Well that was easier than I expected :)

We survived Thanksgiving with hardly a tear this year. (yes, there were tears, but it was what I read that morning from the HSUS about a recent saving of 90 some abused horses).

My step sister and her mom made all the food, and served it buffet style, which is what they usually do, only this time it was all hidden away in the kitchen. SO, we hardly saw any of the food. We all sat around in different places socializing, so I didn't even have to see several plates of it before me. Plus, she made a sort of Chinese concoction of lots of veggies and rice especially for us. :) Which, btw, was REALLY tasty. It made up for the fact that all of the straight up veggies - sliced carrots, green beans, corn, and something else I can't remember- were SWIMMING, drowning, in butter. No kidding. No exaggeration. Why anyone feels the need to ruin veggies like that is beyond my comprehension. I didn't even like eating them that way before I educated myself on the horrors of dairy. BUT back to the positive- yes it was a VERY nice day. And the rain didn't start till we drove back into town- which is great since we've been irresponsibly delaying on getting our mostly bald tires replaced! do'h!

Ironically, that morning while goofing off, surfing the interwebs, I came across this article http://www.naturalnews.com/002695.html (please forgive me I still have not figured out what I'm not doing right to get links to be hyper). I found it when typing dairy diabetes into google- just to refresh my memory of what I'd learned about the undisputed link. You see my Dad has diabetes, so I wanted to be ready for any uncool defensive on their part conversations. This article is very informative (although it feels a bit high and mighty)(which is fine by me but I can't imagine convincing many dairy eaters anything from it). There's a very good explanation of how dairy causes cancers. I was surprised, but I guess not totally. Anywayz, my brother in law made the only comment of the variety I was dreading- thankfully it was not argumentative so I was like "shew!". LOL Anywayz he said "Now they're saying that dairy causes cancer, can you believe that? That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!!" I was all like ":-o " So I said how coincidental, that I was just educating myself this morning on exactly how it causes cancer. My step sister chimed in saying "well years ago they said Noxema can give you cancer, so you know!" And that was that.

I am grateful for a safe 3+ hours of driving yesterday on iffy tires, for the rain not starting till 5 min before we were home, for my Grandfather coming to my step sisters with us, for my family respecting our food choices, for the meal to not have been served up traditional style, for me being in a mellow mood and not feeling preachy and high and mighty (which I never like feeling anyway but sometimes it happens when you learn so much so quickly), for Marisa from KindGreenPlanet.org and all of her wonderful words of support and sincerity and her endless energy, for my friends Lauren and Steve, for having a family to visit with in the first place, for my furkids being healthy, for blogs so I can get all this off my chest and not internalize it so much, and most of all for my Husband. He is a very very good man, and truely my favoritest person in the whole universe.