Thanksgiving Day

It is nearly 9:30 at night as I type... dinner was earlier than usual because the turkey didn't take as long as I thought it would... those pop-up timers are a great little device. We had the turkey and sweet potatoes (my Aunt Dolly's recipe), oyster dressing and mashed potatoes (which my husband makes), baked apple slices with pineapple and pecans and raisins, and cranberry/pineapple sauce, plus broccoli for something green, and little rolls just because Thanksgiving dinner doesn't seem complete without some sort of little rolls on the table.

My husband's friend J drove up from Clear Lake and he's staying in the guest cottage tonight... he brought the pies (apple and pecan) so with just the three of us (two other friends who were invited were out of town today)... we had quite the feast here.

I gave Savannah some turkey, my husband gave her some pie and ice cream... and then she ate her dog food. I gave Sweet Pea bits of the turkey but he turned his nose up and walked away (such a cat!) so Savannah got his turkey as well.

I spoke to my Aunt Dolly in Florida this afternoon... she will be 103 next summer... cousins of mine from NY went to Florida to have Thanksgiving there with her, and Aunt Dolly was happy about that. When I got on the phone with my aunt, her first words to me were "So when are you and your husband coming to see me?!" (Which she asks every time she gets me on the phone.)  We went to Florida for her 98th birthday, and we were there for her 100th birthday.... I guess we'd better make some plans to see her for her 103rd.  Aunt Dolly sounds wonderful and looks great (so my cousins told me) and the only part of her that's declining is her hearing... it takes so much effort to yell into the phone so she can understand me, so I keep the conversations short. I didn't tell her about our new puppy but I'm sure my cousins showed her the eMailed pictures and told her about Savannah.

Savannah is one of the reasons for not traveling on Thanksgiving... plus the fact that neither my husband nor I want to be anywhere near an airport during this holiday week. Airports are crazy enough these days... then you add a holiday into the mix and the insanity is endless. As much as I would have liked to have seen Aunt Dolly for Thanksgiving, there's still no place like home.

If I had a nickel....

.... for every time my husband has told me "Don't call the plumber/electrician/carpenter/landscaper because I can fix this myself.".... I would be a very rich woman, living in a quaint cottage on a picturesque hill overlooking the British countryside... so rich that I would have a gardener to take care of my beautifully blooming garden, a nice apron-clad lady to cook my meals and do laundry and clean house, and a never-ending supply of really good books to read along with a library the size of London to hold all of my perfectly polished and categorized bookshelves.

I firmly believe that the Internet has destroyed a lot of relationships and cut into the profits of all plumbers, electricians, carpenters, landscapers, etc. because YouTube has provided a never-ending supply of how-to videos that encompass any and all household setbacks, mishaps, projects, problems, etc.

There probably is not a man left on this planet whose mantra is not ICDIM (I can do it myself).

Give me a blessed break...

... and this time, I mean it.  Three days before Thanksgiving is not when you want to be calling a plumber because the dishwasher is running on cold water instead of hot, there's very little hot water coming out of the faucet in the kitchen sink, and the little bit of water that had been dripping from behind that faucet is now a lot of dripping water.

My husband turned off the water to the kitchen sink... he took off the faucet and it definitely needs to be replaced and he can get that tomorrow at Home Depot (where everyone knows his name because he's been there so much since we bought this big old house). We have no idea what happened to the hot water in the kitchen, but I'm thinking that the water heater has to be replaced. We had the other two water heaters replaced this past Spring. At the time, there was nothing wrong with the third one, which goes to the kitchen. I had suggested we replace that water heater anyway, and I distinctly remember telling my husband that that particular water heater would decide to give up the ghost at the most inconvenient time..... and so it has come to pass.  (Men just don't listen.)

Oh well. I'm sitting here complaining about a water heater and plumbing problems and my cousin P in Chicago is recovering from a massive stroke and my friend V in Maryland just had neck surgery this past week. I'm sure either one of them would gladly trade their situations for my dishwasher that is mysteriously running on just cold water and a malfunctioning faucet in the kitchen sink.

As I type, Savannah is in her bed near the table in the breakfast room and she's chewing on a rawhide bone, and Sweet Pea is on my lap watching these letters pop up on the screen. I'm sure this cat thinks I can do magic. ("Look! It's an M!")

I can't complain. I shouldn't complain. I can come and go as I please and I'm not in a wheelchair and learning how to speak and walk again, and my neck and shoulders aren't recovering from surgery. Life is good in this little world of mine. (But "Pooh!" on this old plumbing anyway!)

'Tis the season...

... and I've been busy getting ready for way too many things coming up: an ornament exchange for our tea party ladies; Thanksgiving dinner; our Crazy Christmas Sweater Party; plus wrapping and packing up Christmas gifts for mailing; and planning for Christmas Eve and Day.

Once Halloween comes around, the rest of the year floats by on a fast-moving cloud... and ready or not, everything will pass you right by unless you're organized enough to get things ready before 'the day of.'  I absolutely hate to do things last minute, and I can get a lot of things done (and done well) when I have all the time in the world to do them.

