Happy Thanksgiving! {short story}

Friends, I hope you have a blessed and happy Thanksgiving.

While 2020 has been filled with real-life disasters of overwhelming nature, I think it's time we revisit one of my old short stories that features a fictional disaster filled with encouragement. Here's hoping that 2021 swoops in with joy and overwhelming happiness for us all!

Copyright 2018 Andrea Renee Cox. All rights reserved.

Thanksgiving Disaster

a short story

by Andrea Renee Cox

Smoke billowed from the open oven and filled the matchbox, galley-style kitchen. With a growl, Sarah swept a cookie sheet swiftly through the air around the raging fire alarm. She’d already turned off the appliance, but she couldn’t find her broom to nudge the battery out of the alarm. If she didn’t get it shut up soon—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She jumped, dropping the cookie sheet with a clatter. Her poor attempt at a grand jeté didn’t produce anything close to the splits she’d seen the ballerina do in that ballet she’d seen last month, but it did get her over the pan and into the living room. When she flung open the door, she stumbled backward.

November Review {Part 2} + a FREE recipe

Thanksgiving

Food, family, and gratitude worked together to create wonderful memories during the holiday. Remember all those recipes I mentioned a few weeks ago? I got them all done! The seafood bisque was a bit treacherous to make (here’s a tip: when making a bisque, go ahead and get all the ingredients measured and prepped prior to starting and work quickly once you begin), but it turned out scrumptious. The cod pieces melted in my mouth, and I’m not even a huge seafood fan.

My favorite discovery was a tie between the pineapple cream cheese cobbler and the honey biscuits. I’ll be making both a few more times throughout the upcoming year, I think. They were delicious! The honey biscuits were especially fun, because the honey taste came through so beautifully. They were the first from-scratch biscuits I’ve ever made, and it was a fabulous recipe for my debut. It was simple and easy to follow while creating a lovely scent in my home while they were baking.

Characters Who Celebrate Christmas In the Story {reading challenge}

Holiday Baking

It's the week of Thanksgiving here in America, and that means I'm busy baking and cooking up a storm. I finally decided on the new recipes I'll be trying. I've been told holidays are not the times to test out new-to-me recipes, but I beg to differ. I've only come across a couple of duds over the years, and thankfully they were ones I taste tested before sharing... which means I didn't share those couple of things. But I've found some really great dishes over the holidays through my teens and twenties. Now that I'm in my thirties, I feel like it's practically tradition for me to try something new for Thanksgiving and Christmas and sometimes even New Year's Day.

Characters Who... Have Children

November always reminds me of family.

The whole holiday time of the year does, really. Between buying and wrapping Christmas presents and planning for what I'll make for Thanksgiving, my family members are constantly on my mind and in my prayers. While I think I'm nearly done with Christmas shopping already, I'm nowhere near ready to bake yet. I know I'm making my practically famous (non-alcoholic) eggnog and always-requested sweet potato casserole. I just haven't figured out what my other one or two dishes will be. I like to try new recipes some years, while others are better for tried-and-true things. It's a little hard to tell yet which type of year this is.

If you have any simple holiday recipes, please feel free to share in the comments section.

The reading challenge for November will be in the tradition of family. Any book in which a character has children will count. It can be a children's book or a grown-up book, nonfiction or make-believe. The person who has the children could be a daddy or a mommy. It could be a grandparent raising their grandchildren. It could be a foster parent or surrogate parent.

Thanksgiving Disaster - a short story

In honor of Thanksgiving, here is a short story that was so much fun to pen. Happy Thanksgiving!

Copyright 2018 Andrea Renee Cox. All rights reserved.

Thanksgiving Disaster

a short story

by Andrea Renee Cox

Smoke billowed from the open oven and filled the matchbox, galley-style kitchen. With a growl, Sarah swept a cookie sheet swiftly through the air around the raging fire alarm. She’d already turned off the appliance, but she couldn’t find her broom to nudge the battery out of the alarm. If she didn’t get it shut up soon—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

She jumped, dropping the cookie sheet with a clatter. Her poor attempt at a grand jeté didn’t produce anything close to the splits she’d seen the ballerina do in that ballet she’d seen last month, but it did get her over the pan and into the living room. When she flung open the door, she stumbled backward.

Thanksgiving

by Andrea Renee Cox

Happy Thanksgiving week! I hope your family and you will create wonderful memories as you eat great food, play board games, watch movies, chat up a storm, and whatever else you might do during the holiday.

What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?

Be My Guest: Kara Isaac + GIVEAWAY

by Andrea Renee Cox

This year was quite a big one for Kara Isaac. She released her first novel, Close to You, back in April, and now her second book, Can't Help Falling, is available too. Kara is visiting Writing to Inspire today, and she's got a surprise for you at the very end, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

Giving Thanks in All Things

by Kara Isaac

This is the time of year when I get envious of my American friends as my Facebook feed explodes with photos of pumpkin pie (which I don’t even like!), fall flavored lattes (and I don’t drink coffee!), beautiful golden and orange vistas, and mugs of apple cider.

