Archives - Weekly Update

I am enjoying the ramp up to the holidays, with the optimal word there being "enjoying." This is the first year where I am not rushing around, living by a list or feeling overwhelmed. What is amusing is that there are fewer days this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and thus I should not be in such great cheer, but with five days left, every gift is wrapped (with some still arriving via mail, but under control), the cookies are baked and menus have been organized. Oh, and on cookie baking, I have decided that cooking is more fun than baking. Last week, I made four batches of cookies and three batches of brownies, and when I turned to see the last bowl that still needed to be spooned onto trays to bake, I was feeling less than festive. But when the cookies hit the oven, I grabbed my copy of MRS. KENNEDY AND ME by Clint Hill and started reading. When the buzzer went off, I was a lot happier as I had had a reading interlude!

I do not watch sitcoms on television, and I realized the other day that I probably skip them because I feel like I live in one! A few moments this week underscored this. We were at dinner Sunday night, and the waitress announced they were out of rainbow trout. Cory looked up from the menu with a look of bemusement and said, “I wonder if they have the solid color trout.” Queue the laugh track. While I have been knitting up a storm for holiday presents and shopping in stores and online, Tom has been handing me things saying, “You can give this to me for Christmas.” I now have a pile of things that he has given me that need to be wrapped, many of which I have not even looked at. He is doing more “to me/from me” shopping this year than usual. It is very efficient. I particularly enjoyed the pitch I got about the new technology that Under Armour is using with their Cold Gear. I am now giving him a present that I know the complete cold weather attributes of. How nice as I feel good about my “non-purchased” gift!

When we left off before Thanksgiving, I was headed to the kitchen to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. It was a fun, fun day with family and friends. For those looking for a turkey update, it’s interesting to see how a hand-raised turkey does not boast the huge breast of white meat that those that are bred in other ways do. Less hormones means less leftovers, but what we had was really tasty!