Thursday 13: The Thanksgiving Edition

 Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 

I’ve been meaning to get back to participating in Thursday 13 for a while, and my last few posts have been a little on the negative side, so I decided a Thanksgiving Thursday 13 was in order.  I don’t normally write out a thankful list like this, but it seems appropriate this year.  So, here are 13 things I’m thankful for right now.

1.    First and foremost, that we didn’t lose anyone we love to Hurricane Helene.

2.    That we didn’t lose our home to Hurricane Helene.

3.    For the friendships I’ve made via blogging. 

4.    For my blog friends who contributed to our GoFundMe.  I never would have thought that people I’ve never met in real life would have helped us get our furnace fixed.  Thank you.  I don’t think you’ll ever know how much it means to me.

5.    My granny’s pumpkin pie recipe.  She made the best pumpkin pie, and it makes me happy to make it for other people now.

6.    Our neighbors.  I feel like we won the lottery when it comes to neighbors.

7.    That the groundhogs survived the storm.  They’re hibernating now, but they were alive and well (and getting very chubby) through the end of October. 

8.    That Nick no longer has to work on Thanksgiving.  I’m so glad I don’t end up spending the holidays alone now.

9.    For my new sister-in-law.  I love her for how happy she makes my sister AND because she’s an awesome person.

10. For the cats.  A purring cat is one of the best sounds in the world.

11. For the local library.  The librarians are awesome, the building reminds me of the library we went to when I was a child, and it’s pure joy to go there.

12. For modern conveniences.  Electricity and running, potable water are wonderful things to have.

13.  For the adorable chickens that come over for their snacks.  

Catching Up

Thank you all for your kind comments about Howard.  I love that people who never met him enjoyed his pictures and personality.  He really was a very special cat.

Since I didn’t blog at all in October or November, I’ll share some highlights to catch you up.

Our neighbors did tons of great Halloween decorations, including a miniature cemetery in their front yard.  There were “tombstones” for everyone on our section of the street.

Here’s mine:

Caroline is definitely our most temperamental cat and takes tortitude to a whole new level.

And here’s Nick’s:

We also did a neighborhood Halloween event on the last Sunday in October.  It was surprisingly warm that day, so we sat outside by one of the neighbor’s fire pits.  I made a huge batch of chili, and our neighbor Lori made jalapeno popper bread and desserts. 

Three of the adults (including Nick) and two of the older kids went to a haunted farm.  The other three adults (including me), one of the older kids who wasn’t feeling well, and the two younger kids stayed behind to watch Hocus Pocus. 

Everyone had a great time, and it worked out well that some people wanted to do the haunted farm while some of us weren’t into that kind of thing at all.  We’re talking about making it an annual thing. 

I’ve struggled some with getting into the holiday spirit since we lost Howard, but I knew I wouldn’t be happy skipping Thanksgiving, so we had our usual huge Thanksgiving.

Since our fridge is a little bit smaller than the old one, I had Thanksgiving food stashed in four different mini-fridges at work the week before.  The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I took several things we wouldn’t need over the holiday weekend and left them at work to make sure we had room for all of the Thanksgiving stuff. 

I took the day before Thanksgiving off to do all of the baking.  I couldn’t fit all of the desserts and sweet potato bread on the table, so there are two pictures. 

As usual, Nick did a lot of cleaning.  I’m a very messy cook, so helping clean up when I do that much cooking is a massive job.  At one point, he was dashing into the kitchen with the vacuum or Swiffer every time I left it.  And one of the neighbor kids very sweetly came over and helped out with some food prep and cleaning on Wednesday night. 

The day before Thanksgiving is always my highest step count for the year!

We took Thanksgiving dinner to the hospice house for lunch.  As always, they were so kind and made me cry.  There’s a nurse we’ve seen for the past several years, and she hugged both of us and was just incredibly nice.

After we dropped the food off there, we went home and finished getting ready for our Thanksgiving dinner that evening.  I almost forgot to get any pictures of the food until someone else mentioned taking pictures, so I only got two not-so-great pictures of the food.  We had food and desserts on nearly every available surface.

We had a total of 14 people: all of the neighbors on our end of the street and some friends from Nick’s job.  Everyone ate, talked, and played games.  It was everything I love about Thanksgiving.  As usual, we had tons of leftovers, so no one had to cook for the next couple of days.  After everyone left, Nick and I were talking about how you can always tell whether or not it’s someone’s first Thanksgiving at our house by whether or not they bring storage containers for leftovers.  No one does the first time, but everyone does the next time. 

