I’ve been sitting here for the last three days thinking about whether I would write a blog about my home country’s holiday of “Thanksgiving.” I haven’t really celebrated it here in Greenland. It’s hard to really cook the way I love to cook for the holiday because there are thousands of miles between us and our American family. The other problem is the fact that I cannot get access to products I generally used for this special holiday. Out of all the holidays out there I have loved this one the most. I love the holiday because of how much I enjoy making a huge spread of food that we grazed on for three or four days.
The look on my children’s face was what made it even more special. I knew they would enjoy what was put before them and they knew they would get to enjoy it for more than one day too. I miss those days of cooking and we all sitting down for the main meal and then spending all weekend coming and going from the kitchen with small plates of food while watching movies.
I would start cooking three days before the fourth Thursday of November. First day was spent making an Italian Cream Cake, Cherry Pie, 2 – Pumpkin Pies, cheesecake, and if I had the time I would make Chocolate Chip cookies. On the second day I would make potato salad, deviled eggs, homemade Mac-N-Cheese. I would go ahead and pre-prep a 6 pound chicken by seasoning it and making the cavity ready for stuffing for the next day.
On the Third day I would get up at 4:00am to put the chicken in the oven after having stuffed it. Go back to bed for a couple of hours and then get back up to prep a smoked ham with pineapple rings all over it for closed head baking. Then more work would begin. While the hen was still cooking I would go ahead and prep and boil chicken thighs for giblet gravy along with prepping broccoli for creating a broccoli casserole from. I had an assembly line going on with the oven. Pull finished hen out, put in ham. Pull out finished ham, put in Mac-N-Cheese in. Pull out finished Mac-N-Cheese and place the Broccoli casserole in for baking. While the last item was baking I would start making the gravy for the stuffing. I usually had all the food on the table by around 2:00pm or a little sooner depending on how things went. I would not be to hungry when I sat down to eat because of all the food tasting I did but I still enjoyed it. The kids faces of contentment was well worth all the hard work I put in with making the food for them.
I do miss those days a lot as I have already said but now I’m going to dive into what I really wanted to write about. I’ve been giving some thought to what I have to be thankful for. Life has been a roller coaster since a year before Covid brought the entire world to its knees. I haven’t really written about it and how it has affected my life in general. I hadn’t given it any thought up until now. Generally speaking life has been good. I really cannot complain about it a whole lot but that doesn’t mean things hadn’t gone on. I feel like Covid has changed so much about our world in so many ways. I also feel like our world has become grumpier and meaner. I honestly don’t recognize my home country anymore. I love my country but I do not love what I see is going on. I was raised to be a polite person. I raised my children to be polite and show kindness even when it wasn’t being given to them. Our world lacks kindness. It lacks understanding and it lacks being civil towards fellow human beings when they don’t agree with them.
I realize that I am digressing here but it helps me sometimes to write about things that bother me so that I can make sense of it or at least put it out of my mind after having given some thought to it. Covid has made me leery of getting around people. It’s sad that people who are sick won’t stay home until they are are past the point of where they can spread their illness. I see this a lot on airplanes when I fly. Generally I don’t see it as often on long flights but I definitely do on short haul flights. This is usually where I catch something usually and end up three to five days home bound wherever I’m staying at. My immune system has never been all that strong to begin with due to the aggressive nature of my asthma. Greenland has really had it easy relative to the spreading of covid. Many did what it took to keep it from spreading. That in itself has been a blessing.
The company my “Heart Light” works for has seen challenges as well especially with some of it’s ships. The ship that Nikolaj works on has seen more than it’s share of issues starting out with covid finding its way onboard infecting half the crew while not infecting the rest but that was because the ship was sailed to Nuuk so that the everyone could be quarantined in a hotel. Then there was engine trouble and then to add insult to injury, a big trawler from the private sector crashed into my husband’s ship. This happened in January of this year.
When Nikolaj called me to tell me what had happened, it really upset me a lot. I know as a wife of a sailor, accidents can happen. Sailors can get hurt in so many ways while hauling gear or putting gear in the water. Most don’t get hurt on their ships because safe precautions are mandatory and followed. But never in a million years would I have ever thought another big ship would crash into my husbands ship. The blessing out of all of that is that no one was hurt on board! Everyone was where they needed to be when it happened which saved lives. Sometimes timing does that. It prevents something that could have been way worse. Things have finally started to get more settled again and I am so thankful for that.
I have a lot to be thankful for. This country that I live in is so beautiful! It has brought me peace and healing. I have come to love it as much as I love my home country. I have adapted to this way of life here and it has been nice to live at at a slower pace. This country is rich in culture. I didn’t understand what culture was until I moved here and now I have a deeper understanding of it. It’s sad that there is no culture to be had from either side of my family though. I wish there was one thing I could share culturally about my family but there just isn’t anything.
Back in June I finally decided to pull the trigger and start uploading and posting video’s about Greenland while creating videos about my journey into quilting. It has been exhilarating while being scary at the same time. I didn’t start with a goal for my YouTube channel. I didn’t start out with a goal for my blog as well. What I did want to do over time is to get all my photographs, video’s and writings up where they are so that I have a legacy I can leave for my children and grandchildren. That might not be culture but it will be something that they all will have that can be passed to the next generation. There are over 11,000 photographs on my Flickr web page and now I have a blog to write in and YouTube share more of myself and what I love at the same time.
I didn’t think the channel would do as well as it’s doing in such a short amount of time. The channel hit its first milestone three weeks ago by making it to 1,000 subscriptions. Then two days ago it made it’s second milestone of partial monetization. It’s not that far from the 3rd milestone as well. The thing is, I cannot take the credit for all of this happening!
My channel has grown because of all those out there that has started supporting it, sharing it, subscribing to it and viewing it. It’s because of all of you that my channel is growing like it is. Yes, I’m creating videos and learning how to go live and learning how to make good videos but that is half of what has to happen to be successful. Viewers watching them are what is making it progress in a positive way. This has been such a blessing and I am so thankful for where it’s going and where it started from. The quilting community is such a lovely group! They are so supportive, understanding, kind and patient. All these traits are how a channel has a chance to grow. Thank you so much to all of you who have been supportive of every step I’ve taken to get where the channel is at right now.
So I am wishing all of you in my home country Happy Thanksgiving!! We all have so much to be thankful for. Never take anything for granted because it can disappear in a matter of a day. I’ll be thinking of all of you as you enjoy sitting down with family to consume a nice long feast day! Remember to savor the food. Enjoy it for it’s taste and luxuriate in that!
Please remember to subscribe to my YouTube channel as well as view videos. Don’t forget to comment to this blog below and like as well. The more viewers I have the more likely others will stumble across it and read as well.
Touch the Mind, Kiss the Heart, Embrace the Soul, Live, Laugh, Love & Dream!
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