Thanksgiving Meme

My boss let me go 45 minutes early today.  Yay!
So I am home with my sweety and my dog fully looking forward to my time I get to spend with them.  On the eve of my favorite holiday I will be baking a couple of pies and contemplating the weekend.  Maybe even papercrafting a bit.

Here is a little Meme about Thanksgiving.  Feel free to copy the questions and answer them yourself - post them to your blog.
1. Do you cook all or part of the meal? If it was going to be at my house, yes I would, but we find ourselves at one in-laws or the other.  I always help out in one way or another.
2.  How much do you spend buying groceries for the meal? I haven't had to buy the whole thing, but I can imagine it gets pretty pricey.  Then again, you do get to have leftovers to eat for a few days.  Yum!  Makes it worth it, I think.
3.  Do you eat at home or go to someone else’s? As mentioned above, usually at another family members home.  I think my preference is with my family, because I like Moms dinner.  Not that it is better than anyone elses (I could argue that, but I won't)  but it is home.
4.  Describe your perfect bite? Mashed potatoes, stuffing, tiny bit of turkey, with a dot of moms cranberry sauce. Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!
5.  White meat or dark? Yes.
6.  Stuffing with giblets or without? Without.  Sausage in the stuffing and giblets to help flavor the gravy.
7.  Anything you won’t eat at the Thanksgiving meal? I really don't care for brussell sprouts.  I tried last year to be accomodating but they were so overcooked YUCK!  This year we get to prepare them.  We are cooking them with bacon and onions.  Can't go wrong with bacon.
8.  Carve Mr. Gobble at the table or serve on a platter? On a platter.  We cook him upsidedown for most of the cooking time so he isn't that pretty, but the white meat stays juicy.  Plus, I can't stay away from the crispy skin before it gets to the table.
9.  Favorite pie? I love most all pies.  I would have to choose Pecan as my favorite with whipped cream.
10.  Formal table or Chinet? I love a formal table setting, name tags, favors goblets etc.
11.  Your menu:  (Don't know, but these would are some of my favorites)
An appetizer with fish - like crab cheesecake, or a shrimp cocktail or seviche.
Relish tray with a nice variety of veggies and dip.  Don't forget the olives.
Pickle tray - home made pickles
Tomato Aspic
Turkey
Mashed Potatoes & Gravy
Baked sweet potatoes with brown sugar, cinnamon butter.
Homemade Rolls with Butter and homemade freezer jam
Peas, corn, carrots
Homemade Stuffing with mushrooms and sausage
Frozen fruit cocktail salad
Cranberry Sauce or salsa
Fizzy fruity drink

Pumpkin Pie
Marionberry Pie
Pecan Pie
Mincemeat Pie
12.  Favorite leftover? All of it.  Don't usually get any at the SLC family dinner, but the GV dinner I enjoy it all.
13.  Extended family, friends, both or just the immediate family for dinner? Family and anyone else who needs a place to go.  
14.  After dinner, do you go to the latest movie or watch football on TV or just a turkey induced snooze?  All of the above!  Watch football, play games watch a good DVD, and nap.
15.  Do you watch the Macy’s Parade? I love to watch the parade.  I have great memories of sitting in the living room with my Dad and watching the parade with him.
16. Christmas decorations up before or after? usually the day after.
17.  Black Friday shopping or sleep in? It could be fun, but my pillow always wins out.  Too many crowds and never enough money to spend to make it worth braving the mobs.
18.  Any special Thanksgiving tradition? Not really anything special.  Just hanging out with family. 
19.  Favorite thing about Thanksgiving? It’s such a casual day and usually surrounded by family and loved ones!  I love the food and relaxation
20.  Favorite Thanksgiving memory? I seriously don’t have one. I love the years that we’ve had guests, family and friends. I love the traditions, the official "Let the holidays begin" feeling. Every Thanksgiving is my favorite Thanksgiving.
21.  Share your favorite Thanksgiving recipe:
"My" Pecan Pie
1 cup light corn syrup
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cups pecans - coursely broken
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Preheat oven to 350
Mix together all the ingredients in the order in which they are listed, and blend well.  Pour into the unbaked pie shell and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the filling is firm.  Cool on rack.  Serve with whipped cream.

