Well the colonies are fed, I'm home, and the kitchen smells like turkey!

When our late Bandit was alive he'd have already been in the kitchen yelling (he was a Siamese mix with a pure Siamese mouth). Never had another cat interested in turkey.

I wish I could have seen my sibs this year but with SIL in the middle of breast cancer treatment it just wasn't feasible. She does NOT need to be out in public.

We always spent Thanksgiving in town at my paternal grandparents I do NOT miss the over heated house, the parade(s) or the football. I do miss the family.

When my grandmother passed, my mother took over. She also invited the two spinster first grade teachers who lived in town along with everyone who previously attended at my grandparents. Since my mother died suddenly, those Thanksgivings died suddenly as well. Almost all the folks that came to those meals have passed.

In the last few years my Dad would have us to a restaurant in Gettysburg. Of course that didn't happen last year (pandemic and he'd just died).

DH has two remaining sibs, both of whom with serious problems, so no getting together there.

I’m at my sister’s home and we just finished prepping almost everything. I think we still need to make rolls, but everything else is ready to go in the oven. We aren’t eating until later, so we are taking a break now.

I miss the big family holiday gathering I grew up with, where most of my mother’s sisters and their families came to our grandparents’ home. The kids were all running around playing together, or the older kids might be playing Monopoly in one room while the men played dominoes in another room. All of the women would crowd into the kitchen and work together preparing the feast. It’s been many years since that happened, but I still remember how much fun we had.

Maryanne, Wow! We had wind like that yesterday morning and I noticed that a lot of people’s Christmas decorations had blown over. In fact, one yard looked like all of the Santa figures, snowmen, reindeer, etc. had had one heck of a party and had all passed out in the yard.

We are back home and all unpacked. I plan to be lazy and rest up for the rest of today after all of the cooking and activity of the last few days. I’m ready for a few lazy hours.

KonaKat wrote: »

Helene--I am so sorry about your sister. 100 miles isn't that far so you can easily visit again.

I weighed myself this morning, and compared it to the January 1 weigh in at the beginning of the year. I am down 20 pounds. This is motivation to see if I can be at a lower weight by Christmas thus avoiding the usual 10-pound gain from holiday goodies.

So - the bad stuff this year had one positive outcome? Go figure!

Jean, sounds like the year wasn’t great for any of us. It’s nice though that you ended up with a nice loss. I’ve been doing Noom since June but I’m taking a break until we get to our own house. I haven’t felt like logging meals while traveling or being at my sister’s house. I’m watching portions but that’s it. I’ll be happy if I’m at the weight I was when we left home 10 days ago.

Jean, congrats on the weight loss, despite the health issues you’ve has this year! Or perhaps, because of the health issues, but either way, a loss is a loss.

I feel like a cook today. I'm starting with the turkey carcass to make turkey corn soup. Actual cooking. LOL!

Helene610 wrote: »

Turkey corn soup sounds delicious. I love to make soup. What do you put in your’s?

In addition to turkey stock and turkey - purchased turkey stock to augment what I make, corn (duh!), diced potatoes and thick noodles (not pot pie noodles but broad egg noodles). Last year I froze so much I had to hurry and finish it up last week.

To my surprise I've actually made some room in the freezer for this year's batch.

Helene610 wrote: »

How big was your turkey that you could make so much soup?

17 pounds. We found ourselves filling up more on stuffing/mashed potatoes/gravy and didn't eat tons of turkey.

I already told DH no turkey at Christmas. Either I'll roast a chicken (we mostly seem to like the stuffing/mashed potatoes/gravy anyway) OR someone told me you can buy turkey thighs and I might look for a couple of those.

I was in a car accident Tuesday. I was making a left turn when a car ran the red light at a high rate of speed. My right arm is broken above the elbow. I was taken by ambulance to our local hospital then Careflighted to a bigger hospital in Dallas. I had surgery yesterday to place plates and pins.
May go home today.

What a terrible thing to happen to you. Did the person stop to see if you were okay or was it a hit and run? I can’t imagine what people who run lights are thinking. For the chance of saving a few seconds, they risk killing or injuring people. I hope you get to go home as planned. I guess this is going to really mess up your Christmas preparations. Don’t stress about getting things done. Your health is most important and what gets done will get done and what doesn’t is okay. If friends offer to help you, let them. You do so much for others that they’ll want to return your kindness.

That’s a relief that she stopped and called 911. FL seems to have a very high number of hit and runs including some that resulted in fatalities. There was a case more than a year ago where a woman was walking her dog and was struck by a hit and run driver. She and the dog died at the scene. The police were able to identify the driver but she fled the area. As far as I know she remains a fugitive.

PamS53 wrote: »

The other driver did stop and she called 911. She must have been distracted by something because she made no attempt to stop or slow down. She admitted to the fault being hers and the man in the car behind me gave me his contact info and told me he saw the whole thing.

Probably on her cell phone.

DH also immediately downloaded dragon speech recognition software for me too. I worked right through everything - surgery, recovery, p/t. My boss had used it at one point so I knew it worked. It took a little getting used to - and I'd never use it if I didn't have to - but it really saved the day!