Giving Thanks

Well, my children all have plans for Thanksgiving, so I planned this great early Thanksgiving meal on Saturday, tomorrow. Alli is going to make the turkey and I will bake a ham. I had great plans to get much of the work done earlier in the week but work and Enrichment meeting and yada yada yada...and it just didn't get done. So I was up bright and early this morning cleaning like a mad woman. All the Christmas projects I've been working on are stuck here and there. Got the table cleaned off and expanded, made two batches of bread, washed sheets for five beds, made up one bed four to go. So the question is how many pies can I make in four hours before the troops start descending and I must stop to rock grandchildren? I have ten pie pans I'd hoped to fill. We'll see. Don't have the floors done either. That may be put off until another day.

But none of that matters because in a few hours my house will be full of children, grandchildren, parents and miscellaneous visitors. I'm so excited. I had a count once...6 kids, 7 grandkid-type (under 8 years old) people (including 5 month old twins--how fun is that?). Then there's Mom and Andy, and tomorrow for dinner another 4, or 6, or 8 people will show up, I'm not sure. Doesn't really matter because there will be lots of food.

Isn't this what Thanksgiving is all about? Gathering together to visit and give thanks. Some days this is the best paradise ever.

Manic Monday

I had training today. I practiced setting up meetings on a state wide educational meeting reservation system. My meeting was the Micky Mouse meeting which met once a month with someone from another college. Unfortunately,the lady got the email confirmation for six Micky Mouse meetings before I could delete it from the system. Oops. Nope, not going to be any Micky Mouse meetings, sorry.

Carmen is in town getting chemo right now. They changed her chemo last week because the other stuff wasn't working. Now she is nauseated and fatigued. Is it a rule that the chemo isn't working if it doesn't make you sick? What's that crap about? Dad seems to be holding his own since they took him off one of his chemo medicines that was making him horribly sick. He still gets other chemo, just not the one that makes him sick. He is taking some supplements and is considering other alternatives if what he's doing isn't working. He is positive he's going to "beat this thing." He'll get a scan next week and we'll see what's happening inside him.

The holidays are creeping up. I have given up on cross-stitch. I have one and a half ornaments done. At this rate each of my grandchildren will have a Christmas ornament next June or so. On to Plan B. I just love B Plans, don't you? Another chance to experiment and try something new. And the good news is that several kids are coming the week end before Thanksgiving for holiday dinner. I'm excited to see them and the grandkids. I figure somewhere between 20 and 40 people for dinner. Should be interesting.

My little fire place is keeping the house cozy and warm. It makes me so happy to light a fire and know that my house will warm up in no time. I've been gathering wood like crazy.

I'm up to my eyeballs in apples. Made apple butter, dried apples, applesauce, sliced-spiced apples, apple crisp, apple cobbler, given away apples...and still more apples to make more wonderful stuff. I think I'll make apple pies for Thanksgiving. Good idea, eh? Maybe the kids will take some apples home. That would be good. First thing in the morning, I'll start another batch of apple butter.

Well, I'm off.