We also had an inflatable Thanksgiving decoration this year.  I bought him on sale after Thanksgiving last year.  His name is Gregory.  Good for you if you get the reference to the Doris Day movie, “By the Light of the Silvery Moon.”  I’m hoping to add more Thanksgiving decorations every year. 

Frankie absolutely loves the box that Gregory came in.

I’m not sure how he managed to stuff himself inside the box, but he happily hung out in it for hours at a time. 

So what about you?  How were your October and November?  And how were your fall holidays?  

Thursday 13

 1.    We’re still working on getting Howard’s blood sugar under control.  It was 419 yesterday, so still very high.  Dr. D. is consulting with Dr. V. (the specialist we like, Duke saw her for his Cushing’s Disease).

 

2.    I did successfully give Howard some of his insulin injections over the long weekend.  The only tears shed were mine. 

3.    Nick and Howard (and, to some extent, Frankie) deserve the credit for my injection giving.  Nick was incredibly patient in walking me through it.  Howard is such a sweetie about it and everything, really.  And Frankie very sweetly cuddled up with Howard (I think for moral support) the second time I did it.

4.    I’m still pretty nervous about giving Howard his injections, but I know I can do it now.

5.    My car was ready to be picked up from the body shop on Tuesday, and I was delighted to return Satan’s SUV to Enterprise and start driving my car again.

6.    We tried a pineapple cheese casserole for the first time over the long weekend.  Nick wasn’t a fan.  He thought the texture was a little weird.  I loved it!  I think I’m going to make one with Thanksgiving dinner this year. 

 

7.    For anyone else counting down, Thanksgiving is only eleven weeks away!

8.    Yes, I am already thinking about Thanksgiving and getting excited about all of the cooking and fun.

9.    I’ve been crocheting again.  I hadn’t done it in over a year.  After making so many mask adapters in 2020/2021, I was a little burned out.  I didn’t mean to take such a long break, but things got busy, as they so often do.

 

10. Now that I’m back to crocheting again, there are so many projects I want to try.  If only my talent matched my ambition!

11. My job has given us the option to request a third work-from-home day.  We’re currently allowed two, which I opted to take.  I wasn’t sure about taking a third telework day, but one of my coworkers pointed out that I wouldn’t be penalized for getting it approved and not taking it.  So, I asked for it.  We’re still waiting to see if our requests are approved or not, so I’m not sure if I’ll get it. 

12. One of my coworkers and I decided to start a book club.  We both enjoy reading, and she has been struggling to meet people here, so we thought a book club might be fun.  We had our first meeting on Tuesday to choose a book.  There were only three of us (the other two had to cancel), but we enjoyed talking about different books and what we like to read.  I’m hopeful that this is going to be fun.

13. Our hydrangea is still blooming.  So is our yellow rose.  I know we won’t have things blooming much longer, so I’m very happy to see them right now.

 

 

What have you been up to this week? 

Ornaments

I know talking about ornaments in April seems a little bit weird, but I never seem to post much around the holidays and the closest thing I seem to have for a theme for the A to Z Challenge this year is “things I meant to post about but haven’t.”  That brings us to ornaments.

Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday, but Christmas is a pretty close second.  And I love Christmas ornaments!  My parents don’t celebrate any holidays, so as an adult, I tend to be a bit enthusiastic about them.  Or like a child in an adult’s body.

I got my first Christmas ornaments when I was 25, and my first Christmas tree when I was 26.  I had moved out and started exchanging Christmas gifts with co-workers and friends before then, but never got a Christmas tree when I lived alone.  It didn’t seem worth it, and I wasn’t even entirely sure how one went about getting and decorating a Christmas tree.  I think that’s one of those things most people learn as kids and take for granted as adults. 

I’ve loved ornaments ever since Nick gave me my first one.  I think the butterfly is so pretty.

My boss, Ginger, gave me this cupcake ornament when I left my job in SC to take a job in NC. 

Nick’s mom gave me this one in 2018, so I got a hippopotamus for Christmas.  Is the song stuck in your head now?

Not technically an ornament, but Nick’s mom also gave me hippopotamus lights for Christmas.  And they’re pink, which makes me ridiculously happy.

Our friend Martha gave us this one the first Christmas after we were married.  She started looking for it right after our wedding to find one with the right dress and tux. 

Our friend Alex gave us this one.  I call it the Thanksgiving ornament.  That means I really like it.

Of course, we have lots of firefighter-themed ornaments since Nick volunteered with the fire department for so long.

This isn’t technically an ornament, but it is a Christmas decoration.  My old coworker EJ gave this to me for Secret Santa several years ago.  Some people thought it was weird, but I love it. 