Most of the Christmas gifts are wrapped up now, and nearly all of them are snug in packing boxes and ready to bring to the post office after Thanksgiving. I'd be mailing out the gifts now but my cousins in Arizona and New York would be texting or calling me: "Are you crazy? This is too much pressure! You should be arrested for sending out Christmas gifts this early!"

The rain today made it the perfect weather for decorating my 'crazy' sweater for our Christmas party.  I had found a vintage black wool sweater in a thrift store last year... very pretty knit with little gold beads and sequins and gold buttons... pretty, but on the verge of gaudy. Nothing that I would wear unless I truly had to.... which gave me the idea for a Tacky/Crazy Christmas Sweater Party. I had found that sweater too close to last year's Christmas party... not enough time to tell everyone about a Crazy Christmas Sweater-themed party.... so I put that sweater into the closet.

At last month's Halloween party, I asked some of the neighbors if they'd be interested in a Tacky/Crazy/Gaudy Christmas Sweater Party... and enough of them liked the idea and thought it would be fun.  Before the Halloween party was over, I told everyone about the sweater-themed Christmas party in mid-December, giving them all plenty of notice to find and/or decorate their sweaters. A week after that announcement, I sent out invitations for our Christmas party, reminding everyone about the crazy sweaters.

So this morning, out came my nearly-crazy Christmas sweater.... along with some gold bows and glittery gold snowflake ornaments that I bought last week. (I had originally thought of gold stars, but couldn't find any up here, so I settled on the gold sparkle-snowflakes.)

I used black thread to tack on the snowflakes... in a somewhat random-but-planned pattern on the back, front, and sleeves of that sweater.  Then I tacked on a gold bow to each of the gold snowflakes. The end result is an over-the-top elegantly ridiculous sweater... and I saved one gold snowflake and one gold bow to put into my hair on party night.  When I was done, there was just as much glitter on my kitchen counter-top as there was on that sweater. I have a feeling that I'll be dripping gold glitter everywhere I walk on party night.

I have two prizes for the winners of the Best Christmas Sweaters.... for the man with the 'Best' sweater, a Cowboy Nutcracker (that I jazzed up a bit so it looks crazy/tacky); and for the 'Best' woman's sweater, a city/country Christmas tree--- made of twigs and painted a glittery red but decorated by me to look like a city-ish tree, in a crazy/tacky sort of way.  My husband can pick out the best three for the men, and best three for the women.... then everyone else can pick the two winners from those six. Should be lots of fun.... and I'm already planning the prizes for next year's Crazy Christmas Sweater Party because I think this is going to be a big hit.

As I said... 'tis the season... and I've been busy.

Trying to catch up...

We're in November already.... and what have I been saying for decades now.... once Labor Day comes and goes, the rest of the year disappears in a heart-beat.

I've been decorating for Christmas... the first floor is done, the third floor is done... all that's left is the second floor. Just whose idea was it to have Christmas trees in every blessed room? (Okay. It was mine.)

An extremely organized schedule has gone up in smoke. Puppy-smoke. Savannah comes first, with her puppy needs and wants, and she always needs to go out when I'm in the middle of something, or she wants to play when I'm trying to get things done. We're still on puppy time in this house, but it has been getting better. Much better. Gone are the nights when Savannah was waking me up between two o'clock and four o'clock in the morning. Now she is sleeping through the night, and doesn't even budge from her very cozy dog-bed until after I have fed the cats and cleaned their litter boxes. It's so nice to be able to sleep through the night again.

We've taken Savannah to the Dog Park twice now... she loves it. She loves it so much that on the second day we took her there, she literally flew into the back seat of my husband's car without hesitating. This from a puppy who was petrified of walking past a car, much less get into one. Puppy-wonders never cease.

I'm way behind on wrapping and boxing up Christmas gifts... they're getting done little by little, but by this time of the year, everything is usually packed in mailing boxes, Christmas cards have been written out and ready to mail after Thanksgiving, and I'm in the middle of re-reading my favorite Christmas books. Even my reading time has been over-shadowed by puppy time. Savannah has a lot of puppy energy and she needs to be walked... so out we go, at least four or five times a day.

The pecan trees are filled with nuts this year...... I've picked more pecans than I know what to do with and more than I have room to store them all so they'll keep fresh. I've been giving bags of pecans away, and will probably put together cute little cellophane bags of pecans and use them as place cards for Thanksgiving. One of the prizes at our Halloween party was a huge ceramic pumpkin filled with just-picked pecans. Luckily, the winner of that prize didn't have pecan trees in her own yard.

Thanksgiving will be here in a heart-beat, and we've already asked friends to have dinner with us here if they've no place else to go. People shouldn't be alone on holidays. It goes against everything human. I keep thinking of the words of a wise old man I read about on "Humans Of New York" --- "When you have more than you need, build a bigger table instead of a higher fence." Definitely words to live by.

