Friday, November 23

[karlinann]

Where to begin....well first of all I hope all of you had a very wonderful holiday with your family and friends. My day was going great until about noon. Yes, the turkey cooked fine in the crock and dropped down just as you said it would Maxie.

The meal turned out ok, and hubby has lots of leftovers to eat on. I don't like the turkey after the meal. It just has a wild taste or something in my chemical makeup is turned off by it. Also, I cooked the giblets and added to the gravy and I def did not care for that. I will not go through this again. We will go to Cracker Barrel for our meal next year. It's just us and the older I get the more difficult it is to cook and clean afterwards.

Anyway that was not the dilemma. My hubby came home from playing Pickleball and took a shower. This house and fixtures are 32 years old and things are kind of worn out in places. So, after the shower he couldn't get the water to stop in the shower head. The valve is worn out and it has been steadily dripping since about 1 pm yesterday. We called the plumber and left a message, but they never called back. Next dh called the handyman volunteer service here in our community and even though he couldn't come yesterday he is coming out today to fix it. The repair will only be $5 plus parts and you can make a donation to the vol service. Isn't that just wonderful? To know that people care and give of themselves.

We had to shower in the guest bathroom last evening, but no worries. Also, we are going to get a guy to give us a quote on repairing the tile/grout in the shower. I don't want a total remodel, but there are pitted holes in the grout and if he can't fix it then we'll have to put new tile in. He did some work for us at Pine Run.

I've written a book. Have a great day!

[jostoy]

Good morning all.

Karli, sounds like YOU were in a pickle yesterday. And as to cooking for just you and hubby, I agree all of the Holiday meals should be eaten at Cracker Barrel.

Good luck on the pipe and grout fixes. To everyone else...have a wonderful day.

[cookielady]

Good SUNNY Morning! It's cold, but the sun helps. Most of the week was cold and oppressively dreary.


All customers arrived & got their goodies on Wed. I had a couple people call that day, but that was fine. Took Blaise to karate and while he was doing that, I delivered the tray of cookies to my customer who is currently in a local nursing home recouping from a broken hip. She wanted the tray for visitors & the staff. Came home and got busy working on my own Thanksgiving food. Roasted my turkey and unplugged it at midnight & put it out on the porch to cool. Warmed it back up yesterday and then dealt with cutting it, making the gravy, and scooping out the stuffing.

Yesterday morning I was up very early (for me) and was at our church by 715 to work on the meal we had available to the community. We had more than last year. Each year it'll keep growing. We scaled back, but still had some leftovers. Nothing is going to waste though. Some will go to the food bank for their meal, some to Meals on Wheels, and the rest we'll use in January when we have our turkey & biscuit meal for Meat & Greet.

I left at 2pm, and came home to finish up the food for our meal. Took it to my brother Tom's. I don't mind cooking, but I didn't want the pressure of having a clean house too. We ate, visited, but left by 8pm because we were all yawning. Blaise didn't want to go home with Kathy, but that was too bad. I just wanted a couple days peace. He's not noisy or bad, but I just wanted a break and this was the perfect time. He's suppose to be there until Sunday, but we'll see. But we have even a busier "child" to watch. Becca has to work 2 16hr days in a row this weekend plus she has no heat (she left her oil run out), so Ollie is here. He has calmed down considerably and listens to ME pretty well. He wouldn't settle down last night, so Cork went to another room to sleep.

I'm going into town shortly, but only to the bank & the grocery store. Need to call in a couple Rx too. My family is getting back together tonight for leftovers. We didn't think we were going to get to do it because my SIL niece was going to host a dinner tonight, but with her power being out for several days and then her stove dead when the power came back on, she canceled it. Not sure if Becca is coming back down or not. She might be bringing her cat down too, which is fine. She doesn't ask or expect any of this of us, so I don't mind doing it. I offered.

How was your visit & meal yesterday Jostoy? Karli...you are fortunate with the volunteer group.

Have a good one all!

[jostoy]

The meal and company was fine. Was just hard not having E. there. Susan cooked so much food, and desserts. She said some of the canned goods came from E's house, so I guess she was in a way amongst us.

[maxie]

Morning. I am up but not starting my day yet. Yesterday was wonderful with food everywhere and among the delicious pies was a blackberry. My favorite!!

Karlinann, glad your turkey cooked ok...I agree with this cooking stuff. If Andrew did not come every night after school I would not cook one bite. In fact the only real meals I cooked for years were the holiday meals!

Today I am waiting for the boys to get up and see what their plan is. Scott will be leaving and Jon is on vacation for a few days so thought maybe we could run back home and put holiday flowers on their fathers grave. I like to do that when they are both together..sorta like a family thing. If the grands could join it would be wonderful because I want them to know where their grandpa is even though they both never knew him. Sometimes you just need to know where people who were close to you are. Does that makes sense? I just want them to know how to find their grandpa.

