Week 48 - A Happy Thanksgiving

It was another week of wacky weather but with only 3 working days and one of those not very worky, the week was a winner.

It was so raw and cold at the beginning of the week that we cancelled Monday Night Knitting. Yeah, that chilly. On Tuesday, Cody, my friend's husband, couldn't do any deck building so came over the measure my garage for the shelves, gave me a quote and said he'd be back the next day. That was perfect because I was going to be gone all day on Wednesday. He even broke up the green toilet, which I'd failed to find a home for despite posting it for free on Facebook Marketplace, and it was in the trash ready to be gone from my life. Nice.

After an early zoom meeting Wednesday morning, I taped a check to the garage wall and headed to campus. Cindy, Lana and I were meeting at Starbuck's at 10:00 then heading into the office to wrap Mary's advent calendar. I'd come up with that idea because Mary is so generous with us every Christmas but the office lunch and white elephant swap wasn't happening this year This year she'd have 24 presents to open and could think of her staff every day. Everyone had chipped in presents so we had to corral and wrap them.

Lana had the time wrong so missed out on yummy peppermint mochas but it was fun to be together again. We wrapped everything up and split up around noon. I picked up my favorite salad at Panera and then headed to Anne's to eat before dropping the presents at Mary's. While I was eating, Ben called to say we only had to work until 3:00, which was nice but I was barely working anyway. After handing over her gifts and the hats I'd made and Anne's mittens, I had a nice chat with Mary (I hadn't seen her since March after all) and left her house right after 3:00. Perfect! And I was excited to go home to my new shelves.

Well, so much for that. There was no sign of Cody and no shelves. I emailed his wife and she said he thought he had told me that he would only come if it rained, which it hadn't. Damn! Oh well. I went inside for dinner and to make pumpkin pie.

Anne was coming over for Thanksgiving but I'd only bought a single turkey breast so it wouldn't have to cook for long. I did a quick clean - bathroom and floors mostly - and had everything ready for dinner at 1:00. The turkey was baked over homemade stuffing, I baked sweet potatoes, one of which exploded in the oven, and Brussels sprouts were the green veg. Anne had requested plain mashed potatoes so I made those too. We ate in the sunshine of the back room then chatted while knitting the afternoon away. I cleaned everything up after Anne left. It was a lovely Thanksgiving despite the pandemic. And I had 3 more days off.

I chatted with Carolyn Friday morning and then the goal for the day was to put together the sock yarn advent calendars I'd planned for Andrea and Lori. Originally I'd planned to do all 24 days but I'd realized 12 days was all I'd manage. By day's end I had them all individually wrapped and ready to go.

Saturday was another warm day so Lori and Andrea were going to come over for a late lunch of Chinese food on my deck. Late because it was warm for the end of November but still only in the 50's so we'd need sun to be warm enough. Lori spent longer walking her dog at the lake than she'd planned so it was nearly 3:00 when she arrived, which meant we only had an hour before the sun went behind the garage, which made it instantly too cold to be outside. But we had fun and it felt like a gift to be seeing friends in person outside. I'll take it!

Aside from chores, Sunday was the start of wrapping and packing. First up was Carolyn's package because it had the longest distance to go. I got it all done and scheduled a pick up for Monday so was pretty pleased with myself. With that done, I got my jam making supplies out and made a batch of orange marmalade with the Seville oranges I'd bought from British Food Depot. It fit exactly into jars with none left but what I licked off the ladle. That tasted great. I will definitely be keeping a jar for myself.

The Thanksgiving break had gone by in a flash but was wonderful and Christmas break is only a month away. With lots to do before then, I'm sure December will fly. I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving too.