Sunday, November 26, 2017

Thanksgiving 2017












Well.

My poor dad ended up having hip surgery on Thanksgiving morning. After 11 hours in the ER the day before, and a really good, but unsuccessful, attempt by the doctors there to coax his displaced hip back into place, it was decided that we needed to transfer him to Regions Hospital in St. Paul for another attempt in the OR. Because of the holiday weekend, Regions had a hip orthopedic surgeon on call, so there he went.

Surgery was not our first choice, but he was in a tremendous amount of pain. The surgery itself ended up not being as aggressive as it could have been, but surgery on someone who is 88 years old is almost always a big deal. He made it through, which was a huge relief and as exhausting as the situation was, we were so grateful that he was able to have the procedure done sooner than later and not have to continue on in the pain that he was experiencing.

Thanksgiving Dinner was then served several hours later than planned.

Dad is now back at the Care Center. I have to say, it feels good to have him back in a familiar place close to home.

I am thankful. I am grateful. I am accepting.

Saturday, November 18, 2017

The Week Before Thanksgiving







Strange to say that time has flown by so fast this past week, but of course it has. Not sure that I'd have thought this would have been the case with me no longer working, but maybe things just have a way of filling in the holes.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to see what being a vender in a craft fair was like. Little Bohemian Heart was invited to set up a table of baby cocoons and such at an in home craft fair in Pa's neighborhood. Their advertising fliers said "Clay and Cloth", so I guess what I had fit in. Although I'm not so sure that this is something I think I would enjoy doing on a regular basis, it was interesting to experience all the same, and I ended up selling a few things while I was there. It was gracious to allow me into their home. They even had a big pot of vegetable soup, breads, cider, and ginger cookies for us to eat!

I've already finished our next book for Book Club, which isn't until January. Will I remember what the book was about by the time it rolls around?

I've also joined a small women's group bible study with Debbie. She's been suggesting I join them for quite a few years already, and I decided that now was as good a time as any. Debbie and I had supper first at Pappy's, a little hole in the wall diner in Andover. And, if we happen to go there again, I think I'll order the fried chicken as it looked really delicious.

Bruce and I drove up north for a night and had a cozy night in, reading in front of a roaring fire. At least the fire eventually began to roar, I think the most recently chopped up wood was a little green...

Which then brings me to today, which turned out to be a bright and sunny Saturday full of ideas and thoughts for the upcoming week. I picked up our turkey for Thanksgiving at Cub, which is now in the fridge thawing out for the big day. I was thinking that I might get a Butterball turkey, but the Cub Brand turkey ended up being a dollar a pound less. Plus we've eaten this brand before and it was just fine.

My porch pumpkin was doing so well until the squirrels got a hold of it ...





The next few days will be even more busy, getting it all together for the dinner, but it will be so, so worth it. And, I'm so excited for my boys to be home!

Monday, November 6, 2017

Turkey







There was an awful lot of turkey eating going on in this house last week. But, we managed to finish all of it up without waste, which is a very good thing.

Perhaps many folks would tire of eating turkey morning, noon, and night, but, not us.

I personally enjoy eating leftovers for breakfast, and turkey with green bean casserole was quite delicious. Bruce made his signature omelettes of turkey, cheese, and cranberries, which was yum! And we made barbecue turkey pizza, turkey divan, and turkey noodle soup to round it all out.

There's still a couple of more weeks until Thanksgiving, plenty of time to get hungry again for turkey. Both Jake and Nick plan on coming home for the holiday, plus I invited Pa and Richard to join us again this year. Richard will bring his signature pumpkin pie, and Pa plans on bringing something called Broccoli Puff, which gets rave reviews at potlucks, she has heard.

I'll start getting my master list going of menu items to serve, and for getting the house in order soon.