Hellooooo...

Surprise, I have NOT fallen off the face of the earth; it just seems that way!

The holidays are upon us. I cooked Thanksgiving dinner - 12 people, all family. I really enjoyed having everyone over. My youngest helped me get things ready. I was up at 6 and got the bird, nicknamed Big Delicious, prepped, stuffed and put in the oven. After that my blurry eyed youngest son came into the kitchen proclaiming "something smells great"! Awww, he is such a sweetie (his brother helped by sleeping in and giving us bonding time - LOL). He helped me peel potatoes and make the deviled eggs. He LOVES deviled eggs. While I mixed the filling he arranged the whites on a plate. After filling all the whites we had leftover filling, he tipped his head back, opened his mouth like a baby bird and I squeezed the remainder of the filling right into his open maw - he loved it!

Big Delicious came out brown and lovely! He really lived up to his name. YUMMY. We had all the traditional fare supplied by all of us, thank goodness I didn't have to make all this stuff (I just got to eat all of it)! Turkey, stuffing, mashed taters with gravy, corn, squash, coleslaw, rosa maria salad (fruit salad), dinner rolls, plus all the pre-dinner snacks! Cheese ball with pretzel crackers, crab dip, deviled eggs, and relish tray. Then the wonderfully sweet endings - pumpkin torte, cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, cheesecake, haystacks (my all time favorite) and a chocolate/caramel pie. I ate till I was as stuffed as the turkey!

We ate, played games, drew our Secret Santa names and watched football. The Detroit Lions have been dubbed "Un-motivatable" by our family. They are truly sad!!

My sister and I went shopping on Friday; but not with the real crazies who were out there at 5 am or earlier. We headed out around 9am, but got a few items purchased and a couple of deals. I also got all my Christmas decorations put up Saturday. The tree is decorated, the mantel is all decked out and my Christmas Village is beautifully displayed! I will have to get the pictures posted on here; that is my favorite thing I put out each year! I even have presents wrapped and under the tree - I am truly deranged - hahahahahahah! Not bad for a four day weekend!

Needless to say I am really tired tonight after going back to work today and driving on the super slippery roads back home this evening - we got about 4 inches of snow last night. I am getting ready for bed and am ready to snuggle under my wonderful 300 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets (I love these sheets) and go to sleep.

On an unrelated note: One of my cats Shere Khan had a badly swollen nose and it got me so worried I spent $100 hard earned Christmas dollars at the vet to get steroids and antibiotics plus a heart stopping warning from the vet tech hoping this wasn't "one of those weird cancer tumors" - sheesh, thanks a lot lady, way to keep the owner calm. My boys thought it was very funny that the cat was on steroids. "He'll really be able to claw things up now" they giggled. I'm glad to report his nose is back to normal and he isn't sneezing half as much.

Oh yeah - I also fixed my garbage disposal on Thanksgiving day!! Thanks to my sister for the wonderful book "You Can Do It" a woman's guide to home repair. You should have seen us high fiving each other in the kitchen - it was AWESOME!