Transition From Thanksgiving To Christmas

Time always seem to fly, but the weeks from Thanksgiving to New Year’s seem to go especially fast.  I think it has something to do with moving so quickly from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

It’s beginning to look like Christmas here.  We’ve put the tree up.  On a side note, Caroline has been surprisingly good about not destroying it.  I’m just hoping she continues the good behavior.
We’ve also put up a few Christmas lights.  We don’t normally put any up because we don’t have outlets outside, but our neighbors put lights inside their living room windows, and it looks really nice.  Our houses have the same basic plan, so we copied their idea.  The fall wreaths are still up.  I need to find some replacement pieces for one of our Christmas wreaths, so those haven’t gone up yet.  Hopefully this weekend.

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  It was the second time in the ten years that Nick and I have been together that he didn’t have to work, and it was so nice to have him home.  We were able to go together to take te dinner to the hospice house, which was a nice experience.

I took off the Wednesday before, and baked pretty much all day.  Howard and Caroline had a vet appointment in the morning, but other than that my day was spent baking.  I made three pumpkin pies, thirty chocolate cupcakes, cherry crunch, blueberry crunch (taken to the vet’s office for a pre-Thanksgiving dessert), and two apple cakes.

I also got started on making sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes in an effort to help things go smoothly on Thanksgiving Day. Nick peeled all of the potatoes (a little over 15 pounds between home and hospice) and basically handled keeping the dishwasher emptied so we could mostly clean as I cooked.

One of my coworkers made four pies (two pumpkin, a blueberry, and a cherry) for the hospice Thanksgiving, and dropped them off with us on Thanksgiving morning.  I made an apple cake and chocolate cupcakes to add some more variety.  The dinner menu consisted of turkey, gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls.  Unfortunately, I got a little behind and didn’t get the ham done in time to take there.  I felt a little bad about that, but I think there was probably still plenty of food.
We took everything in disposable pans, and brought disposable plates and cutlery.  Our goal was easy cleanup for them.

The people at the hospice house were incredibly nice.  A few of the nurses hugged us, and some of the family members were filling plates and saying the food looked and smelled good when we left.  They made me cry.  I didn’t cry until we got outside, but they get me every time.  If you’ve been there, you know what it’s like.  Hospice is an incredible organization, but it’s just still heartbreaking to be there.  A turkey dinner is a very small thing for someone going through that.  It was nice to have Nick with me this time, and he’s pretty good at dealing with the fact that I cry pretty much anytime I go there.  At least it was mostly a good cry this time.

We came home from the hospice house, ate a quick lunch, and got to work on the Thanksgiving preparations for our dinner that evening.  Our menu was essentially the same as what we took, with the addition of ham.  For desserts we had two pumpkin pies, apple cake, chocolate cupcakes, and a cherry crunch.

We invited a few friends and neighbors over, and gave people the option of just coming for dessert.  Our neighbors and a friend came.  We didn’t have many guests as we were expecting due to illness and changes in plans, but we had a wonderful time with the people who were able to come.

Our neighbors brought us the adorable Thanksgiving decoration in the picture.  I just love it.  Pretty much every available surface in our kitchen, dining area, the chest freezer, and washing machine were covered in food and drinks.  No one left hungry.

We go for very informal, so basically we all sat around talking, eating, and making silly videos with the kids for hours.  It was wonderful.  We sent leftovers home with everyone and still barely managed to fit everything in the fridge.

You can probably guess that I didn’t do much of anything on Friday.  We ate leftovers, watched Miracle on 34th Street, and did a little online shopping.  It was nice to have the lazy day after all of the activity the day before.  We put the Christmas tree up on Saturday, and went to Lowe’s for Christmas lights.

Our Christmas shopping is mostly finished, but I haven’t wrapped anything yet.  This year Nick and I decided not to buy anything for each other for our birthdays or Christmas.  Instead, we’re planning to take a trip to somewhere warm during the winter, after the holidays.  This is the first year we’re trying it, so we’ll see how it goes.  I think it will be good.  I love the idea of a warm weather getaway during one of the dreary, cold weeks.  And our house is fairly small, so not accumulating more stuff is always a good thing.

So what about you?  How was your Thanksgiving?   Does it look like Christmas at your house?

I’ll leave you with Bing Crosby’s It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.