Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope you have a wonderful time with friends and family, plenty of good food and a little bit of time to feel grateful for whatever you have going on in your lives. I have so much to be grateful for that it would be hard to list it all. But I do have some that top the list of thankfulness.

- My husband, who is my knight in shining armor. He has been by my side since I was 15 years old. I don't know what I would do without him.

-My children (including my daughter-in-law) who always make me so proud I could positively burst. If I never had anything else in my life than this husband, this marriage, and these children then it would have been more than enough.

- The rest of our family because I love you all.

- My friends who cheer me up and listen to me whine when I feel down.

- Our home that provides a safe place and a sturdy roof over our heads.

- My job, because even while I don't exactly love it, I am grateful that it allows us to keep food on the table, health insurance to keep us healthy, and clothes on our backs.

- These warm furry little cats because I love them. They got me through the sadness when we lost the dogs, and they give me something to direct all my excess "mothering" to since the kids have moved away.

I am also thankful for cool crisp mornings, hot coffee, chocolate, clean laundry still warm from the dryer, hot showers, good books, and naps. I have a gazillion other things to be grateful for but excessive amounts of time to sit and play online here is unfortunately not one of them. I have a fudge cake to bake for the family thanksgiving feast. So have a wonderful holiday and think about all those amazing things that we sometimes take for granted every day. Love to all.

Countdown to Turkey Day

Nothing in particular is going on around here. I am working, running errands, baking some goodies and just trying to get ready for the big Turkey Day in general. We are having a brunch celebration at work tomorrow. I think we do it a day early because a whole lot of people take Wednesday off to either cook or travel. I have been instructed to bring sausage balls to that. I didn't take it off (we have taken off soooo much lately), so we will be in transit early Thanksgiving morning to be in Danville by lunch time. We are having a buffet at the Country Club with Dad and Barb, and our actual food extravaganza will be on Friday when the rest of the family can get there.

I would love to put up my Christmas tree. I feel like it needs to go up in all its naked glory for a while to let the cats (mainly Bitty) get used to it. But at the moment, there is a large box containing my new kitchen sink sitting right about where the tree needs to go. We are having our countertops put in next week, so hopefully that will finally be out of my living room. Seriously....the sink and faucet in a box about the size of a small car is in the living room. And a giant saw is sitting in my dining room floor. We spent the weekend putting down the quarter round molding in the kitchen, and we still aren't done. The saw has to be out and ready to go so we can finish....although I will say that the actual cutting was done out in the garage. He didn't turn the saw ON in the dining room. Grrrrrrr, my house is still topsy turvy. The kitchen china cabinet is in Stephen's bedroom waiting on the molding to be finished. Oh my Lord, I hope hope hope we can get this all pulled together in time for Christmas. Not just in time for the holiday, but in time for me to have a chance to decorate a little bit here and there. Its insane. I had no idea it would end up taking this long. But trying to squeeze things in between work and life just doesn't make for speed. The painting and updating I want to do in the living room, den and dining room will definitely be put off until spring. I am going to need a couple of months of having my house in order before we tear it all up again.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the long weekend, but I am also feeling a little sad that Stephen and Hannia won't be able to be with us. I don't like holidays without my kids, although I realize its probably going to happen more and more frequently now that they are grown. And we also won't get to see him on his birthday either, which makes it even worse. I know they are cooking their own little feast on Thursday. Stephen wanted plenty of turkey (the boy can eat some serious turkey) and lots of leftovers for those yummy turkey sandwiches....so....they are cooking a 20 lb. turkey for 2 people. LOL. I see turkey tettrazini, turkey salad, and turkey pot pie in their future for at least a week.....Well, maybe. He may prove me wrong and end up eating it all before they have to get creative with the leftovers.