If I get to Kohl's and if that tea set is still there then it was meant for me to buy it for one little girl. I am not going out to specifically fight the crowds and wrestle a tea set from some other old lady. She is a great niece and her grandma should fight for tea sets...not me! I'll use Amazon. She and her brothers are the last of my shopping.

Not going to change Scott's bed because he will be back in a few weeks but am going to change mine today. Lots of extra towels to launder. Suppose to rain today and then have a cold week with highs in the 30s. OMG! Winter stinks!!

Hope each of you had a beautiful holiday. Hockey tonight. Have a wonderful day!!

[karlinann]

Maxie, I have a news flash for you, it's not winter yet! I feel for you gal. I'm sending sunshine your way. It's 75 here already.

[bethina]

Good morning...All the food was delicious! I ended up at a 2nd Thanksgiving and got to see ALOT of friends.

when I came back from my friends we Black Friday shopped from my mom’s kitchen tables with our phones and tablets.

My mom let me buy an instapot I am so excited!!! It should be here Monday with one of my youngest niece’s C gifts.

We are starting morning very slow...all still in jammies just chilling. After while my mom my sister 2 nieces and I are going to granny’s.

[JoGee]

Good morning.
Yesterday was a quiet one for us. We did try to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade on TV. The darn thing was mostly Broadway skits and commercials, not much emphasis on the floats balloons unless some pop star was singing on the float.
I was surprised how low the balloons were, but it was only 26° in NY. That affected their control of them.

So E found a UTube version on his iPad and manage to switch it to the TV screen. Much better!
we had enough food leftover from the previous day for another turkey dinner. We saved dessert for a later suppertime because we weren’t hungry for another meal.

We did hear from a few kids plus a grand. That was a nice touch to the day.

I agree, Karli, about not cooking so much food on holidays after retirement.
I recall that the shop my mom used to work at gave the workers a big fat 40-lb turkey every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It fed our family, uncles, aunts, and cousins, and we still had turkey leftovers every day til spring. Along with a variety of desserts: 4 kinds of pie, a big cake, plus cookies (usually oatmeal choc chip). I used to hate turkey for a long time. But now it seems it should be part of our winter festivities, but shouldn’t drag on forever. We eat way less these days anyway.

It sounds like you all had a good holiday overall.
I hope you all have a lovely day-after today.

[Paula A]

We, too, had a good holiday.. No turkey, which I missed the smell of it roasting and the sandwich made from leftovers, but do not miss the entire process of making the meal. I will be doing the Christmas meal and this was a great chance to see what I really need to feel like a holiday. the parade was on here, the overnight French toast was wonderful, and we had a great visit with friends form church.
Then is was on to cookie baking. Also got the tree up and waiting for the rain to let up to get the tubs of decorations out of the shed.

I decided to brave Walmart this morning to get some Christmas throws for the sofa and some pillows. Guess what?! I totally missed Black Friday because they had Black Thursday night at Walmart. I would not have gone even if I had known.
Did I twll you the Chico Walmart announced they would not have any kind of Black Friday due to the many people still in tents and campers in their parking lot and considering the safety of all.
Wow! People over dollars! Nice to know it is still a possibility.

A friend said she and her husband went to chuck a Rama and stood in line 1 1/2 hours outside and then 1/2 an hour inside! The restaurant brought out hot cocoa while they stood in line, but that is not anything I ever want to do.
It reminded me of one Christmas when Gary had just been admitted to the hospital and my mom and Becky and I went to a local restaurant and were told it would be a 2 hour wait for a table. We just looked at each other and said Merry Christmas and ended up going through a drive through...we all still smile about it and it is now part of those "REmember that time.." moments.

It is windy and rainy and a day I will now be doing some decorating and whatever else appears on the agenda.
I hope you all have a good day and get some moments to relax.

[maxie]

It has rained here all afternoon. We did make it to the cemetery but did not stay in the rain and cold. Then we drove on to Koh's and Jon parked while I ran in to look for the tea set. The checkout line went all the way to the back of the store and then wound around. OMG! I will never stand in a line like that to save a couple of dollars. Came home and wrapped a package and did not have any tags so he drove me walmart and I ran in and then they let me check out at a back register so I was in and out before he found a place to park. I sure cannot complain about my son today. Tonight I will watch the hockey game and try to make an on line order to finish up my shopping...also need to order coffee. I cannot find my flavor in the stores around here and hate to always be asking my sister to pick it up. So now I am going back in to wrap . The first credit card bill came in today so I want everything all wrapped and pretty before I open that bill and am tempted to return everything and cancel Christmas! Getting cold and rain not stopping with maybe snow on Sunday. Karlinann do not tell me winter isn;t here yet...we have shoveled it twice already!! But I will take a shipment of that 75*....