie. I don't really care for pumpkin pie and I can't even remember the last time I've eaten pumpkin pie! However, Mom and I decided to join Paul in a pre-Thanksgiving piece of pumpkin pie on Wednesday evening. (That's why there's a huge chunk missing from one of the pies in the picture!) It wasn't bad, but if I never had pumpkin pie again I wouldn't feel like I was missing out on anything!  

My mom also made a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie pie and Larry made a pineapple upside down cake. I don't remember ever tasting pineapple upside down cake before (although I do remember my mom making it once or twice when I was young). I was a little skeptical about the cake since I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was actually really good. My favorite dessert we had was something new I recently found a recipe for on Pinterest… chocolate peanut butter chess pie! It was OUTSTANDING and I highly recommend it, so click here for the recipe. (For those of you who don't know what chess pie is, it's a pie that has a consistency similar to custard. There are MANY types of chess pie, including lemon, vanilla, buttermilk and chocolate.)   

After dinner we played the game "iMAgiNiff…". (This is one of my favorite games and one that I highly recommend, in case you're looking for a fun party game for the holidays… or any other time).  

I'll write more about my Thanksgiving weekend soon. It's quite late and I have a doctor's appointment with my cardiologist early tomorrow morning, so I better get to bed.

"The Other Wes Moore"

My mom and I finished reading a good book together a few days ago, so I wanted to write about it on my blog. It's called The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore. Here's a synopsis of the book:

"One Name, Two Fates: Two kids with the same name living in the same decaying city. One grew up to be a Rhodes Scholar, a decorated combat veteran, White House Fellow and business leader. The other is serving a life sentence in prison for felony murder. Here is the story of two boys and the journey of a generation." 

This book was very fascinating and definitely one that I would recommend to someone that enjoys interesting true stories.

Sidney Poitier

I love, love, love movies and earlier this year I started watching old classics in order to educate myself and get some exposure to some of the iconic films that you hear so much about. My mom isn't a huge fan of movies, but she does like some of the oldies, so we like to watch them while we eat dinner.

We've recently been on a Sidney Poitier kick. I didn't really know very much about Sidney Poitier prior to this, just that he was the first black man to win an Academy Award for a leading role. I'm so glad that I've decided to check out some of the movies he's starred in because I absolutely love him! He's extremely talented and is always so kind and gentle in the roles he plays. Here's a recap of the movies we've watched:

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967): In this film a young woman brings her African-American fiancé home to meet her parents. They have no idea she's even in a relationship OR that she's engaged, let alone to a black man! 

In the Heat of the Night (1967): This film is set in Mississippi and a white man has been murdered in the middle of the night. Sidney's character (who's in town visiting his mother) is found in the town's train station and is questioned in relation to the crime. Sidney actually happens to be a police detective in Philadelphia and he helps the redneck sheriff solve the crime.

A Patch of Blue (1965): In this film Sidney plays a hard-working man who befriends a blind young woman who's had a hard life. Sidney is kind to her and opens up a whole new world for her. They soon fall in love, but the blind young woman doesn't know the man she's been spending so much time with is black until her mother finds out about the relationship and tells her. Her mother is very bigoted and forbids her to see him again. 

To Sir, with Love (1966): In this film Sidney plays a teacher in a working class high school in London. His rowdy bunch of students are often disrespectful, but he's eventually able to gain the upper hand and change the lives of his students.

Lilies of the Field (1963): Sidney plays an ex-soldier in this film who ends up at an isolated farm and soon finds himself building a chapel for the nuns who live there. Sidney won an Academy Award for his role in this film.

A Raisin in the Sun (1961): This film is about an inner-city black family and their struggle to make ends meet. The multi-generational family all live together in a cramped apartment and they face conflict over how to handle things when a $10,000 insurance check arrives in the mail. Sidney plays a chauffeur who wants to use the money to open a liquor store with his friends and is angry with his mother who ultimately decides to use the money to buy a house (which happens to be in an all-white neighborhood).

I've loved all of the SP movies I've watched, but my favorite has been A Patch of Blue (because I'm a sucker for love stories) closely followed by In the Heat of the Night. ("They call me Mr. Tibbs!")

The other day I told my mom that I think I'm in love with SP!  Of course, the SP movies I've been watching are all from the 60's, so I'm falling for the Sidney that's in his 30's! He's now 85, almost 60 years my senior, so I don't think it will work out! ;) Still, I'm a huge fan of his and I love his work! I'd love to be able to meet him, but I doubt it'll happen.

