The QoP ~ Wishing you all a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!

Hello, my awesome blogger friends! 

Yes ~ I'm still alive.  You know, in case your were wondering.  ;)  And I miss you ALL, of course!  I've just been trying to manage through some personal stuff.  Nothing to worry about - but, it needs my attention.  And since my time management skills kind of...suck (I'm thinking of a word that starts with "p"...)  ~ I'm sacrificing my blogging time for a little while.  No worries ~ I'll be back soon, and lurking around to see what's happening with my favorite people in the blogosphere.

But, I wanted to pop in today to wish you all a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!  And for my friends out there that may not celebrate Thanksgiving - I wish you ALL the BEST!

And I'm not leaving you totally empty handed!!!  I wouldn't think of it!!! So - here's an awesome recipe I'm making as an alternative to traditional pumpkin pie for my family's Thanksgiving Feast:

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake from all.recipes.com

Ingredients:


2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 (9 inch) prepared graham cracker crust 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

2. In a large bowl, combine cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Blend in eggs one at a time. Remove 1 cup of batter and spread into bottom of crust; set aside.

3. Add pumpkin, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg to the remaining batter and stir gently until well blended. Carefully spread over the batter in the crust.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until center is almost set. Allow to cool, then refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight. Cover with whipped topping before serving.



YUM - right????  :)

And what Holiday would be complete without a few jokes:

Sooo morbid - but, I just love this one!!!  (source)

(source)

~ Warm Holiday wishes to you all - from Donea Lee :)

Find the Story Friday!!!! Puttin' a little Spring in your Winter....

Happy Friday - all!  Soooo.  Is anyone reading this on your phone/laptop as you freeze to death in line and outside your favorite department store for the Black Friday shop-a-ganza mayhem??  Not me!!  Seriously.  You couldn't pay me to stay up all night in the cold with a bunch of strangers only to stampede through random-store doors in hopes of fighting, grappling, stealing, wrestling  getting a deal on something I probably don't need anyhow.

But if this is your bag (baby), I hope you're staying warm, you don't get trampled, and you steal the deal of a lifetime!  :)

And also hoping your Thanksgiving was fantabulous!  Mine sure was.  Did I mention that Thanksgiving dinner is my all-time favorite meal of the year?  My sister switched it up a little this year (I'm generally a traditionalist with my T-day meals....turkey, cranberry sauce, mash taters and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls...) and made a butternut squash souffle.  Yum!!  And then we played games while (some of) the boys watched football.  Games = Spoons (we only saw a few injuries) and Phase 10 (I won!!).  I love long days with great food, great conversation and fun with the people I love.

But, after all was said and done, we left a great day and each other in a freezing cold night.  I've been home for a few hours now, but my teeth are still chattering!!  So...as I sat here thinking of what photo I'd add for Find the Story Friday - I realized that even if you're not as cold as me...it's still winter out there, everywhere!  So - here's a little spring to your winter.  Let me know how it inspires?  I'm giving you a few choices here, so hopefully one of these lovely spring pics will spark a story idea in you:

Ahhh....lovely.

Beautiful!

Little slice of Secret Garden here....

Gorgeous, no?

Hmmm....I'm visualizing #1 -  a scene set for a lover's quarrel  and/or  #2 -  a clandestine meeting of two old high school friends at the Tulip festival in Amsterdam.

Anything budding in that brain of yours?  Hope so!  Now grab that pen and write!  :)

(oh - and P.S.!!  If you haven't entered my GIVEAWAY yet, there's still time.  Accepting entries through Midnight, Dec. 4th)