November 26, 2023
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Yes, I know it was three days ago, but with this four day weekend, it’s still Thanksgiving in my heart and mind. My Thanksgiving was very low key, as I cooked for just my sister and me. The rest of my family is in Northern Virginia, Washington, DC, Tuscaloosa, Alabama and even Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Since my nephew went with his Dad for a few days, it was just my sister and I for the big meal. I still made all of our traditional favorites, including Dad’s stuffing, which is so good, I could eat it cold out of the fridge like Chinese takeout. I have been brining my turkey for about 6 years now and it is always juicy and tender and delicious! Check out the first Sip of the Week in honor of our Thanksgiving weekend!
Black Friday came and went, and I stayed in my lounge pants all day, putzing about the house and streaming baking shows. Baking shows are my happy place. When I lived in Virginia, my sister, Eileen, and I used to do the Black Friday shopping thing every year. We would have our Thanksgiving feast and then dive right into the holiday edition of the newspaper. We would each take a stack of ads and then switch. We would make our lists, plan which stores we would go to and in what order (because they opened at different times), and set our alarm for 4:30am. We’d roll out of bed, hit the nearest Starbucks (always first thing) and then go shopping. One year we actually went shopping ON Thanksgiving in the evening after the feast, when everyone was napping or watching football. It was crazy, but we’d almost always get everything on our lists, and we’d be done and back home by noon. It was our thing. It was so fun to reconnect and bond with her, and we had such a good time catching all the Black Friday drama.
Nowadays, it’s all about online shopping, and truth be told, I’m a big fan. Who doesn’t want to shop in their pajamas? Amazon is like an old friend in our house, and I am not ashamed to say it. Now if only I could stop my dog, Edgar, from barking incessantly every time the UPS truck (or Prime or FedEx) drives down the street. I swear he knows each truck’s sound - they don’t even have to stop here - and he’s barking like crazy.
So instead of Black Friday shopping, we put up and decorated our front room Christmas tree. We had already trimmed the main Christmas tree in the family room, but our neighbor, Phyliss, asked about when we were putting the front room tree up (because she thinks it is beautiful and can gaze at it from across the street), so we decided it was as good a time as any. We were having a very relaxing (read: lazy) long weekend so far, so why not.
My nephew came home on Saturday and we did some clay. When he asks me, “do you wanna do clay?”, he means do I want to make some clay figures - characters of his own imagination. We made a cartoon turkey and an oven-roasted turkey, depicting the before and after, presumably. He is very clever that way.
Sunday was spent prepping my meals for the week: chopping vegetables and prepping and baking a few items for breakfast and lunches. I usually plan five or six menus for the week and we eat leftovers on the other days. It works well for our little blended family, and I enjoy it enough to cook nearly every day. My sister and I joke sometimes about how nice it would be to have an “Alice”. Remember the Brady Bunch’s Alice? She lived-in and did everything and anything for that family. I honestly think that even if we could afford an Alice, I wouldn’t give up my cooking, and especially my baking. It’s another one of my happy places and a person needs those to get through this crazy thing called life.
Thanks for reading my ramblings. I’m so happy you are here!
Until next week, my friends. Cheers to our happy places!
Barbara