I've been sending cards to my cousin P in Chicago every week...... he had a massive stroke a couple of months ago and his life has completely changed, as has the day-to-day life of his wife and his family. The stroke was sudden and unexpected, as I suspect all strokes are.... my cousin is younger than I am and was always very active. If he wasn't doing something around his own house, he was fixing or building something for his neighbors. All of that has come crashing down and now everyone has to do everything for him. It just breaks my heart because of all the people I know who wouldn't want to be helpless, P is up there at the top of that list.

We all need to thank our lucky stars that we can put our own two feet on the floor every morning and walk on our own two legs and do whatever we want to do every day without anyone's assistance.

Another rainy weekend...

.... the third one in a row. And yesterday was such a beautifully warm and sunny day. I'm not ready for Fall weather... I'll take another month of summer, if that's at all possible.

I've spent the last couple of days taking out the Christmas decorations. Except for the 1950s aluminum tree, everything else is out now on the first floor. I still have the second floor to do, but that usually goes much quicker. Each year as I unpack my Santa collection, I promise myself not to buy one more Santa. But then I'll find one with such a happy face that just needs to come home and join the parade here.

The invitations for the Christmas party have been written out, so everyone will have plenty of time to plan their Uniquely Ugly or Creatively Crazy Christmas Sweater. I think everyone will have fun with this party.  It seems like I'm rushing the holidays along, but it just seems that the holidays can be enjoyed more when most of the preparations are done weeks ahead. The month of December goes by in a heart-beat every year, and when Dec. 1st comes around, I hope to have all gifts wrapped and ready to mail, every last decoration out of the storage closet, and the only things left to do will be to read some Christmas books and bake some cookies.

Savannah and I are both sleeping much better these days... she still lets out one lonely-sounding bark at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning, but I no longer come downstairs and take her outside. I let her know that I've heard her by saying "Go to sleep, Savannah!" and that seems to be enough... she does go back to sleep and so do I.  According to the dog books, some puppies just want to know that someone else is around in the middle of the night.

We took Savannah to the local dog park yesterday... she got to run around off-leash and play with other dogs, and she jumped into the doggie-pool with one of them. That pool was much cleaner than the neighbor's pond that she discovered last week, and I was prepared with a big towel because I knew the pool was there and I figured she'd get into it. Wonderful.... Savannah loves the rain and she loves the water. So much for having an 'elegant' puppy. "Puppy" is growing into a dog lately.... she must near to 50 pounds now. I bought her a pink sweatshirt with a hood but it's clearly too big for her, but I have a feeling that she'll grow into it by January.

Speaking of puppy.... she's ready to go out, and it isn't raining at the moment....

Halloween Party

Last night was our Halloween party... and today I've been taking down all the decorations... what a difference a day makes.

The party, however, was great... one of our best yet up here because everyone kept talking and telling stories and changing seats so they could talk to all the neighbors. It felt like a real party, not merely a 'church supper' gathering, and after all the work that goes into these parties, it was nice to see that no one wanted the night to end.

Lots of costumes.... A punk-rocker couple (Best Costume Award), a Pregnant 73-Yr-Old (Best Pumpkin Award), The Blue Hair Group (Funniest Costume Award).... plus Johnny Cash and his wife June, the Mad Hatter, Nadine (Kim K-ish butt, gobs of jewelry, crazy mixed/matched clothes), the Zombie Hunter, witches and devils, country cowboys, and assorted outfits creatively done up with lights and Halloween decor.

The Blue Hair Group consisted of four of our friends (J&J, JAS, SK) three of them wearing blue wigs and using PVC-pipe walkers complete with yellow tennis balls at the bottom... all dressed in bathrobes and slippers and senior-citizen-ish accessories. They used PVC-drumsticks to beat out the Blue Man Group music on their walkers, and their announcer stood there in a pink wig and brown bathrobe telling a story about their entertainment history. Needless to say, they brought the house down.  These are the same four friends who did the 'Monster Mash' at our last Halloween party, so now of course we're all expecting this sort of entertainment at every party.

Potluck dinner was a smash.... lots of casseroles, sausage-balls and meat-balls, chicken, breads and vegetables, lasagna, deviled eggs, turkey rolls, cakes and cookies and brownies and chocolates. Can't have Halloween without chocolate. (It's a rule.)

Some of us got to talking about our up-coming Christmas party... and it was decided that we'll do an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.... crazy, festive, creative, unique, store-bought or hand-made sweaters packed with everything and anything that screams Christmas.  I told everyone about that last night and they all seemed excited about it... and they have plenty of time between now and mid-December to come up with a Christmas theme for their sweater. Should be lots of fun.

This morning we went up the road and had breakfast with J&J, JAS, and SK (who drove here from Austin for the party) and then I continued to de-Halloween the house when my husband and I got back. Everything Halloween is packed away in the boxes now... and I'll give myself a few days before I start taking out the Christmas decorations. At this time of the year, each holiday comes and goes so quickly, and I know I say that every year, but it's true.  We all really enjoyed this Halloween... and Thanksgiving is around the corner, and Christmas seems like a heart-beat away.

Enjoy every day, people.... every day is a gift, whether it's a holiday or not.