I am off work for the rest of the week.  I have to go have my new crown put on, so a trip to the dentist is in order.  Also, I am very glad to have some time to start the pre-cooking.  I have sausage balls to make, a new recipe for pumpkin fudge to try, and lots of other little details that need attention before the holiday.  So, I figured I better sit down and write out what I wanted to say now, in this calm before the storm or I might not get the chance.

I am thankful for so much.  I have been blessed...with good family and good friends.  With wonderful kids, a sturdy roof over my head and never knowing hunger on a personal basis.  Our cupboards are full of food, and our closets are full of clothes.  All of our needs and many of our wants have been fulfilled.  What more could I possibly wish for?  I like to count my blessings during Thanksgiving and really honor the day for the purpose it was intended.  But there is so much to be grateful for, it can hardly be contained in just a single day of the year.  

This year we will share our table with Jeanne, Calvin and the girls.  With Stephen and Hannia, and Hannia's parents.  Possibly a lab mate or 2 of Stephen's who aren't able to travel home so close to Christmas.  We are happy to share the feast with all of them.   

I hope all of you have a lovely holiday.  If you are traveling, stay safe.  And take a moment or two to count your blessings.  

I think the holiday madness has already begun. I had to run a lot of errands today and it was crazy out there.  I bought the majority of the Thanksgiving feast and the grocery store was packed. I had to go to the mall which is something that I have come to loathe and it was insane already.  Parking was hard to find, stores were crowded, lines were long.  But I needed to replace a pair of my favorite jeans that are seriously about to die.  They are a somewhat thinner denim, which is fantastic for people like me who feel way too overheated most of the time.  I couldn't find an exact duplicate since these are maybe 3 years old, but I got some that I hope will suffice.  But even checking out was complicated....there were several different prices, some kind of door buster sale where things are 1 price until 12, then another from 12-3..... I don't know.  It was weird and stupid and I just wanted to buy these jeans and get the hell out of there.  

Which brings me to the insanity of Black Friday.  Will you or won't you shop?  It's a definite HELL NO for me.  I can't imagine anything being worth the hassle.  We don't really need more stuff.  And seriously?  I would rather pay a few extra dollars and shop at some calm, uncrowded place and time.  I know people who are waiting for it though....the Black Friday sales.  I have a few friends who love it and have spent weeks of working out a strategy, poring over ads online that have been showing their holiday sales well in advance.  Planning to get up way before dawn to go out and get right into the middle of the madness.  It makes my stomach hurt to think about it.

Not me, though.  I plan to spend my Friday eating turkey day leftovers, cleaning up the crazy aftermath of holiday cooking and just hanging out with family.  Maybe we will go see a movie....any suggestions?

It's a week away from Turkey Day!!  I will miss Erica dreadfully, as she hasn't made it home for Thanksgiving in several years now.  But we will go on with the celebrations anyway.  There WILL be roasted turkey, and all the trimmings.  The Overcashes WILL be here, as well as Hannis's parents.  There WILL be a bonfire.  And we WILL be thankful for all of our blessings, which are too many to count.  Seriously, we are ALL blessed with ridiculous amounts of good stuff...

And soon, in just over 3 weeks or so...Erica WILL be with us again and Christmas will be another celebration.  And I will count having her home with us as one of my blessings.  

So, I may have mentioned that we found a new dentist about a year ago.  This after realizing our old one was just awful.  Apparently a truly GOOD dentist?  Not as common as one might hope.  But anyway we love Dr. H.  We have spent crazy money this past year for Dr. H to fix the crappy dentist crappy work.  And Dr. H loves...apparently my husband.  He goes on and on about what a perfect patient Bruce is.  How he holds as still as a statue for hours on end and never complains....I was feeling some competitive pressure here.  I mean, geez.  