Don't overwork and have a great evening.  Ta Ta for now.

Just another day

Only one more day until Thanksgiving. Time is just flying!  I have been compiling a Thankful for...list - can't wait to debut it.

Just in case you haven't noticed, it has been kinda cold.  Comes with the season, I know.  One of my favorite things about the cold is...frost. When the light, whether it comes from a street light or from the sun, reflects on the ice crystals it just sparkles. Just like diamonds or glitter. I love sparkly things.  Another thing I like about frost is that if there is enough moisture in the air, then trees and fences are covered with enough frost they look like someone flocked them. So pretty.  Frost patterns on windows can be really cool to look at as well, except when you have to scrape them off of your car so you can see.

One more day of work to make it through before I get a break. Here are ten things I am truly looking forward to this weekend:

1. Sleeping In
2. Turkey Dinner = Food Coma - love it!
3. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
4. Ralph gets released from his Bishop calling
5. Football...including the great rivalry game between Utah and BYU
6. Decorating for Christmas/Christmas Music.
7. Watching movies with my sweetheart and Riley B.
8. Spending time with Ralph's family.  Yes, I do like them.
9. Making Christmas cards to send to family.
10. Chex Mix!


I hope you have list of things you are looking forward to, tell me about them.
Well I am off to bed, lots to do tomorrow. Ta Ta for now.

Monday Musings

Oh my gosh...my house is full of smoke!  I can't breathe anymore. Cough, cough sputter cough.  Don't you fret though... my house is not on fire.  We made steak and guiness pie yesterday and had a spill over in the oven.  We turned the oven on to roast some veggies to have with dinner tonight and now we have smoke everywhere.  Oh well...at least the roasted veggies will taste good.  It is so cold outside I don't really want to open the doors to circulate air, but I don't have a choice.  I now smell like a fire pit.

Thanksgiving is three days away.  I am looking forward to some time off. 


Today, I felt like all I did was tread water.  I didn't get a lot of progress made towards getting my work done for month end reporting, but I did get all my phone calls answered today.  Ok...I didn't answer the call that came in at 4:30 p.m.  I just couldn't take another research issue on today.  Don't worry, if you would have called I would have answered.

This weekend is the biggest football game ever.  Utah Utes vs TDS.  It is the topic of conversations everywhere.  Even elementary schools are having a "wear the colors of the winning team" day.  Didn't know 5 year olds even cared.  I can hope that the Utes have their game on and that Max Hall gets rattled. I am excited to watch the game.

Signing off for the evening.  Ta ta for now.

My Sentiments Exactly.

Where did last week go?

I can't believe it... I am sitting at my compter a week later and haven't been able to get a blog entry done before now. I am in the middle of studying for my Sunday School lesson and actually needed a break.  I have had lots of thoughts and things to share, but none of them ever translated into a blog entry.  Everything from feeling blue, to its beginning to look a lot like Christmas too early for me.  We were supposed to have a bunch of snow this weekend.  Looks like the storm stayed north.  We will see what the weather brings tomorrow.

I went to the last home game for my football team.  Go Utes!  I am always sad to see our seniors go.  You could tell they were preparing for our game next week against the TDS (team down south)  It was a good game - we won.  It was so cold.  I am just now feeling like I am warming up.  Ralph was unable to go due to another ankle injury. (not the same ankle)  Needless to say he is pretty frustrated with himself.  I thought I was the klutz in our little family?  Ok - I need to honest here...I have a big old scrape on my back from trying to get out of our back gate without Riley.  It truly stung!  I guess we are both just a couple of bumbling klutz's


It was a weird week last week, and I am just glad it is over.  It seemed like there were things always going on, but I couldn't tell you what I have been up to, and I have nothing to show for it.  I have punched some ovals from paper to get into the mail on Monday.
 
