G'Day

Hubby left today for three weeks in Australia.  

I hate it when he goes this long.  And the fact that we're marching toward Christmas doesn't help.  There are several Christmas choir concerts for the kids that he's going to miss, and the church Christmas party.  And two full weekends, and two other half weekends.  He was here today, Saturday, but spent most of the day in somewhat frantic preparation to get on the plane this evening.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving.  My mother actually maintained her calm very well, right up until the end, when first she spilled the gravy thickening. "Did Grandma just swear?" Thing 1 whispered, then quietly disappeared from the kitchen, just missing what happened next. My mother was moving toward the stove with a large pot full of turkey drippings, and somehow knocked the pot on the edge of the range top, sending the drippings into an inexplicable fountain that arched up out of the pot like a gravy tsunami before it came crashing down all over the cooktop and sloshed straight out onto everyone standing in front of the stove.  It mostly splattered on my mother, standing shocked with the now half empty pot, and my husband and brother who were poised to help take the turkey out of the oven, and the rest oozing down all over the front of the stove and onto the floor.  My sister in law was on her knees wiping up the floor and stove front with the dishcloth that always hangs there before I could even close my mouth. I recovered and started throwing hand and dish towels from the drawer next to me across the room at anyone near the stove and they started mopping things up - dishtowels and gravy drippings sizzling on the glass cooktop.  My brother had the sense to turn down the stove top which was glowing volcano red at having all the pots suddenly removed from the surface.  Within just a few minutes everything was mopped up enough to continue, and preparations proceeded and dinner hit the table just about on schedule.

The food was fabulous.  Even the gravy, though four more cans of chicken broth were brought up from the storage room to try and make up for what was lost.

My brother and his family had to leave Thursday night, because my sister in law was hosting 40 some odd people of her side of the family on Friday for their Thanksgiving.  Just as they were leaving my favorite uncle and his family showed up - they ping pong back and forth every year between my mom's house and my aunt's house. This year was my aunt's house, but no matter where they go for Thanksgiving, my uncle's family always come to my mom's for the Black Friday shopping and Thanksgiving part Deux, which is basically a leftover repeat of Thanksgiving part one.  Even Kelso got more Thanksgiving than usual, and he gave the already cleaned stove front and floor a thorough licking before I attacked it one more time with glass cleaner because obviously it hadn't been cleaned thoroughly enough if it attracted the dog.

We went to "the Rise of The Guardians" in what is becoming a traditional Black Friday Kid's Movie Matinee trip, including all the interested adults.  In past years the uninterested adults continued shopping, but this year they got to stay home and take care of my cousin's babies.

We usually stay through until Saturday or Sunday, but because Hubby had so much to do before leaving for Australia, we bundled up and headed home on Friday night.

Today I started putting out Christmas.  I don't have the tree out, but got the girls help to put away Thanksgiving stuff and carry boxes of Christmas stuff upstairs.  Because we were still completely disorganized with moving/remodeling the basement last year, and the year before I was in my refusal to crawl through the eves to get out any more Christmas decorations than were absolutely necessary, some of this stuff hasn't seen the light of day for nearly three years.  And thanks to ebay, I have a mantel on the fireplace now where there was no mantel before, installed last week by my favorite carpenter.  The nutcrackers have a place to sit, and the stockings have a place to hang.

Now all we need is snow.