It has been a weird Christmas.  Bruce, Erica and Hannia have all had a bad case of the flu.  This is not something that I want to contend with again especially when it's the season that is supposed to be all Holly Jolly and stuff.  Everybody is starting to feel a bit better...I think.  At least we have decided that everybody is going to survive which is a good thing.  I'm just a little sad that Erica was sick for her visit, but there was nothing to be done about it.  I'm just going to be thankful we all are alive and remind myself that we ALL are going to get flu shots for next year!!!

We are in the height of postal madness right now.  Packages stacked to the heavens!  I am so exhausted, working later and later every day.  But...tomorrow is my last day until next year!!!  I am so excited to be done with it for a few weeks.  And....Erica comes home Monday which makes me extremely happy.

Are you all ready for Christmas??  I know people (and I love them) who have finished the shopping, have been decorated for weeks now.....oh my God, they make me feel so inadequate!!  Our tree is up and decorated at least.  Bruce was the most excellent husband who was on top of the roof when I got home stringing lights around the porch.  Yay!  I was afraid that might not get done this year.  We still have to wrap lights around the columns but maybe that will happen this weekend.  

Anyway, we are all just fine and dandy.  Working hard and trying to get ready for the holidays.  Having all the kids home will be so wonderful.  That's the only gift I need!!!

We had an awesome Thanksgiving.  The food was perhaps the best we have ever had...many thanks to Chef Stephen and his fabulous assistant, Hannia.  The apple cider brined turkey was perfect.  Tasty, moist and amazing!  The sides were all delicious.  And the desserts?  Oh My Lord....Stephen did an Indian dessert called carrot Halwa.  It was a huge hit.  And Hannia's flan, which is always yummy, hit new heights of sweet creamy goodness.  The only things I did was the deviled eggs (all I really did was boil them.  Jeanne and Calvin did the rest), and Lila's dressing which turned out quite well even if I do say so myself.  The food this year?  Highly successful.  And Jeanne made us all what might be my new favorite drink....coconut rum, mango rum, and a splash of pineapple juice.  I'm not sure what it's called, but it's very Caribbeany.  LOL!  And delicious!

We also had fun beyond stuffing our faces.  Hannia's parents joined us for dinner and we all enjoyed that.  They stayed and played cards afterwards which was very nice.  Casey and Delaney learned how to play Rummy.....one of my favorites.  And after that?  The traditional bonfire.  Bruce had chopped up an oak that had fallen in a storm, and we had plenty of wood.  Enough to go for 2 nights.  We had a repeat bonfire on Friday too.  This is one of my favorite parts of the holiday.  We sat around toasting ourselves by the fire and had some wonderful conversation.  It was really frosty so 1 side of our bodies would be warm and the other side cold.  We determined that having those child's toys...the sit and spin (remember those? ) would be perfect.  We could turn ourselves like rotisserie chickens and keep the heat more even.  LOL!

We did do other stuff too.  Bruce, Calvin and Stephen managed to move our 500 pound granite mantle out of the house and tear out the fireplace!!  That was the first HUGE step towards the remodeling we want to do after Christmas.  We hope to repair and refinish these wonderful old heart pine floors.  I am excited.  But not until after Christmas.  I don't want to be in a huge remodeling mess while Erica is home for the holidays!  

Also?  We celebrated Stephen's 29th birthday!  Jeanne and Calvin got to have a tour of the kids' new house.  We had Saturday lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant and managed to even squeeze a movie in on top of all of it!  Whew....busy.  But fun-busy!  The best kind!

Which brings me to the only thing that would have made this Thanksgiving more perfect....having my daughter with us.  But we did get to Skype her, so that helped.  

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!