Yay great nephew! I have been trying to tell my dad that all I know about the Bengals is from listening to you but all I actually know is that you have mentioned Burrow, so it doesn’t make for much actual conversation

Thanksgiving was delightful, AND we have a new great-nephew who was born this morning!

Excellent! I hope everyone had a successful day. We were the smallest group ever gathered, so an abundance of leftovers for all. It was my first big test of a significant food fest while dieting, and I was actually down 2/10ths of a pound this morning, so I'm calling it a win.

My one objective for my Thanksgiving trio was achieved: listening to Alice's Restaurant and watching Pangs and WKRP's Turkeys Away episodes. This happened, so all is well in Laura's world.

It was my first big test of a significant food fest while dieting, and I was actually down 2/10ths of a pound this morning, so I'm calling it a win.

Nice! Definitely a win!

We're meeting my side of the family for breakfast at 10, so we got up at 8. There will be a nap later, for sure.

Black Friday note to anyone who likes the Built Puff protein bars: their website has everything 25% off, which is a good sale. And they have 2 holiday flavors, if that sweetens the deal.

My one objective for my Thanksgiving trio was achieved: listening to Alice's Restaurant and watching Pangs and WKRP's Turkeys Away episodes. This happened, so all is well in Laura's world.

There was a notable lack of Alice's Restaurant in our Thanksgiving, which was something JZ and I always made time for but I've failed to pass that on to my kids.

Very successful Thanksgiving with much laughter (the champagne helped in that regard). As we went around the table to give thanks, I started and got as far as "I'm very grateful for..." when EM leaned sideways (very unselfconsciously) and ripped a fart. Sabotage!

Also, we've had to institute a new tradition of giving thanks after the meal and before dessert because somebody (EM) went on a lengthy ramble of a toast that meandered for 25+ minutes (very sweetly being grateful for Matilda's presence in her life) such that everything on the table got cold. This caused Matilda's friend Mia (who is very funny in a blunt way) to bark out "I want gravy!" halfway through.

Food was good all the way around, though. And I reheated the gravy to salvage our plates.

-t will be happy to know I had two slices of pie (apple, pumpkin) for breakfast.

We ate the last of the pumpkin pie last night while watching the Bengals actually win. Now I am pie-less and therefore sad. Woe.

I had pie this morning but that’s all the leftovers I have. But I am headed to the home opener of the women’s hockey team here, which should be fun. I wasn’t going to go but a friend had an extra ticket. Puts a bit of a crimp in my plans to chill all day and pack for tomorrows trip—very little chill this morning as I had to go get the dog, then did a bit of cleaning and now on my way to the game. When I get home gotta walk the dog and maybe go work out?? And clean and pack and then go dancing? TBD.

Matilda's beau and friend slept over in the garden apartment last night.

So they wandered upstairs and I fed them mashed potatoes and gravy for breakfast (at their request) and trimmed Matilda's hair (at her request), before she headed off to do her first Black Friday shift in the retail world.

I cleaned a bunch of pots and now I have more pots to clean! Sisyphus ain't got shit on my dishes.

But I just had my first turkey sandwich and it was glorious and now I'm droopy and mellow with tryptophans.

My niece and her family were here from Wisconsin, so we all got together to run the kids around a park today before they headed back home. Now I’m spending the afternoon helping my sister start her Christmas decorating and watching Hallmark channel holiday stuff. Tomorrow we’re expecting about 5” of snow, so that will be a good time for my LotR marathon/ tree decoration.

Hello, all. Just catching up here after a very busy week. We always host a big chosen family Thanksgiving at our place, but since ND is always in tech for A Christmas Carol and stays down in Irvine from Friday night on, it's mostly me. For the past 8-9 years, my mom has come out from Connecticut and been my cheerful sous chef and co-prepper, but because her kitty got sick (kitty is doing fine now), she couldn't come this year. It hit me hard. Prepping for Thanksgiving alone is very hard and rather depressing, and I think some of it also is the aftermath of feeling the passage of time. This is my second Thanksgiving and Christmas and Dad's birthday without him, and that makes me worry about missing any time with my mom. However, friends made things easier — I had a couple friends come by and hang out with me while he was gone, and ND was able to come home Sunday night so he could help me with the grocery shopping on Monday before driving back down Monday night. Thursday morning, ND and I cleaned the heck out of the house while I finished food prep, and we were ready by the time people arrived. We usually have between 10-20 people; this year, we were supposed to have 12, but three people dropped out unexpectedly, so we ended up with nine total. Good thing everyone took home a lot of leftovers!!!

In terms of what I cook, I do the Alton Brown turkey (though I love that he just dropped this update video; I did, indeed, truss my turkey this year), gravy, a fancied up Trader Joe's cornbread stuffing (I add celery, onion, apple, and dried cranberries), a homemade cranberry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes with butter and a touch of brown sugar, an apple-pear pie, and my favorite pumpkin pie recipe, which includes dried, sugared cranberries and pie crust cookies with cinnamon sugar cut into leaves. Everything except the turkey and gravy is vegan (except the pumpkin pie, which is vegetarian). Our friends brought DELICIOUS roasted veggies, mashed potatoes, more appetizers than I can list, and extra dessert, including a homemade guava cheesecake. Everything was delicious. A few of us went for a hike up the fire road and then sat around and laughed and chatted. Even without my mom there, it was a warm, loving chosen family gathering, as always. I never regret the work it takes to make it happen.