As last week was approaching Thanksgiving Day and a houseful of company, I was surviving with a master list. On Tuesday evening I mixed up a batch of Monster Cookies and baked them Wednesday morning. I have never made them before. They have no flour!!! What?? I had no idea! Just oats, peanut butter, sugar, butter, etc, and lots of yummy stuff including chocolate chips and M&M's. I threw in a few peanuts too, which I will not add next time. Not everyone appreciates biting into a piece of peanut I discovered. But they were so chewy and scrumptious. I will definitely make them again.
I babysat Hunter too that day because daycare was closed, and made a pot of Middle Eastern Sweet Potato and Chickpea Stew. That evening we had a Thanksgiving Eve service at GBRV. Afterward we practiced our choir song for Sunday morning since we would of course not be having our regular practice on Thursday.
Bjorn and Jess arrived around 10 pm that evening. I felt honored that they wanted to spend so much time at Grandpa and Grandma's this year! I already had their beds made up (an air mattress on the floor and the comfy sofa), because I knew I would be heading for bed. I showed them the stew and the Naan bread (which they LOVED), the snack cupboard, etc, how to work the new remote control, and Dick and I hit the sack.
Unfortunately, the battle I had been waging against symptoms I'd been experiencing, had become completely unsuccessful by that day. I had to admit that I had indeed come down with a cold. The day after we had spent those four hours in the ER for Dick's vasculitis (on Sunday the 12th) I started feeling some stuffiness in my nose and scratchiness in my throat. So I waged war with all my remedies and was successful at warding them off for a week-and-a-half!! I could not believe how horrible I was beginning to feel Wednesday evening.
I actually didn't feel that bad on Thursday. It was somewhat of an odd Thanksgiving Day. We would not be having our main Thanksgiving meal that evening as we usually do, but rather on Friday, so more could join us. So Thanksgiving Day was actually unhurried for me. I made sausage and pancakes for our breakfast and worked on the things I could prep a day ahead, including the turkey. I know some people cannot imagine doing the turkey the day ahead, but it works for me. I also prepped our yam casserole, and made three pumpkin pies. For our dinner that evening I made a big pot of Paula Deen's Chicken Noodle Soup, bran muffins, and fruit salad. Actually Dick made the fruit salad.
Bjorn and Jess were such easy house guests. They sat at the table doing homework. Jess was making plans for early Black Friday shopping. We also talked and talked as we worked. At one point I was pulling out photo albums to show them my pictures over the years of Bjorn's visits to our house and ours to theirs. From time to time he would find pictures he would take pictures of and send to Miki or his dad.
They left for their shopping expedition around 6:00 pm after grabbing some chicken noodle soup. I had made it clear that there was not going to be a schedule to stick to this year.
Soon after they left Sam's family and Anthony's family arrived about the same time. I couldn't believe how much the kids loved warm bran muffins!
Bianca looked so cute in her knitted dress. They had been at Jenn's mom's Thanksgiving meal before they came here. I wish I had gotten a better picture of her.
All the boys in the toy corner.
They loved this bear that Bjorn and Jess brought back with them.
The Thanksgiving Day crew (before Bjorn and Jess got back.)
Jess got a polaroid camera! Sammy was having a ball waving those wet prints around to dry. Here's one he took of me!
When I woke up Friday morning my one ear was closed. Ugh. I hate that so bad. Jenn has been having issues with her one ear being closed also, so we could sympathize with each other.
Here are a few pics I took around here that day. I'm sure there were many more picture-worthy moments that day and all the rest of the days. Somehow, this year I did not do a good job of taking pictures. Maybe battling with my cold issues just interfered, I don't know. I feel sad for the many fun and funny things I will not remember because I didn't take pictures of them.
Look at Bianca's hair! She has such fine, unmanageable hair, complete with several pronounced cowlicks. AND she has a mind of her own that usually does not think that sitting still for a hair-fixing is worthy of her time. Enter Jess!!! She works at a daycare and is very used to three-year-olds. By some miracle she managed to have Bianca sit still while she put pigtails and a bow in her hair. AND Bianca was happy with it and did not rip everything out afterward!
