Home // Features // Features Columnists // Sandra Snyder

Some practical talk for your turkey table

Saturday November 21, 2009 | 12:00 AM

So, know what you’re going to say when you “go around the table” Thursday?

Yes, the old-faithful fill-in-the-blank exercise of “I’m thankful for … ” apparently hasn’t lost any oomph. It’s even gone viral, which you’ve probably noticed if you’re a social networker. Facebookers galore have been filling in “is grateful for” lines next to their names daily lately for the purpose of reminding us all that no matter what or how many bad things have happened to us this year, there’s still plenty to smile about. Got that?

Now I fully understand – or least I’ve been emphatically told -- that some of us really, really hate this annual Thanksgiving-time exercise, if only because we feel forced to say “correct” things and we’re just not make-a-production-of-it kind of people. I accept that, have given it some thought and suggest we can dumb down the routine in the interest of fun tip-sharing.

While we gather in the homes of our master hosts or hostesses, why not mentally travel the rooms and point out the literal things for which we’re eminently thankful because, doggone it, they just add a measure more pleasure to our hustle-and-hurry lives? We can tell everyone to just assume this in no way means we’ve ceased to appreciate the unfailing love of all who watch our blind sides all the time.

I’ll be a happy homemaker and start.

Thanking heaven for good mothers and good fathers and good siblings and good friends and good turkeys and good houses alike with good bones, I’d like to add I also owe a debt of gratitude to:

• My Shark Steam Mop. (Why not start in the kitchen?) While I’d love to make a few tweaks, especially as concerns the washability of the washable pad, this baby has emerged as the quickest, coolest way to clean a kitchen floor in years. Maybe not hands-and-knees deep-clean (as Mom always insisted was best), but it gets the job done well enough in a pinch.

• Speaking of pinch: Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burgers merit thankfulness. Healthful enough, microwavable and screaming with flavor, they’re dinner in the clutch and belong in all freezers at all times. Top ’em with Trader “Jose’s” Salsa Autentica or Trader Joe’s White Bean & Basil Hummus, which best all competitors by miles, and – voila! -- faux gourmet in a snap.

• Trader Joe’s itself deserves some love, too. Alas, we still lack one around these parts, but for now, the Philly-area locations provide a great excuse for a road trip and help us add kick, in the guise of mod, moderately priced groceries, to our grateful kitchens.

• LA’s Totally Awesome Carpet Cleaner. I can bemoan my old carpet till the turkeys come home and someone drops the gravy boat on it, or I can sing the praises of this Dollar Tree product that regularly saves my sanity. On my honor, sometimes all you have to do is spray a stain, even an ancient one, and poof! Without any scrubbing. For a buck a bottle.

• Dove soap, fleece sheets: We’ll keep the bed and bath basic. No offense to fancy, foofy soaps at 10 times the price, but what kind of world would this be without Dove – one-quarter moisturizing cream? As for the sheets, I’ve only this year turned away from the old-standby flannel and will never go back. There’s a special place in a cozy heaven for the makers of these, I’m sure of it.

I can go on. I’m no celebrity (and my endorsements enrich me with nothing beyond the warm-fuzzies), but I’m sure you understand. We like what we like, right? Let’s talk. E-mail me your own loyalties, and I’ll type a sequel.

I’m especially all kinds of thankful for people who read newspapers.

About the Author

Sandra Snyder covers Features for the Times Leader. Reach her at (570) 831-7383 or ssnyder@timesleader.com.

Sandra Snyder is the Times Leader's features editor, overseeing the food, family, home and Sunday lifestyles sections as well as the weekly entertainment Guide. She began working at the Times Leader in 1993 as a copy editor and has held various positions, including Hazleton editor/bureau chief, editor of the Times Leader-Mountaintop and Social Issues co-team leader. She also has done general-interest news and features reporting. Her most memorable interview to this day remains the delightful and now decidedly not 16-going-on-17 Charmian Carr, a.k.a. Liesl in "The Sound of Music." These days, she encourages readers who love (and sometimes despise) their homes to write to her and share their household tales, tragic or otherwise, particularly the type they're willing to have retold in print.