We usually try to get an ornament on our yearly vacation.  Except for 2016.  We weren’t planning to get an ornament that year anyway, since it’s a year we both want zero reminders of.  Leaving vacation early as part of a hurricane evacuation sealed the deal on not getting an ornament that year.

This one is from when we went to Atlanta in 2012.  It’s from Coca-Cola World.

Quite a few of ours are beach and/or South Carolina-themed.  We do love going to Folly Beach for vacation.

I love getting ornaments.  I love picking them out, and I love when other people give them to us.  It makes me happy to think of the stories that go with them every year when we hang them up.  I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being given special ornaments.  I don’t have ornaments or decorations from childhood, so I appreciate being given them now.  The stories that go with them may not be old stories, but they’re part of my holiday story. 

What are your favorite ornaments? 

A Long Catch-Up Post

 I know it wasn’t a very realistic hope, but I was kind of hoping that things would be a little more normal by the time I posted again.  Nope.  Not even close.  It seemed like North Carolina started off fairly strong, compared to neighboring states, in taking COVID precautions.  But now, despite all of the pleas from the experts, we seem to be on a crash course to disaster.  I don’t know of anyone now who hasn’t had a close friend, family member, or co-worker have COVID.  But enough about COVID.

Duke

We painted and re-did the floor in our kitchen in October.  We postponed our annual Folly Beach trip to next year, but still took the week off of work. We both have a lot of paid time off accumulated, so we decided to take the week and do the kitchen project.  

And that’s probably the last house project we’ll do for quite a while!  It took much longer, and was much harder than we expected.  You know how people complain that romantic comedies paint an unrealistic picture of relationships?  Well, I think that’s nothing compared to the lies Lowe’s and Home Depot are selling in their commercials.  The couples in those always look so happy during their projects.  They have on nice clean clothes and are smiling at each other.   There’s none of the covered in sawdust and paint and seriously re-thinking being married to someone who wants to blast whiney 80s music, or doesn’t know the name of every single tool.  Anyway, that’s my take on who sets couples up for unrealistic expectations.  

Fortunately, both of us, and our marriage, survived the kitchen project.  Here’s a progress picture.  I haven’t taken a finished picture yet because I only think about it once I’ve started cooking, and I’m so messy, I don’t want to take a picture of that.  You can at least see the colors.  Almost everything was a very ugly beige before.  

Painting in progress.

I’m still crocheting mask adapters/extenders.  There was a lull in people asking for them for a while, but people have started asking for them again, so I’ve been making and mailing them.  If you need one, let me know in the comments.  

Mask Adapters

We had a health scare with Tara in October.  It turns out that she has bladder crystals and has to be on a special diet.  She had to have an ultrasound to look for crystals (which the vet suspected) or stones, and to rule out any kind of mass.  Due to COVID, the vet’s office isn’t allowing people into the office, so we had to wait in the parking lot when Tara had her ultrasound.  One of the vet techs came out as soon as it was finished and told us, unofficially, that there were no masses, but the vet would be out later to tell us that officially and talk to us.  I wanted to hug her!  Every other time we’ve had a pet have an ultrasound, the news has been devastating, so we were pretty nervous.  I thought it was so sweet of her to come out and tell us the good news right away.

Tara has to be on a special diet, and we’re limiting her stress.  She’s a very timid cat, and is afraid of almost everything, so limiting her stress isn’t the easiest thing.  It has taken a lot of trial and error, but we seem to have figured out the food situation for her.  There are three different kinds she likes, for a few days at a time, so we have small bowls of all three brands of dry food out for her, and we alternate the brand of wet food every day or two.  Tara is also currently living in our bedroom, away from the other cats.  She seems to have no desire to leave!  Howard goes in and hangs out with her (and eats the special food he’s not exactly supposed to have) every day.  For now, it seems to be working.  We’re tossing around ideas for later on, but for the moment, she’s happy in the bedroom.

Doesn't she look happy?

We didn’t host Thanksgiving this year.  I was very disappointed about that, but I believe we made the right choice.  We did still get to drop off the meal for the hospice house, though.  I wasn’t sure if they would want us to, so I wanted until the week before to ask, since things seem to change so quickly.  The lady I always coordinate with was incredibly nice.  She said a few people had asked if I was bringing the meal, so that made me happy.  They aren’t allowing volunteers inside, but said that as long as we were okay dropping the food off at the door, while wearing masks, they would love to have the meal.  We were more than happy to do it that way.  We now have an uninterrupted streak since 2016, so I was thrilled not to miss a year.