Sam and Jenn took the kids to the mall for a while to get them out of the house. Sam said later that it was so nice to take Bianca out with her hair fixed, hahaha!! Jess, you're going to have to put a stop at Sam and Jenn's house every morning into your schedule!
I worked on the other dishes for our Thanksgiving dinner - green bean casserole, cranberry applesauce, baked corn, loaded mashed potatoes, and gravy. Over at Anthony and Lori's they were smoking a turkey, making crock pot stuffing, and apple crisp. Dick, Sam, and Jenn and the kids went over to their place a little earlier for some target shooting, but no one took pictures of that.
Over at Anthony's we got some tables ready for our crew of 18. Anthony and Lori's friends Emil and Tiff and their 2 little ones joined us. And Ray arrived too just in time for dinner. He had worked the night before and slept a few hours before driving here.
Meanwhile the kids had some fun.
We served the food buffet style in the kitchen. The adults ate in the dining room and the kids in the kitchen. I didn't get a picture of the children's table. I'm not even sure if they ever were all sitting down at the same time anyway.
I saw Bjorn put away three plates of food! But I don't think he had eaten all day until then. Everything really was scrumptious.
Even the beer, I guess, haha! I'm not crazy about everyone having a beer with Thanksgiving dinner, but I've discovered that, much to my surprise, people actually do not get drunk from a couple of beers, LOL! Not everyone grew up tee-totalers like Dick and I did.
Lori had put her apple crisp in the oven right as we started to eat. It came out later, all hot and juicy and crisp. I got one taste of it as I cleaned out the pan afterward. Jenn said later she had not had any. Those guys!! We should not have let them have first dibs! Next year I'm not going to bother with pumpkin pies. The apple crisp was so much better!
As we were cleaning up afterward no one was really watching Hunter. Grandpa found him up on top of the dining room table!
After things were all cleaned up and we were ready to go home I realized we had not taken a group photo. Lori had already taken Hunter up for his bath, but he wasn't undressed yet, so down they came down and we tried to get organized. Here's the progression. Anthony was working on getting my camera ready for a time-delayed picture.
All was going well until Hunter kicked Austin in the head. And was totally enjoying doing so, I might add.
Guess who did NOT think it was one bit funny!
So that was our crew this year. A few missing for sad reason.
Unfortunately Ray and Thyda have separated this fall. I know that's unbelievable to many of you who have followed them on my blog all these years. It's very sad, and I do not know what else to say at this point. It's their lives. I have listened to the pain and anger on both sides, and we have prayed and prayed. I will not be linking this blog post to Facebook, because I can't control the comments there as well as I can here on my blog. Of course your prayers are welcome.
I also really missed having Destiny here this year. First time ever that we weren't together for Thanksgiving. Ray was planning to pick her up and bring her along on Friday, but then something else came up for her. Destiny's life was rudely uprooted in August when her mom and her mom's boyfriend with whom Destiny lived, were arrested and put in jail. Destiny lived with Frank and Lauren for a while, but that never seems to work, unfortunately. So she has been living with her mom's sister and family, which I think is a good place for her to be. Unfortunately, Destiny had lost her birth certificate and was not allowed to visit her mom without it. Finally her replacement birth certificate arrived last week, and she of course wanted to visit her mom (for the first time since August) on Saturday. There was no way I would have wanted to get in the way of that. Destiny told me the visit was by phone with glass between them, which just breaks my heart. Please pray for this precious girl when she comes to mind.
Meanwhile, in Florida George and Lisa and Sophie were facing a different crisis. You may remember that Nilla Bean was recovering from knee surgery when we were there in October. That was her second knee surgery this year, complete with lots of pain meds. Apparently that caused an ulcer in her little stomach and she started vomiting blood. Several days in a veterinary hospital only saw even more decline. She was taking no sustenance and keeping nothing down. They really thought she was going to die. It was SO SAD!!
