Friday, November 27, 2009

The Most Popular Thanksgiving Dish was the Toilet

And, no, no one got sick. 

We spent our Thanksgiving this year with the Schram side of the family in Wisconsin.  For the most part, it was a very traditional Thanksgiving.  For the most part.  Of course we had the classic dishes...turkey, mashed potatoes, green been casserole, cranberries, pumpkin pie and don't, the wine!  We played games, watched football, laughed and shared what we are thankful, just like we should on Thanksgiving day. 

However, this year was a little bit different.  Instead of exchanging recipes on our favorite Thanksgiving casserole dish, everyone was chattering about another type of dish...a certain porcelain "dish."

Throughout the noon hour, I'd hear some of the men say, "Well, I'm off to visit Rudolph..." And they'd walk off to the bathroom.  I attributed this to being some Schram family joke that I wasn't privy to quite yet.

Then later, some of the women would ask me, "Have you been to the toilet yet?"

At this point I started to question what kind of family I had married into!  I knew the Schrams were quircky, and fairly unabashed, but why was everyone talking about going to the toilet?

When they started to scurry into the guest powder room in twos and threes, and would come back giggling and say, "You have got to go to the bathroom," my curiosity got the best of me and I had to go see for myself what the fuss was all about.

This Thanksgiving was a year of firsts.  Besides being my first Thanksgiving as a wife, Thanksgiving 2009 marks the first time I have ever I asked my host, "Would you mind if I took a picture of your toilet and posted it on my blog?"

And my multi-talented and artisitic sister-in-law, Jenny,** who was hosting us, exclaimed, "Of couse! I would be honored if you put a picture of my toilet on your blog!"

So I am.




Can you see him?



Jenny, who lives with two males, one being an 8 year old, was sick of, ahem...wiping off the toilet seat.  So through a little research she found that if men have some sort of "target" in the toilet, they are pschologically inclined to "aim" for the target, thus leaving the toilet seat dry and clean. 

And what better toilet target to kick off this holiday season than Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer!


After 13 males using the same toilet throughout the day, the seat looked pretty good at at the end of the day! It worked!

One thing I never thought I would be posting on this blog is instructions on how to paint your own toilet target.  But, here it goes.  Thank you, Jenny, for sharing this little craft with me!

If you pour a bucket of water in the toilet, it drains all the water out.  Once the water is out, let the toilet dry out and then use nail polish in whatever colors of your choice to paint whatever you like.  Viola!  You have your own painted toilet!

**Not only does she paint toilets, but I also got a sneak peak of a painting of our vineyard Jenny is painting for us and it is fabulous!  With her permission, maybe I'll post some of the other awesome work she does in another post another day. 

I promise, next week I will go back to my regular posts on wine, dogs, and living on the vineyard.  Just thought this was too good NOT to share.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!