But anyway, I have had some crowns done and a bridge done in the past.  Granted it's been a long time, but I have been through the process and survived just fine.  Yesterday I was scheduled to get 2 crowns done.  And I don't know what happened.  I might have been the worst patient ever.  Everything he did made me have this reflex gag that I could not seem to control.  It took him 3 tries to get impressions made.  I gagged and moved and it ruined the first 2 attempts.  Then the X-rays.  More gagging, more moving, and several attempts before they could get a decent picture.  Oh my Lord I was horrified, mortified, and frustrated.  I have never had that happen.  But if anything touched my tongue, or the roof of my mouth it all spun out of my control!  They finally got the impressions and X-ray, but by that time Dr. H made an executive decision....he only did 1 crown yesterday and sent me home with a Valium prescription to take before the next appointment.  Which I will in hope that it helps.  

The way that we finally got this done was Dr. H finally told me that sometimes holding your left foot in the air and concentrating on rotating your ankle slowly helps.  I am sure it looked silly but it worked enough that we finally were able to get the 1 crown prep work done.  I was fine after that.  I didn't flinch or have any problems at all once he started the drilling part of it.  I even made it through the final impressions where the tray of goo has to stay in your mouth for 3-4 minutes just fine.   All my shame happened at the beginning of the appointment.  But seriously?  If he had tried to do both crowns at once, we may still be back there trying.....

Next time?  Valium!  I hope it helps!

Thanksgiving is my son Stephen's favorite holiday, even more than Christmas.  He just loves the full on celebration of food.  Of turkey!  And cranberry sauce!  Do NOT even think of decorating for Christmas before you show that Turkey some respect.  It's just wrong, disrespectful even.  One Thanksgiving, when the kids were really young, and I was working full time and lots of family members were coming for the holiday....I made the executive decision to go OUT for Thanksgiving.  We went to River Forest Manor, a beautiful old plantation house in Bath, NC to enjoy their holiday buffet.  We went there sometimes for Easter, which nobody seemed to mind.  But for Thanksgiving???  I think it scarred Stephen for life.

If I remember correctly, the food was perfectly fine. But things just were wrong all the way around.  At the last minute, Lila (grandma) got upset and decided she didn't want to eat out, so both Grandparents opted out of dinner.  And Stephen?  He whined and complained and bitched for most of the coming year.  Seriously.  There was NO pie at home.  No leftover turkey.  It was an abomination.  I don't recall Erica being nearly as traumatized.  She doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK at all, and she seems to be able to go on with her life somehow.

Anyway, back to the present.....I got an email from Brasa Brazilian Steakhouse, a place that we enjoy going to when we are in Raleigh inviting us to their Grand Thanksgiving Celebration Buffet.  I laughed maniacally as I forwarded the email to Stephen asking if he thought that would work for us this year.  A few hours later he called, almost prepared to be furious.  He didn't even say hello.  He said, " Oh HELL NO, we are NOT going to Brasa for Thanksgiving!!!"  LOL!  As if.  I learned my lesson of the importance of a home cooked feast complete with plenty of leftovers!  I will NEVER make that mistake again.  

Everybody is getting better.  Penny Lane seems to be back to normal after her spaying and stomach distress.  Bruce is healing after his tooth extraction, just not eating anything too crunchy yet.  Last week was a hard one around these parts, but hopefully all that is behind us now.  So, what's up this week?  Well, let's see....

Erica is in Belgium with her friend Amy, and apparently is loving it.  She might be in Amsterdam this weekend...?   I can't recall her travel schedule, but I know she is having a wonderful time.

Stephen has been so busy lately at work and school that he might as well be in Belgium for as much as he has time to see us...LOL!  Seriously.  He is up against some big deadlines, trying to submit an abstract, and crunching research data, etc.  he explained it all to me, but I don't fully grasp it all.  I know he has been pulling some very late work nights though.  

Jeanne and family are coming to visit this weekend.  They are only here for 1 night on their way to the Outer Banks for a marathon...half marathon...?  I don't know, but I do know Jeanne is running in something on Sunday.  

Doug, and Emily...maybe Laura are visiting on Saturday.  I think Emily has something she needs to do at Duke.  Honestly, I can't even remember the last time they made it here for a visit.  It's been a long time.  Parker's Barbeque is in our future on Saturday night though.  

So, it's all good.  Busy, but much, much better than last week!