Originally they had planned to come up here for Thanksgiving week, and if they had, they would have been on their flight north when this first occurred, and that would have been in a doggy daycare. They were so thankful they had changed their plans! Lisa and Sophie did join Lori and Austin at Disney for one day while Nilla was in the hospital, as I mentioned in my previous post. On Thursday Nilla's doctors were talking off for the weekend and decided it would be better for Nilla to be at home for the weekend rather than being transferred to a new team of critical care doctors. They hoped that the love at home would be healing. And it WAS!!! She has not thrown up once since she's home, and she is getting her appetite and energy back again. It truly feels like a miracle! I took these screen shots from a video Lisa posted. Nilla's happy to be back home with Stella!
Now, on to the rest of our weekend. Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day. Dick and Sam got busy cutting down all our dead flowers and grasses. They also put up our outdoor Christmas lights.
Sammy and Bianca supervised from the back of the pickup truck!
Jenn made the most scrumptious veggie pizza. What a perfect way to serve raw veggies with the crust and Ranch cream cheese base.
Bjorn and Jess had to leave around noon that day because they had another Thanksgiving dinner to attend. At some point Dick, Ray, and Sam went over to Anthony's for some more target shooting. Ray had to leave after that.
Sam and Jenn had brought a Stouffer's lasagna, so we had that for our dinner along with the veggie pizza and some garlic toast.
In the evening the six of us went to the movies to see Wonder.
This is Bianca's happy face for the camera after she won this purple monkey from the claw machine, haha!
I continued to feel miserable because of my cold on Saturday and felt even worse Sunday morning. It seemed that my left ear had opened somewhat, but my right one was so closed. And I had developed more of a cough. I can play piano even with closed ears, and thankfully the congregational singing at GBRV is such that they don't even need me to sing. I just couldn't hear them that well, haha! I couldn't hear my choir very well either. Ugh!!!
Sammy went with us. There were a lot of children there that morning and they were asked to help hang the chrismons on the tree as each one was described. Sammy had just started eating a little container of Reece's Peanut Butter cereal that I'd brought along, so he agreed to hang just one, then he wanted to come back to me (actually to his snack, LOL!) I really wanted a picture of him at the tree, but I couldn't persuade him to do another one. So the only picture I got was this one when he was walking back from hanging his. (plaid shirt)
He looked so handsome in his plaid shirt. And so did Austin and Hunter in their shirts when Anthony and Lori came with them after the service at Calvary. BUT you'll just have to take my word for it, because I did not take another picture the whole rest of the day.
Dick left for the hunting cabin as soon as he had everything packed up after church. We ate leftovers for lunch, Sam and Jenn packed up and left for home, Anthony and Lori went to a movie, and Austin, Hunter, and I all took naps. An amazingly quiet afternoon. Not even the sound of football on TV in the background, haha! Anthony and Lori hung out for a while after they came back, and then they left for home too, and I was here all alone. And it was okay. I absolutely love being with people, especially our family, but occasionally I do like to be alone.
Now it's time to get everything else caught up that I neglected the past few days and to get all my Christmas music plans in place.
3 comments:
Wow! I thought I would be waiting a day to read the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend story. I sure hope you are feeling better as I am writing this. Colds are just downright miserable to cope with. Blessings to you! Prayers lifted!
Yuck on having a cold at Thanksgiving. They are so miserable. Bianca is so cute and I love her hairdo! I'm so saddened and surprised about Ray and Thyda. They've had to be separated so often because of the military and I don't think that helps. And poor Destiny too. As I've said before, she is blessed to have you and Dick as such a stable influence in her life. Praying for all of them! So glad Nilla Bean is improving!
I am so sorry about your not feeling well over this past holiday. Your home remedies have always worked in the past, but stress probably won out this time. Praying for you and your loved ones. Dick must be better since he left for the hunting cabin. That is good news.
My friend from Orlando called yesterday. Her husband had a similar problem with his legs last week and a wrong diagnosis caused more problems. I thought of Dick's experience. Patty's husband after three doctors, walked into a dermatologist's office and because he was wearing shorts, the doctor diagnosed him before he sat down. There are doctors, then there are more experienced doctors. Anyway, glad that Dick is doing well.
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