Stuffed with Blessings

 I hope you all survived the Thanksgiving feast and are now rested and still stuffed. We had a fabulous day surrounded by family and you can't ask for anything more. 

To top it all off, we went today (2 days after the big meal) to a seafood restaurant and pigged out again! Looks like we'd learn. hehe. 

And, of course, this is big Football time for all us college football fans. Sorry to see Texas A&M lose. Was thrilled that the Navy midshipmen won. They have a great team this year. And, tonight we watch the Iron Bowl (Alabama and Auburn) slug it out on the field. Half my family roots for Alabama, the other half for Auburn. Makes for interesting dynamics around here! This will be one game I WILL NOT MISS! 

I certainly hope that all of you that celebrate Thanksgiving had a wonderful one. For those of you in other areas of the world, I hope you were blessed, too. We all have so much to be thankful for. 

Thanksgiving Week Festivities

 

                            Let the thanks begin!!

Son Michael arrived last night from Alabama to spend Thanksgiving week with me (and other family members). 

Of course, his little Sadie came along, too. She was so happy to see me as I was her. 

Tomorrow we will celebrate a large gathering of residents and others here at the Commons at our Friendsgiving feast. That will be lot of fun and tons of good food. 

On Thursday (Turkey Day) we go to my granddaughters where the family will stuff themselves once again. Gee, I wonder what the scales are gonna read when we all go to weigh ourselves come Friday morning!! 

I am so thankful for family, friends, food and being blessed beyond measure. 

A Halloween Kind of Week

 It's been a wild week so far around here. I got notice Monday that the apartment building was going to be power washed. Lordy, it needed it!! Don't you think!!!!

We were to remove everything from our balconies. So, I got busy and tugged and pulled til I got a bartop table, 2 barstools, a small table, 2 planters, a rug and other sundry things off my balcony and they are now in my small living room, along with what I already had in there.

The company got started but then the rain came and they ran for cover. So, days later I still am waiting for a clean outside so I can put my stuff back in place. What a mess~

One night we had power surges that caused the lights to go out. Everytime, it would play havoc with my electrical gadgets in the apartment. Kept me awake a lot.

Then last night the lady that lives over me kept me awake... at 3 a.m. she was up moving around, dropping things. It sounded like she was packing to leave.... and come to think of it, I wouldn't mind! 

Although I am griping about my little annoyances I am praying for those poor people in Jamaica. 

It's so devastating!

As I have mentioned before, my hands are just about shot. I have always been a creative person and you can't create without your hands. So, I've had to curb a lot of the things I love to do. Knitting, crocheting, writing letters, etc. I still do paint and type in smaller amounts of time.

I get bored, folks! I saw some really cute embordiery pieces on facebook for sale and thought I might could handle that. The kit came the other day, hoop, printed fabric, a needle and thread. And.... it's been days and I still have not picked that thing up and made one stitch. 

Oh, I'll get around to it.... I promise and then I'll share with you what I did! 

Have a happy Halloween! 

Thanksgiving Feast

                                                              Whew!

Thanksgiving is over. Not that I had anything much to do to prepare for it. Time for the younger gals to take over, don't you think? 

Our Virginia family got together on the Eastern Shore on Saturday. I am just amazed, always, at such great cooks that abound in this family. I ate way too much. And, I have leftovers in my fridge for dinner tonight! Lucky gal that I am!

With the granddaughter that hosted the affair suffering from alphagal (I think I spelt that correctly) she can not be in the house where products from hoofed animals are being cooked nor can she eat them. So, she baked the turkey. We had to have the classic green-bean casserole and she did that as well. But, she made her own 'cream of mushroom soup' not using any cream. (That comes from a hoofed animal). I'll tell you about alphagal in another post. 

The pictures will tell the tale. And, we watched football. I mean, with Shirley rooting for Auburn and I am an Alabama fan... we could not miss the Iron Bowl. (if you aren't into college football, you won't understand).

There was a roaring fire going in the fireplace which I sat close to to soak up all that warmth and the feel a fire gives you. The host's sister and her daughter dropped by bringing a 6 week old little bunch of love. I just had to hold him! And, he smiled and cooed at me... at 6 weeks. I was thrilled. Still have the magic touch I guess. hehe.

I even snuck in a few minutes of reading by the fire before the 'crowd' arrived. I am reading 'Along Came A Spider' the first in a series of James Patterson's books with Alex Cross as the main character. The resident dogs lay quietly nearby.

After dinner was over my great-grandson entertained us all with his piano playing. He is naturally gifted and has not had any piano lessons but can rattle off a Beathoven as well as the Charlie Brown theme with the best of them. 

It was quite a day. Night fell and we headed home which is an hour and a half from there to my apartment. I was bushed when I got home. I bet I was in bed (curled up with my book) before Shirley and John had driven out of the city limits. 

                       Hope all of you have had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

A Time to be Thankful

 May each of you (in the U. S.) have a very special day of Thanksgiving

The Commons Thanksgiving

 This is Thanksgiving week here in the U. S. Lots of family get-togethers, lots of travel, too much good eating. A time to be thankful for all we have. 

Last Friday night a large number of us residents here at the Commons had our Thanksgiving dinner. Such good food. The staff furnished the turkey and gravy. The residents filled in with pot luck dishes. 

I seem to be the 'resident photographer'. At least that's the position I seem to have fallen into. Not that I mind!! Love taking pictures. Just wish I was better at it. 

The tables were all set with pretty centerpieces. 

Residents busy setting out desserts. 

as you can see we had plenty of variety.

People in the buffet line. 

We were all so thankful to have each other! 

Thanksgiving in New York

 I am a Southern gal. When I was growing up during the Great Depression (I wonder why they called it great?) we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. After I married and had kids, we started our own traditions of turkey and cornbread dressing and sweet potatoes covered in toasted mini marshmallows. 

Every part of the country has it's own feast traditions, I guess. And, my Long Island raised son-in-law, who does the Thanksgiving dinner at their house, fixes the Thanksgiving meal like he grew up with. 

We had turkey all right... but I never in my life 'stuffed' a bird to cook it. Back home our cornbread dressing was made in a casserole dish or baking pan. 

                      Kevin got busy with his prep work early on Thanksgiving day. 

He never uses a recipe and often ends up making way too much food because he loves creating dishes he dreams up in this head or tries to replicate from food he's eaten other places. 

I missed my cornbread dressing. His was chopped fruits, chestnuts and a small amount of bread cubes.

    We also had a ham and that was my choice of meat! 

Owen, their middle son, loved the 'southern' sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows. And, we had green beans but they don't cook them long enough to suit me. I love good ole southern-style green beans that's cooked well-done with chunks of bacon and maybe a tad of onion in the pot. 

I requested a dish from several Thanksgivings ago, parsnips and carrots cooked together. I like that combination but parsnips were not something I had eaten until Kevin introduced them to me. 

Do you know we never got a picture of the food on the table or of us all gathered around it! But I guarantee it was yummy and we all were as stuffed, when we finished, as that turkey had been before it was cooked. 

There's something about family and gathering together to celebrate the harvesting of good food and the great ways we have to prepare and cook it these days. 

And, being thankful for all the blessings that we have, individually and collectively.

It was another memorable holiday for us all.

Happy Thanksgiving