It never stops...

Meaning the hectic.  The on-to-something-new.  You think you get older, you have time, and - guess what - yeah, I can hear the wild laughter of everyone who is retired.  Next two weekends?  Booked.  And no room to hike.  Used to be a hobby....At least I still get to take my morning walk most days.

 The set table on Thanksgiving Day

 We thought it funny to show ourselves before getting it all together, and no,

I do not have an after picture!

Okay, I do, but on my droid, and I do not know how to upload yet.

There has to be an app for that, but...

And our youngest guest.

I was too busy to take many pictures,  but I did escape with the children briefly

while the dishes were cleared and done.

(no way was I going to be involved with that!)

.... and the Christmas rush starts

Thanksgiving was lovely.  The food was good, the cooking took forever, but was great, the company was the best, and time flew by much too fast.
Matthew wanted me to find bird food, he loves watching the birds come to the feeder.  I told him to look on top of the refrigerator.  He climbed on a chair, but couldn't reach it.  I climbed on a chair next to him, to get the bird food.  He looked at me and exclaimed: You can climb on a chair?  What are you, 300 pounds or something?  It doesn't collapse under you?  (he's nine and trying out sarcasm and humor).  After I recovered from laughing, I told him it wasn't very nice what he said, and to please correct that.
His answer:  'I'm sorry you weigh 300 pounds'

Happy Thanksgiving  .... and on to the Christmas rush!
Thursday we went to MA, and went to a lovely quilting shop in the hills of Massachusetts.  Of course I got a quilt kit!  Now, the trick will be to find the time to make it.
Today?  Trimming the tree - done.
Laundry - done.
Making the advent calendars for three families (one each!) - not done.
Christmas shopping - started....
Cookies?  One dough made....
Off I go...

Morning - Happy Thanksgiving!

It's still very early, I'm just up to take the turkey out of the wrappings, and start the sweet potatoes.

We did a lot of prep work last night.  M made a mushroom soup, we fixed the stuffing, and opened the table.

Here is what I want you to see,  it's M, chopping mushrooms.

He does the same with onions and celery, and anything else that needs chopping.

On that note, I need to leave you, and get going with the preps!

Matthew and Jessica will arrive later, after the go to New York with their parents to watch the parade.

I met them yesterday for lunch.

I asked them if they were excited.

No, they weren't.  They didn't want to see a 'dumb' parade.

And then were outraged when their mother announced the parade

was three hours long.

And they would have to stand the entire time.

Even longer, in order to get a spot, they'd have to be there early.

I was laughing, cracking up, because it reminded me

of the times I tried to show my kids special things.

Same reaction.

It only becomes wonderful after the fact!

Enjoy your day!

PS, and oh, Matthew and Jessica will join us for dinner after the parade.

Monday before Thanksgiving

The weekend was nice.  Saturday we puttered around the house - I can't even remember what we did.  In the afternoon we went to Matthew's last soccer game, they won 5:1!  Good for you, Matthew!

Yesterday shopping and cooking.  Not even for Thanksgiving, just to cook - we still need to eat every day, even though the big feast is on Thursday!  We tried out a recipe in the Slow Cooker, or Crock Pot, as it was called in 'the olden days'.  Chicken Provenciale, it was good!

We had friends over, and we talked about hiking in our area.  Which will happen sometime....

I'm working on Christmas, with a large family there is lots to be organized, and checked, and emailed back and forth, and teased, it's fun.  My one friend tried to organize us and tell us to go to a website, and have everyone check into that, but I'm happy with the emails.  Part of the fun is telling what one bought for whom, and then remembering to leave the recipient off the list - tricky, I tell you!

If I get everything done at work, I'll take Wednesday off and cook and clean - a pecan pie wants to be baked, the rolls need to be done (I'm baking my own), the cranberry sauce can be made....

And I will have a big help in the kitchen, M loves to cook and is good at it!  Excellent, even!
Still so not used to it, and it's so lovely to have.

I finally finished a jacket in fleece that I'd started last year.  Turns out I bought too little of it, and it's the Polartec (expensive compared to the regular stuff), so I didn't really know what to do.  I happen to have some remnants of red and multi-colored fleece, which I used to make the collar and pockets, and a stripe down between the zipper - and it looks great.  I like it, and it's not like anything out there.  (and if I wasn't too lazy to go to the car and get the camera, I'd show you what I look like.  I'm retarded and can't take a picture with my cell phone, because I keep hitting all the other choices when I point the phone at me - I didn't get the android with both forward and rear-facing camera, drat!)
Enough rattling on about nothing,
enjoy your week!

