Week 48 - A Happy Thanksgiving

I was hosting Thanksgiving for Anne and Rene so was madly cleaning at the start of the week. Nothing like a deadline to get me cleaning.

It's not like I cleaned 8 hours a day but I did things well beyond my normal vacuuming, floors and bathrooms. I actually cleared the the hutch and dusted. Just the main level - let's not get crazy. But one thing I've never done was after vacuuming the 70's style kitchen rug that's on my landing and stairs, I actually got out a Bissel spot cleaning machine and shampooed the landing. The rug is awful (it was in the entire back of the house - kitchen and family room - when I moved in) but I got some spots out so looks as good as it could.

I was done with cleaning by noon on Wednesday so took a look at the weather and decided it was time to buy my Christmas trees. I drove to Menard's in Fremont and picked out my deck and inside tree in 5 minutes. It was made easier by the fact that most were still bailed so I had 2 trees to pick from for the inside tree. I got the better of the 2 and $88 later (!) I was heading home. I called Connie to chat that night and we talked until 11:15 and could have kept going but I needed to get to bed.

Thanksgiving was fun. Anne's kitchen was out of commission because she was having ceiling work done so she'd paid for the turkey. Rene was bringing rolls, which I had forgotten to buy, and a lemon pie for dessert so I was making turkey with stuffing inside, baked sweet potatoes (not that Anne or Rene would eat those), mashed potatoes, 3 corn casserole (that's new) and Brussels sprouts. They arrived just in time. I had Rene stir the gravy while I mashed the potatoes and hacked at the turkey. It was all delish and we chatted the afternoon away. They brought containers to take leftovers home and I had the turkey torn apart and in the crockpot before they left. I immediately loaded the dishwasher and did the pots and pans then showered and was in my nightie - probably before they got home. I was ready to relax!

I put the crockpot on overnight and when I moved it so I could make breakfast, it was so full that I dribbled broth down the length of my kitchen floor. I cleaned that up and then made eggs, which had shell in them. Sheesh! I talked to my sister and watched my favorite knitting podcast then started putting up outside Christmas decorations. Of course the lights for my deck tree were dead so I had to run out to buy some and had my tree up and was ready for the snow.

It had started snowing in the wee hours on Saturday and snowed until mid-afternoon. We got 5" and I got out as soon as it stopped and started shoveling. I have a method so had started a the back door, went around to the front and made one shovel width down to the sidewalk and did that. I was a third of the way down the driveway when my snow guy showed up on his ATV. I told him I was good to finish but when he asked if I was sure, I let him finish the driveway and went out back to shovel to the compost bins behind the garage. He did the driveway in <5 minutes so didn't charge me. Nice. I went inside and made a small blueberry pie to go with my leftovers. Lemon meringue pie is NOT a Thanksgiving pie to me so I hadn't taken any when Rene offered. Apple, blueberry, pumpkin - that's Thanksgiving pie!

I rounded out the weekend with my usual chores. I also pulled stocking stuffers out to assess (had enough for "stockings lite" for my sisters), watched The Exception on Hoopla (good movie - Nazis again) and listened to the The Alchemist for book club. I realized fairly early that I'd read it before and looked in old emails and saw that we'd read it for book club in 2019. Oh well. 

It had been a good week and since Monday was December 1st, I got out my 2 yarny advent calendars and my last magic bag so I'd be ready to start opening them the next day. Between advents and vlogmas videos (daily knitting podcasts that are day in the life short videos), December is always fun. Next up will be getting packages out so I can relax. 

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving and are ready for all things Christmas.