Everything went smoothly with the drop off.  We’re normally able to use a cart they have, but couldn’t this year, so there were a lot of trips back and forth to the car, but nothing was spilled or forgotten.  We ended up talking to a very nice lady in the parking lot.  She was nice, but made me cry.  I’d like to go one year without crying! 

Two older couples that we’re friends with were also staying home for Thanksgiving, so I offered a drop-off/pickup of food for them since I was already cooking and it’s practically impossible to cook Thanksgiving dinner for only two.  One couple came and picked up desserts.  We talked for a few minutes through the glass door, which was strange, but also nice.  The other couple lives just down the street from us, so we dropped off desserts and sides, and they sent some different desserts and sides home with us.  It was a fairly warm day, so we sat out on their patio, six feet apart, in masks, and talked for a while.  Again, it was weird, but nice to see them. 

Like so many people, our Christmas plans look very different this year.  We’re not doing our usual trip to my sister’s.  We talked to her and to Nick’s mom and step-dad and all agreed to forego gifts this year, since we can’t be together, and plan for an insanely huge celebration next year.  Everyone was happy with that idea, so it’s nice that we’re all in agreement.  I imagine it would be very stressful if the people you normally celebrate with are taking a different approach from you.  

We haven’t even put up our Christmas tree this year.  Neither one of us felt especially motivated to on Thanksgiving weekend (when we normally put it up), and then we were sick (NOT COVID, we both had negative tests) for a while after that.  Then it just reached the point of not being worth it to drag everything out for such a short time.  It’s weird not having the tree up, but that’s 2020.  I did put up some wreaths on the doors, and we’ve been listening to Christmas music, so there’s some Christmas spirit here.  

The only Christmas shopping I’ve done has been for my chemo/senior buddies.  Their packages have all been shipped and delivered.   Caroline helped with the wrapping and packaging.  I decided on mostly small things that would fit in a stocking, so I hope they like everything.  We also did a family package for my buddy who’s married and has a young son and a dog (the dog toys were from Duke and the cats to her dog).  I asked Nick’s mom if the family package would be weird, and she said it wouldn’t.  Hopefully they’ll like it.  We included a DVD of Home Alone in it, which the kids next door LOVED, when they were the same age as her son, so we’re hoping his taste is similar.  

Caroline "helping"

I’m still working from home, as it seems a lot of you are.  I’ve worked from home longer than I worked in the office before we shut down.  And it has already been over a year since I started the new job!  I still love it, even if it’s a little weird working from home, so I’m so glad I made the switch last year.  

I think those are the highlights of what I’ve been up to since the last time I posted.  So what about you?  Any home projects?  Are you working from home?  What have you been up to for the past couple of months?  

I’m almost certain I won’t post again before Christmas, so I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas, or a happy holiday.  I hope you’re all safe and well.

Unpopular Opinions

Don’t worry, this post isn’t going to be overly negative.  I got the idea from a post Bijoux did recently, and thought it might be interesting to see how my unpopular opinions compare to yours.

I’ll start with what’s probably the most controversial opinion first.

1.  I don’t like chocolate.  I like white chocolate, though most diehard chocolate fanatics maintain that white chocolate is not chocolate.  I don’t like candy bars, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, or even something not chocolate with just a little chocolate.  Chocolate sprinkles on a sundae ruins the whole thing for me, chocolate syrup drizzled on cheese cake ruins the whole thing for me.  I just don’t like it.

2.  I prefer Thanksgiving to Christmas.  This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has ever visited my blog in November, or spent more than about five minutes around me in November.  Don’t get me wrong, I do love Christmas, but I love Thanksgiving more.

3.  I firmly believe that towels should be rolled rather than folded.  It works better than folding when all of your towels aren’t the same size, it makes it easier to get a specific towel, and it doesn’t leave weird creases in your towels.  I could go on (and on, and on, and on), but I won’t.

Caroline agrees that rolled towels are better than folded towels.

4.  I greatly prefer Miracle Whip to mayonnaise.  I’m not sure if that’s a big deal everywhere, but in the south, it’s practically a form of treason.

5.  I can’t stand Seinfeld.  I do not understand its appeal.  That show is like nails on a chalkboard for me. 

6.  I usually prefer the plain/original version of things.   I think plain Coke is a million times better than any of the other flavors.  I love vanilla ice cream!

7.  I hate two-door cars.  It’s such a pain to get pets or people in and out of the backseat.  It’s a pain to put anything in the backseat, and it’s a pain to vacuum back there.  To top it all off, they’re not even cheaper than a four-door car.  I just feel like if you’re paying for the whole car, you should get the whole car.