Celebrating My 9th

I usually have a get-together to celebrate the anniversary of my accident, or my "second birthday" as I refer to it, but this year I just didn't have the desire to do that, so I decided to go to the movies instead. It's been four months since I've been to the movies, which is an incredibly long movie hiatus for me since I usually see a few movies a month. Life has just been so crazy lately!

My younger sister Channie is my movie buddy and we really enjoy going to the movies together, so I thought seeing a double feature would be a perfect way to spend my special day. The first movie we saw was The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Part 2. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that I went to see this movie since I don't want people to think I'm one of "those girls" that go gaga over the Twilight movies, because I don't!. It's not that I'm so anti-Twilight that I refuse to watch them (I have seen all of the movies, after all), but I would've been perfectly content to wait to see the movie until it came out on DVD.

I mean, the movies are major eye-rollers in my humble opinion, so I didn't have very high expectations. But that being said, I have to admit that I absolutely loved the movie! My expectations were so low that it didn't take much to surpass them. Granted, there was a lot of cheesy, sci-fi violence with vampire's heads getting ripped off right and left, but I really liked the movie, especially the ending. Just the way the music was with how they gave a nod to everyone that's been in the series (even the characters that weren't in the last film). The auditorium was pretty packed, too, so it was fun to feed off of everyone else's excitement as they reacted to the movie.

I was definitely pleasantly surprised with the the movie, so I'm giving it 9/10 stars. Take this rating with a grain of salt, though. If it were a movie that I were seeing for the first time and didn't know anything about, I would probably only give it 6 stars. My rating system is subjective when you account for the book series, previous movies and my feelings/emotions tied to them. 

The other movie I saw was the new James Bond movie, Skyfall. I had a hard time staying awake in the beginning of the movie since I always stay up so late at night, so I kept dozing off. But after a while I got it together and perked up. The movie was very suspenseful and action-packed and I really liked it. It makes me want to go back and watch some of the previous Bond movies. I'm giving this movie 9/10 stars, too. Hopefully I won't experience "raters remorse" when I go back and watch these movies again when they come out on DVD. (Which is something that's not uncommon for me when I go back and watch movies a second time. Sometimes I really wonder why I liked them so well the first time around.)

Note to Self

Tomorrow is the ninth anniversary of my car accident. It's SO hard to believe that it's been nine years! The time has gone so quickly, but at the same time when I think back to life  "pre-accident" it seems like SO LONG ago and it's hard to remember what it was ever like to be "normal." It's mind-boggling that I've lived more than a third of my life paralyzed!

On the morning news program I watch they occasionally have a segment called "note to self" where they have people who are older people write notes to their younger selves, or they have people who have been through difficult things write notes to themselves as the person they were before facing adversity. It's always very interesting, so I thought I would write a note to myself before my accident.

Dear Heather,

Tomorrow you will be in a car accident; one that you will not walk away from. You will be changed in drastic ways for the worse and the better. Your accident will be the worst thing to happen to you physically, but the absolute best thing to happen to you in every other way.

Your accident will fill your life with many challenges and things will not be easy, especially at first. But eventually things will get easier and you will have a quality life that fulfills you. All of your hopes, dreams and priorities will change, but you will experience immeasurable joy. You'll face disappointments, especially when it comes to the deepest desires of your heart, but any discouragement you experience will be far outweighed by the joy you’ll feel each and every day.

You will not be alone. The Lord loves you and knows of your situation and will walk beside you throughout your journey. Your faith, appreciation and love for the Lord will grow immensely as you learn to lean on Him and as you rely on His comfort to get you through difficult times. Becoming paralyzed is part of the Lord's plan for you and was no accident. You have an earthly mission to help others experience lives of joy. Becoming paralyzed is the only way for you to accomplish this to the magnitude that the Lord is intending. The Lord has confidence in you!

You've always known that there’s life after death and that one day everyone will be resurrected, but heaven and the resurrection will take on a whole new meaning after your accident. Earthly life may seem long as you experience the frustrations of daily life, but life will pass faster than you can comprehend. If you live well and make good choices you will have an eternity of joy! 

Just remember to "keep your eye on the prize." In the end you will be free and you will experience all of the things that you've always hoped and dreamed of, including all of the things your accident deprived you of. Stay joyful!

~ Your future self

I love this quote from Thomas S Monson: "…our promised blessings are beyond measure. Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us and bring joy to our hearts. … There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us. … Be of good cheer. The future is as bright as your faith."