Saturday, November 30, 2013

Thanksgiving Redux

It was Thanksgiving all over again.  In the morning, I used the leftover pie crust dough and the leftover filling mix and made another pumpkin pie.   When it cooled, we had pumpkin pie for breakfast.  Then we had more pie for lunch and after lunch Walt went to Black Friday.

Now, we have a whole history of not participating in the madness of Black Friday, but our coffee maker died 3 days ago (2 days after the warranty expired!!!) and Walt decided to run out to Target to get a new one.  He said the crowds were larger than usual, but not the craziness we had been seeing on television and he did come home with a new coffee maker.  Let's see if this one can make it past one year!

For dinner I fixed some frozen chicken (Yes, I cooked it) and made Stove Top stuffing, the best I could do to duplicate left over turkey and stuffing.   We finished the pumpkin pie for dessert.  Then we vegged out in front of the TV, watching Jeopardy, the Barbra Streisand special from last year, and a recording of The Blacklist that we had not yet seen.

Now Walt has gone off to bed and I'm trying to find something interesting to say about the rest of our day.  And there is nothing.  LOL.

We did get this picture of Miss Bri in a text message this afternoon.

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It made me realize how quickly time passes.  I saw this and was instantly transported back to the flat I grew up in, trimming the tree with my parents and sister.  We had those terrible lights where if one bulb in the string was burned out, the string would not light and you had to keep trying and trying to find the one that didn't work.  I was sure glad when they figured out a better way to do lights!

We didn't do the lights, though.  That was strictly my mother's baliwick.  She liked the lights in just a certain way, so we all sat back and waited while she got the lights perfect and then we started hanging the decorations.  When I grew up, I was still intimidated at putting lights on the tree, so Walt always did the lights and then I and the kids started hanging ornaments.  I don't remember whether we had anything to eat or drink during tree trimming when I was growing up, but I always served egg nog ("nog-less" for the kids) and we played Christmas music, because we always played Bing Crosby when I was a kid, so we always started with Bing Crosby here.

Whether any of the trees we decorated when I was growing up, or the trees that we decorated when our own kids were little, it was always pronounced "the prettiest tree ever" when it was decorated and the lights were turned on.

We haven't even set up a tree in several years.  Now that we have 3 dogs who are likely to knock it over and we spend Christmas itself in Santa Barbara, there doesn't seem to be any point.

I do miss the magic that Brianna is feeling in this picture, though...

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