This Past Week

I didn't take any pictures of Thanksgiving - or of decorating the tree. Instead, here's a picture of a bird sitting in a tree.

 

Generally speaking, if I don't post, it's either because I've been too busy - or because I haven't been busy at all. I think the reason I haven't posted much this time is more to do with the former than the latter - but I'm not one hundred percent certain on that.

Thanksgiving came and went in it's usual blur - several weeks off planning a meal (well, two, at least), this year with a self-induced reduced grocery shopping schedule. Tuesday before Thanksgiving was spent driving down to pick up Rachael. Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, was spent baking - four pies (two pumpkin and two chocolate pudding), four double batches of party mix (two spicy Chex mix, two ranch-style oyster cracker mix), preemptively baking several pounds of sweet potatoes - and maybe something else. I can't remember.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, was dedicated to stuffing and baking the turkey with my patented "It's getting done too quickly/ I don't think it's cooking fast enough" technique. This, combined with the aforementioned sweet potatoes, some mashed potatoes (of the 'white' variety), and, with the help of Sam, some green beans (cooked in the pressure cooker) and gravy with sliced mushroom (not cooked in the pressure cooker) made up our mid-day Thanksgiving meal. Oh, and crescent rolls. Plus cranberry sauce (which required me to open not one, but two cans). (As I write this, I just realized that I never opened up and put out the olives. I'll have to remember to send them home with Helaina next time she's over).

After our Thanksgiving feast, we managed to go for a long walk. Dinner consisted of eating the pies.

Friday was dedicated to getting our Christmas tree. Unlike in years past, the tree farm was VERY  crowded. Also unlike in years past, I think it took us all of five minutes to find the tree we wanted - a pre-cut tree, allegedly - or at least presumptively - grown at this very same tree farm. This specimen was standing not too far from the overcrowded entrance making it a fairly quick in-and-out. The rest of Friday was spent doing... something, I'm assuming. Most likely eating left-overs. Possibly even something else. It's kind of a blur.

On Saturday, we decorated the tree. Afterwards, we ate (again), I loaded Jake up with food before he headed back out (did I mention Jake made it up? Did I mention Helaina was home?) and then we, or at least me, collapsed.

Sunday morning was spent down the basement - first, trying to clear off the table buried somewhere under a bunch of "stuff", then finding and digging out the Christmas wrapping paper from somewhere else in the basement, and finally, finding and digging out the presents stashed in various places throughout the basement, cleverly hidden among all the crap treasures down there to fool any would-be burglars into thinking the place has already been ransacked and thus they would be wasting their time by trying to rob us. (This assumes that anyone breaking in isn't (criminally) insane enough to already notice that they are surrounded but nothing but piles of crap treasures). 

Anyway, it was at about this point where I realized that I had somehow thrown out my back (one of the few things we throw out). I lasted long enough to wrap a few presents - and then I gave up.

My back is still in less-than-ideal condition but I'm expecting it to feel better any minute now. Once it does, it'll be back down the basement for me, back to wrapping presents. Once that's done, I can start to think about what to make for Christmas dinner.