Friday, November 29, 2013

When I went to bed at a reasonable hour Wednesday night (I was disclplined and turned off Gone With the Wind at 10:00) I never dreamed I'd sleep in until 8:00 Thanksgiving morning!  Pre-coffee (!) I zoomed out to the shop frig to get the 15#  turkey and get it into the oven, then spent the rest of the morning doing all the rest of the little things (peel/dice 10# potatoes, prep the green beans, set the tables, etc.) I finished up around 11:30 (with a clean kitchen and sink!) and then took my shower.  

Here I am with Alex and Lisa. Tom is doing the last minute stuff (mashers, gravy, Stove Top) but took a few seconds to snap this shot, saving us from a selfie.
Hard to see, but I'm wearing my new earrings I got the night before that Lisa and Chas picked out for me. No, neither one of them noticed.

The gang started rolling in a little after noon.  
Joel brought his sweetie Victoria.

Chas arrived, Patti and Gary arrived with the rest of the food, and soon we dug in.  We ended up with only 9 (it turned out that Zach had to be at work at 1:00 instead of his usual 3:00), but still decided to let the kids have the main table (set for 6) while the 4 adults ate at the satellite quilting table.  

We didn't eat poolside this year (although we probably could have - it was in the 70s) because of the mess out there; the pool was drained for the resurfacing and still empty, plus there are tools and pool parts all over the place.  Not as scenic as it usually is!  

But the driveway was full (Lisa's car, Patti's car, Chas's car, Joel's car) which is the way it should be: the more, the merrier on Thanksgiving!

Of course there was lots of food.... but I think that this year we had fewer leftovers than ever.  After we all finished pigging out, Alex showed Victoria the many pix on my computer of Joel (and Alex) when they were little guys.  (The boys became best buds the beginning of 2nd grade, and Patti and I agree that they were adorable when they were younger.)  There was a fair amount of laughter coming from the computer room.

And when Pokey marched past the window, I wish I'd had my camera to snap a picture of Victoria's amazement.

Mid-afternoon, gloriously full, Joel and Victoria headed off to work, and Lisa and Chas headed over to his folks' for their second feast of the day!  Here they are relaxing and gearing up for that.

Speaking of eating a second turkey, how many of you remember the classic Alka Seltzer commercial, The First Turkey?

Later in the afternoon we taught Patti & Gary (and Alex) how to play Mexican Train (thank you, Jeannie!) with our Double 15 set (that has some serious color issues!  Since nobody was feeling energetic enough to count leftover points, we played our own version (counting leftover tiles instead of leftover points) while our dinner settled enough to be able to dive into the desserts Patti had baked.  In case you're interested, I lost the game, reaching 21 first... even though I was the scorekeeper! <g>

We lit the 2nd night candles, and Alex liked his 'blue jean' lounging pants.  Tom whined that he wanted some; at least that's one Christmas present I know he won't be returning!

Patti had brought me over a Chanukah gift: dark chocolate piroulines (they look yummy!) and some peppermint body lotion (it smells yummy - tried it out last night!)
Lisa didn't whine <g> when I opened it....
but she was very interested in the lotion.  

WAIT - I think I'm getting a vision of one of her gifts:

Clean-up was easy yesterday, with so many hands helping.  The kitchen was totally cleaned up and looked like we'd feasted elsewhere.  (And once everyone drifted home I washed the tablecloths, placemats, and napkins; they even were all folded and put away last night.)  So there was NO mess waiting for me this morning when (of course) I woke up at 5:00.  

NO PLANS to do any shopping this weekend, although I do have a bunch of gifts to wrap and pack and take to the post office.  I'm guessing the PO won't be busy today with 'everyone' out shopping.  But I could be wrong; "nobody flies to Denver on a Sunday", right Dad?

Bulk Trash pick up is Monday, so this afternoon Alex is going to help Tom drag the piles of trimmed limbs out to the street.  Then we should have a much nicer view out back (the pile is so large it couldn't be contained in the area behind the trees that doesn't show from the house.)

I've got a bunch of (never-ending) paperwork to do this morning, and then guess I could start wrapping gifts.  Enjoy your Friday!  And IF you're going shopping, try not to get trampled by the other shoppers!

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