Happy December

  Winter scenes from my walks with Scruffy.  Winter can be beautiful too!!!

It was a dark and stormy night!!!  Well it was!!!

It was actually Saturday night. I was in bed working on this post, messaging a friend I hadn’t heard from in a while and reading my book for book club.  Ha!!  you know I can’t do one thing at a time.  It was storming like crazy outside.  The wind was blowing and I was wondering how long we would have power.  I know I have mentioned, a few times, that we live in the woods. All it takes is a big gust of wind and a tree goes over the power lines and we are without power for a good two to three hours.  Luckily that didn’t’ happen.

Anyway how are you?  Did you have a nice Thanksgiving?  We had only six people at our house for Thanksgiving but being the southern woman that I am I promptly cooked enough people for an army.  I cooked a turkey, I got a fresh one this year not frozen, and it was delish, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cornbread dressing, coleslaw, cranberries, rolls, two pies, pumpkin and pecan, and chess bars.  Luckily I made the pies and chess bars ahead of time.  I also made my cornbread for the dressing and then made the dressing on Wednesday night so it was ready to pop into the oven as soon as I got the turkey out on Thanksgiving day.  My brother in law’s wife was out of town so I sent him home with enough food for several days.

We had such a nice time we ate and talked and laughed.  Me, my sister in law and Scruffy took a long walk after dinner.  Man I was so tired!!!  I had been up since 4:00 AM getting the house ready and the turkey ready etc. etc.   I knew I had to get to bed early for the “Black Friday Shopping Day” with my sister the next day.  Yes I am that person.

I love Black Friday Shopping.  Me and my sister have been doing this for about 10 years or so.  We don’t go for the bargains, we don’t get all of the sales circulars, we don’t even know what the door busters are.  We go because this is our kick-off to Christmas!!!!  We have a ball.  We go out at about 5:00 AM.  I will tell you that the retailers have almost ruined Black Friday shopping by starting it at 1:00 PM on Thanksgiving Day.  WHAT????  Well that’s my opinion anyway.  It used to be that we would start out around 4:00 or 5:00 AM and the stores were packed with people who started around midnight.  But no, now the stores open on Thanksgiving Day earlier and earlier. A lot of the stores close at midnight now and many of them don’t open back up until 7:00 AM!!!!  Oh Well it won’t stop us from our Black Friday tradition.  I did get a lot of Christmas gifts this year and we had a lot of fun and great sister time. My feet hurt so bad on Thanksgiving night, after all the cooking and cleaning, I couldn’t have gone Black Friday shopping if they were GIVING stuff away. No we will stick to Friday morning.

On Saturday my little mother in law turned 86.  We had already had a small party at the Assisted Living Village where she lives but I didn’t want the day to go by without something special.  My husband and his brother both had to work so I went to see her and took her some Birthday gifts and we went and got ice cream.  We also went to see a friend of hers who is in another nursing facility close by.   We had a great time.

I am taking a few days off from work.  I’m trying to kill some vacation days before the end of the year.  I have been pretty lazy the last few days.  I am reading a wonderful book for book club, I put up some Christmas decorations, and started knitting another pair of socks.  Oh and tomorrow Mark and I are going to the Biltmore Estate in Ashevilles NC.  I have been there several times and I love it especially at Christmas.  More about that soon.

What have you been up to lately?  Are you getting ready for Christmas?

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!