I am already tired of all the Christmas commercials.  Buy, Buy, Buy.  When I take Riley for his walks, I noticed that there are several houses that have all their decorations up.  I understand the excitement for the holidays and the merryment, but I think it is way overdone!  What ever happened to being Thankful for what we have and this great country we live in, appreciating all the sacrifices those people made to have a new life for themselves and how much I have benefitted from them and from my heritage.

The calendar for December is quickly filling up.  Yikes!  Lots of social activities.  I think we will be ready for a break when Christmas rolls around.  Well my head feels heavy - I am tired, so enough for today.  Ta ta for now.

A Utah Man am I - and a completely lazy day.

We were supposed to wake up to a bunch of snow this morning.  When I finally decided to roll out of bed, it was to sunshine and a skiff of snow on the rooftops.  The outlook for the day was great.  Ralph even checked the weather report and we were not supposed to have any more snow.  Well...our not so accurate weather forecast was a little late.  The snow hit about 11:00 and it didn't stop until about 3:30.  It was a cold day.

Not such a great day for my Utes, but TCU has one awesome team. Onward Texas Christian Soldiers! I hope they get a great BCS bid. I also hope that Kyle & Co spend some time on the flight home gently reminding the team of how absolutely horrible it feels to receive a beat down like they did AND that they put it behind them and finish the regular season with an absolute hunger that results in a beatdown of SDSU and again in Provo the following week. Shoot, I hate losing! Anybody who say's winning isn't everything has never lost.

I got absolutely nothing done today. It felt good to be lazy, but I know I will look back and wish I would have utilized my weekend time a little better. I was going to finish Mar's projects and get them ready to mail and I was going to work on my Christmas card and a couple of birthday cards. Didn't get any of it done.  I think I was anxious for the football game start.  Kind of silly, but I can't help it. 

Ok I did get a few things done. I did get Riley out for a walk in the snow. He was begging to go until I opened the door.  He saw all that white stuff and put on the 4 leg stop. He was not going out.  I didn't give him a choice and he felt better for it - plus I don't have a mess on the floor.  I also made a great beef stew, you know...the kind with chunks of potato, carrot, celery, onion, tomato and beef.  I also made breadsticks to have with our stew.  It really hit the spot on a cold and snowy day. I am not ready for cold snowy weather.

I think tonight will be an early to bed night.  I need the extra sleep. 


Ta Ta for now.

Bookgroup Thursday and some figure skating.

Sitting down with a hot cup and tea and getting a little personal computer time.  Ahhh.


Lately, I feel like everytime I get home from work I am so tired.  Mentally finished.  We are working on the final stages of a new program that will go worldwide.  There are lots of things that have to be cleaned up.  It seems like issues from 2006 & 2007 keep popping up.  Those problems cut into my time I use to take care of current problems.  The pressure is on to get all of those old items taken care of my year end.  Yikes!

So I have been able to watch a couple of figure skating competitions on TV in the last few days.
 
I totally love to watch them.  The commentators may say some of the dumbest things, but the music, sound of the blades on the ice, the gracefulness and athleticism of the skaters, and their crazy costumes are worth it.  Ralph hates the sport, especially the commentators, and usually leaves the room when I turn it on.  I try to be mindful, but sometimes I don't care.  If I have to put up with some of his silly sci-fi programs, he can deal with me watching some figure skating.  By the way - the winter olympics are just around the corner.  I can't wait!

Last night I went to my monthly bookgroup.  It was good as always.  I love it when everyone can make it.  We read Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Took me forever to get through it, especially the first 200 pages, but as I got into the book and got closer to the end I decided it was worth hanging on and getting to the end.  I love listening to the other gals and their thoughts and opinions.  I get to host the group next month.  We are going to read Candide.  Should be interesting. 
I love a good book.


Well, I am off to bed.  Ta Ta for now