8.  I love Velveeta cheese.  I know everyone loves to hate it, but in my opinion, it’s the best thing for purely comforting, melty goodness.  It’s like a bowl full of perfectly melted, delicious happiness.

9.  I’m a page folder.  I don’t like bookmarks.  I’d much rather just fold down the corner.  I don’t do it to someone else’s book, but if it’s my own, or a library book and someone else has folded the pages, I absolutely fold the pages. 

10.  I don’t like concerts.  I think I’d like them if there was a rule that no one could sing along or make noise, but it irritates me to spend a lot of money to hear an artist perform, only to hear fans destroying the music.  I’d rather just buy the music and listen to it at home whenever I want.

So what about you?  Do you agree with me on any of these?  What are your unpopular opinions?

As usual when I don’t have many pictures to go with the post, I’m just sharing a random assortment of pictures I like. 

Mortimer isn't bothered by my unpopular opinions.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I hope you’re all spending the day with the people you love the most, and will be enjoying a wonderful meal today. 

Safe travels, happy cooking, and best wishes for a truly wonderful day. 

Music Monday: Mary Chapin Carpenter - Thanksgiving Song

I think we’ve definitely established that Thanksgiving is absolutely my favorite holiday.  I also think Thanksgiving doesn’t get nearly the love it deserves.  This is the only Thanksgiving song I’ve been able to find.  Fortunately, I love this song!  I love the lyrics, and I think Mary Chapin Carpenter has an incredible voice.  If my favorite holiday only gets one song, I’m glad it’s this one.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and I hope things are coming together for you to have a wonderful Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving Menu Ideas

You may have noticed by now that I love Thanksgiving, and get really excited about it.  It’s a holiday all about cooking for and spending time with the people you love.  What’s not to love about it?

Sometimes, though, searching for good recipes can be a little overwhelming, so I thought I’d share links for some of my favorites.  Some of them are my recipes, and some are from other places. 

Obviously, the turkey is the main part of the traditional meal, so here’s my turkey recipe: 

Practically Fool-Proof Turkey

And you can read about my various misadventures with turkey here, in case you’d like a guide for what not to do. 

Some might argue that the side dishes are the most important part of the meal.  Here are a few of our favorites:

Green Bean Casserole.  I can’t stand this one, but Nick loves it, and I think it’s one that most people have come to expect at Thanksgiving.

Creamy Slow Cooker Macaroni & Cheese.  It’s creamy, delicious, and incredibly easy to make.  It’s also very helpful that it’s made in the Crock Pot since that frees up more oven space. 

Heavenly Mashed Potatoes.  This link is actually to The New Southern Garden Cookbook by Sheri Castle.  I don’t feel right posting a recipe if the author hasn’t made it available online.  I highly recommend this cookbook.  It has lots of great recipes, but it’s worth having for the mashed potatoes alone.  I didn’t think I liked mashed potatoes very much until I tried this recipe.  They are out of this world good, which I suppose is why she named the recipe Heavenly Mashed Potatoes.

Kale Salad With Red Grapes.  Don’t let the fact that this sounds fairly healthy turn you off.  It’s delicious! 

Watergate Salad.  I think is technically a dessert, but it does have salad in the name, so classify it however you want.  No judgment here.

Speaking of desserts, it just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without them.

Pumpkin Pie.  It’s probably the most traditional Thanksgiving dessert.  It’s also one of my favorites.

Cherry Crunch.  This was a surprisingly big hit last year at Thanksgiving, so I’ll be making it again. 

Apple Crisp.  This is delicious and easy.  Perfect for a day when there’s already a lot of cooking and baking going on.

Fresh Apple Cake.  This cake is amazingly delicious, and just seems like the ultimate dessert for Fall.  The link mentions cream cheese frosting, but don’t do that.  You’ll want to use the Browned Butter Frosting.  Trust me!

Browned Butter Frosting.  This is the end all, be all of frosting.  If you’ve never had browned butter frosting, do yourself a favor, and make it.  Right now!  It’s amazingly good!  It’s rich, creamy, decadent, has a slightly nutty flavor, and pairs perfectly with the apple cake.  

Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake & Frosting.  I can’t personally vouch for this one, since I don’t like chocolate.  I can tell you, however, that everyone seems to love it.  I make this cake (or the cupcakes) several times a year, and it’s always very popular.  

Apple Cake & Browned Butter Frosting on Back Left

Banana Pound Cake.  It may not be a very traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but it’s still delicious, and always a crowd pleaser.

So what about you?  What are your favorite Thanksgiving recipes?  Is there a certain dish that’s always on your Thanksgiving menu?