Weekending 11/21/22

 Good Morning One and All!

As I typed the date in the title of this post I realized GOSH!!  It's only a month till we take off for Christmas in Texas!  Our flight to Austin is December 21st (my brother Chris' birthday).  So excited!!

We've pretty much decided that no Christmas decorations will be put out.  Mabel would most likely destroy anything we left out, so we will make do with the Swarovski ornaments hanging in our kitchen windows.  They are up year round and Mabel (so far) has not bothered them.  Since I mentioned those last week after our work holiday luncheon, I decided to try and get pictures of the windows to show you.

First up is our South-West facing window that looks out over our driveway.  We can see some beautiful sunsets from this window.

It was night and dark, so not the best picture, but you can get the idea.  And, yes, that is Gumby peeking out from behind the curtain on the left.  LOL

The other window is the one over our sink.  This faces East/Southeast and is the window that looks out over our back yard (and the munching deer).

The beakers on the top ledge are from my Dad's chemist days and the two bud vases on the lower edge were my Mom's.  Yes, these areas can get a little crowded, but I love having little treasures out that mean something to me.

So here we are at Monday (again).  How was your weekend?  Mine was so nice.  As you may have read on Dee's blog, we got together (as usual) on Saturday morning for a therapy session - a little knitting, some sipping of coffee and much chatting and laughter.  We always have such a good time!

While I was out, Fletch started harvesting our Gilfeather Turnips.  

Unfortunately the greens had all been ravaged by bugs and weather, but not the turnips.  Fletch refers to the one in the upper left as an elephant's leg!  LOL.  There are more in the ground to be harvested.  I cooked up two of the smaller ones last night (cut up and boiled and then mashed with butter and S&P - delicious!).

Yesterday Fletch went across the street to our neighbor Rob's to get some firewood (Rob has a TON of wood stacked up and we are free to take as much as we want!!).  Fletch took him a couple of the turnips, but you cannot give Rob anything without getting something in return (more than wood).  Fletch came home with a plate of oatmeal cookies and pumpkin cake.  YUM!!!

Meanwhile, the kids are home!!  They left Austin Friday after work, driving with Talbot and Marcel in a large cat carrier in the back.  The cats were not amused as you can imagine.  But they survived.  They stopped both Friday and Saturday nights at hotels, but drove long days and arrived at their home around 7:30 last night.

I went shopping on Sunday for a few necessities for them:  coffee beans, seltzer (plain and alcohol), wine, raspberries, mandarine oranges, peanut butter filled pretzels, olives from the deli bar, etc., etc.  I drove over to the house in the afternoon and left stuff in their garage.  I can't wait to see them, but that might not be till Thanksgiving Day.  It's wonderful though to know they are here for 3 weeks.  And wonderful to know they made the drive safely (always the worrying mother here).

It's cold here (in the teens), but is supposed to warm up a little bit by Thanksgiving.  I think I will avoid the office this week (it's only a 2.5 day work-week anyway), but I do want/need to get to Trader Joe's - most likely this morning.  I'm still not sure what I'm making/contributing for Thanksgiving.  Probably a couple of pies and some cranberry chutney, but I need to connect with the kids and find out what else - if anything - they want me to make.

I wish you all a wonderful week.  Don't make yourself crazy with holiday plans - just enjoy the days!