Week before Thanksgiving

The guests are invited.  I'm still not sure, how many we will be for Thanksgiving, but that's okay!

Not much news here.  Love the phone, still not sure of all the features.  And still have questions about it, but that's okay, it's a learning curve.  Matthew got a hold of it, and found the games right of the bat.  And played.  Jessica wanted to know if she could have my old phone.  Not to dial out, just to have it.

More later - gotta run, I just ordered Christmas presents!!!  Yeah, and not on anyone's list!  (hope they like it)

New cell phone

Last Saturday I decided it was time I join the newest technology, and went and got myself an Android.  Holy smokes!  What a difference!  I got to hold it for a bit, before it was taken over by M, who had a blast.  Played Angry Birds, tried out all kinds of things, and enjoyed it very much from what I could see.
It took me until the next day to realize I had no clue how to dial out.   Really.  Not a one.

And in the afternoon we went back to the phone store, and M got one too.  Now it's hilarious, we're both asking each other, what this or that means, how to do this or that, and so on.  I had the hardest time downloading google voice, which is the way I call my German relatives and friends, and I want to be able to do that on the new phone (did you know a cell phone is called 'handy' in Germany?  I love that name for a cell phone, so much more graceful than 'cell phone').  What's your handy number?  Where is my handy?  Doesn't that sound nice?

Anyway, besides that, we stayed home this past weekend.  We were both tuckered out from the work week, from all our running around, and we wanted to stay home.  It was nice too, we got some things done, got rid of the blue couch (finally!), and the garage a little roomier, the gutters cleaned (my hero climbed on the roof and cleaned from there!).
All right, on to the Thanksgiving menu.... we're planning, how about you?

Quest

Friday afternoon we left on a quest.  The quest was to get free of the need to have electricity at all cost.  Well, if this sounds like bullshit, it is.  We left to pick up a generator for the house.  Yes, we like our comfort, refrigerator, heat, light, TV.

 

And this is where we went to look for the generator, doesn't it look terrific?

 Horses from Montana, in upstate New York

 Friendly horses, too!

 They are rodeo horses, unfortunately we never seem to be around when they are being trained.

 On the way home we stopped at Kaaterskill Falls, I was determined to see the falls again.

 There are still some leaves on the trees, and below are the trailmarkers.

 And this is the view of the lower fall.

 And of course there is an explorer in any male, no matter how old:

The whole falls, unfortunately the light either washes out the sky, or the fall is too dark...

 Where is M.?

 my hero!

love that man.....

Today:  chores around the house, raking leaves, removing the mess from the storm, making beef stew, making cinnamon buns (getting good at those), installing a programmable thermostat, making crescent rolls, folding laundry....

the sun is stunning - shining in a clear blue sky, happy.

No power, no Internet, no TV, no hot shower

Well, the title says it all.  The last post was happily written minutes before it made 'pfffff', and the power was off.  That was Saturday afternoon.  No power since, winter temperatures, no - see above - power for anything, and this is the first time since Saturday I'm able to check my email at my daughter's house.

Saturday to Sunday night we spent at home, hoping against hope the power would be restored.  Of course we had no clue how bad it was around us.  Trees down, tree limbs down, branches on power cables, on cable TV cables, and no warning signs, roads that are impassible in the middle of the journey, it's lovely.  The highways are clear, it's all the other streets.
Pockets of power, the Quick Check store in our town has power, so does the fire house next door, but the rest of the town is a ghost town.  No hotel room to be had, they are all booked.

We are mooching off friends, (actually we were cordially invited by friends) spending the nights at their (heated!  hot water!  showers!) house, and are having dinner with Matthew and Jessica and parents today.  Schools are closed.  Halloween was cancelled.  Halloween was cancelled!!  in America!!  Really.  They asked the children to postpone it until Friday, since there was just too much going on, no one in dark houses, no street lights, no traffic lights, branches down one could trip over in the dark, and wires down, possibly live.

We are trying to find a generator (no more living in the house without a back-up generator!), but none to be had in the Tri-State area.  In Connecticut the power is out in most of the state.

We are all right.  Healthy, clean (thanks to borrowed showers), laughing at it all, because how else are you going to make it through something like this.

I did get to see two little boys I adore, and I got to be their chasing-them-through-the-house-Oma.

I haven't heard from the MD branch of the family yet, I don't even know if they were hit by this storm.
But we're fine, and thank you for all your well-wishes, we even stopped by the house yesterday, first of all to check if we have power, secondly to get rid of some of the debris in the yard.
I'll keep you posted!

PS - 9 PM, I'm in front of the TV at home on our couch, showered, happy, warm and tired.  The power came on early this evening, and we walked in on a house that was welcoming us by warming up.