I live in New Zealand. Here we are finally shedding off the layers, grimacing as our white winter legs are inflicted upon the world and enjoying longer, warmer evenings. And I am not complaining! But I have to admit that I feel like we miss out as our calendar rolls through late November and there is no Thanksgiving on it. A holiday to pause and take stock for all the things that I am grateful for in the middle of a full life feels like a great idea.

Bit O' Inspiration: Part Three

by Andrea Renee Cox

So I almost forgot to post this. It's midnight Sunday night/Monday morning as I type this, so please excuse any typos.

One thing on my mind today:

Spiritual Battles

November 2014 Movie Wrap-Up

By Andrea Renee Cox

Between NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and a couple of proofreading jobs, it was almost impossible to squeeze in time to watch movies. If I wasn’t multitasking, I wouldn’t have been able to watch the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars games, either. But I wrote while I had them on. Some pretty good games this month, from what I picked up between chapters, especially for the Mavs.

Early in the month, though, a couple of friends and I took time out of a Saturday to see a movie at the theater. When I suggested the movie, I knew they might not be huge fans of the idea. But they agreed it looked cute. What we weren’t expecting was for it to carry weight for adults as well as children. Once it was over, we all looked at each other, shocked expressions all around, and said, “Whoa. That. Was. Awesome.”

So, if you’re looking for a movie to take the entire family to see over the Thanksgiving break, check out:

Big Hero 6

When prodigy Hiro Hamada loses someone close to him, he teams up with a large, inflatable robot named Baymax. Though their mission starts out as a battle for revenge, with Hiro’s brains and Baymax’s programmed heart, both of them learn that balance is needed when it comes to dealing with complicated situations.

What surprised me the most about this animated feature is that it dove right in to difficult themes. Grief, revenge, “nerd school,” genius/prodigy, and superheroes. Also, there wasn’t a single bad word that I remember, which might have shocked me more than anything. Such a pleasant surprise! This movie is really clean and family friendly. It lets kids know that being really smart is super cool, and that grief is a normal process that takes time and connection with friends and family to overcome. I’m so glad the filmmakers chose to tackle deep topics in a way that will touch the hearts of all types of people from all different age groups. Honestly, it’s probably the favorite of all the movies I’ve seen this year, and I’ve seen quite a few, as you know from my other monthly wrap-ups. At least it’s in the top five, anyway. A definite must-see. Take the kids, your parents, friends … everyone will love it for one reason or another.

And have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Readers, what are some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions? What are YOU thankful for this year?

Thanks for stopping by today! I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comment section below. And don’t forget to drop by next Monday for my latest article.

Would you like to be my guest? Here's how to submit an article.

Do you need a proofreader? Here are the services I offer.

What Are You Thankful For?

Late in November, we celebrate Thanksgiving. This holiday reminds us of the difficult times the pilgrims went through the first few years after they came to America. As the pilgrims went through hard times, each of us faces our own hard times at one point in life or another. This season especially, I think of the people and things in my life I have to be thankful for.

This year, I’m thankful for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), among other things. This is the first year I’ve participated in NaNo, and frankly, I wasn’t expecting much. I didn’t know what to expect, really. All I knew was the goal was to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. So, each day I wrote, typing words into my computer. Sometimes they didn’t seem to flow very well. Other times they gushed out like a raging waterfall.

My word counts added up quicker than I thought they would. Every day of the first week, I beat the previous day’s word count. On the first Saturday, NaNo’s writing marathon, I managed to eke out just over 8,000 words. Imagine my surprise when I tallied that one up! The next week didn’t progress quite that well, but I did still manage to log pretty good word counts, compared to my normal ones.

The third week was slow for me, due to circumstances outside my control. But I still found some time to write each day. By forcing myself to sit in front of my computer every day in November, I reached the goal of 50,000 words by November 25^th.

Yes, I’m a NaNoWriMo winner.

I’m grateful for the experience, for it showed me just how much I can accomplish when I get my schedule figured out. When I sit with only my computer as entertainment, and with the Lord as my Guide, the words are sure to pile up and create the bones of a story I can work with.

Thank you to my family who supported my attempt at the National Novel Writing Month. They allowed me the undisturbed time I needed to write. Each day they were eager to hear the word count I’d reached. Their encouragement meant the world to me and helped me reach the count on the difficult days that seemed to drag on and on and on. Without their support, I wouldn’t have reached my goal and felt this awesome sense of accomplishment.

How has your family and/or friends supported your dreams? What people and/or things do you have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season?