Cleaning out closets, putting up Christmas decorations and getting my hair cut.

I don't really see any good on-line black friday deals, so I haven't been shopping at all.

It sounds like you had a really lovely day Lynn, we did too but cooking can be a handful to manage. I wish I could cozy up and take the day off but we are painting our kitchen and dining room. My DH took the last of his vacation time to conquer the project so no rest for the weary! :c)

As you know, in Michigan we often have snow by this time, but this year it's only flurried a couple of times and the sun is out today. We were told it would be warm and its already 58 degrees outside!

Bought a couple things online ... nightgown from Land's End and a couple ginger products from Origins. Now I need to head to the nursery and pick up a few things. I figure no crowds there.

Decorated the dining room tree last night and tonight/tomorrow I'll tackle the rest. Fresh tree won't go up for a couple more weeks.

Back to cleaning up the guest room for my son and his GF who will arrive 12/5. I'm finally starting to see the light. Then onto the remaining leaves and the rest of the house!

For the first time ever, I am actually starting to decorate! I usually wait until at least a week or so into December, but for some reason, wanted to do it early this year. Just had a turkey sandwich for lunch and, yes, also looking forward to leftovers for dinner. Yummy!

Fasting. lol. I ate so much yesterday it's not even funny. People were sprawled out snoozing! I counted about 10 main courses, with about 9 desserts. Oh, we fried two turkeys and had ham. YUM.

We'll be getting your rain later this evening so we may light a fire. I have some Christmas decor already out but I need to get that finished before I haul the tree out of the closet.

Had a lovely meal at dear friends' home .... and she was kind enough to send us home with leftovers for sandwiches and a meal tonight! I will open a tin of Olde Cape Cod's Corn Chowder to add to the "pub" meal (thats an old custom in our family -- setting out a table full of sandwich fixings on trays (meats, breads, salad-type items, pickles, cheeses, chips etc.) and letting folks do their own plate)

Today -- reading some of my old decor books and mags ....

Especially the Seasonal decor ones! :) And I do have one small tree (brought home from a thrift store) up in the kitchen (with lights but no decorations yet -- planning on dried oranges, pinecones etc.)

Hoping to watch the very old DVD of Christmas Carol with Alastair Sims (1958)! :)

I'm waiting for my DS and future DIL to come over so we can finalize the seating arrangement for their wedding reception. They are getting married NEXT WEEKEND!!!!

I am at work and have a lull in business. Ran to the bathroom, wolfed down a pb sandwich along with iced coffee and checking in to see what you all are up too.

I am enjoying work but am vicariously enjoying your cozy day at home too! A fire, decor mags and pjs are in my plans for tonight:)

Congrats bac!

I just got back from visiting DS and now eating some yogurt while checking up on email, FB, etc. The sun is shining for a change, so will go out and start pruning up things & clearing out dead stuff. We're supposed to get more rain later, so must get it done while I can.

I usually work the day after T-giving, but we have a furlough day today, so it's my guilt free work in the yard day. Not getting out the holiday decor yet...we're not celebrating till February anyway (DS is home Feb. 3!!) so I have time to work on other projects.

Not shopping, either. Sheesh, we live near a mall and several retail outlets...the parking lot at the sporting goods store was over flowing at 7:30 this morning. I might go buy a small turkey tonight, and cook it up tomorrow, since we don't have any left overs, and I kind of miss the day after goodies! We were at friends for dinner and there weren't too many left overs.

Got up early and went hiking alone into the woods by the cabin. Did my meditation out there while seated on a rock. Weather is amazingly gorgeous. Won't be rainy till Sunday.

Back to cabin and DH and DD were up so we had breakfast. DS2 is really ill with a cold. Thought he was getting better last night but has been in bed all day.

I removed the meat from the turkey and made a pot of soup so that is ready when DS2 gets up.

DH and DD just left to drive into town and see DIL and grand baby ...they are going to take him for a walk in the stroller with DIL. They will come back out and get me later. DS1 has to work as the restaurant is going to be busy tonight and tomorrow night.

We are here til Tuesday .

It's fun to hear what you all are doing today!
I've just finished ordering DS's Christmas gifts. I had to have them mailed directly to his APO address, as I can't chance having them sent here, wrapping them, re-boxing them and getting them to him overseas on time. I'm just praying they'll arrive on time as it is! I wish he would have gotten his list to me sooner. Oh well!
Lynn

Watching football and being lazy.

Well after four cups of decaf I managed to do quite a few odds and ends chores and then made the turkey soup. After four hours I sat down to have a cup of the soup and, unbeknownst to me, the hoodie I had on was under my rump. When I went to get up it got stuck in the sofa. (I had cataract surgery two days ago on my right eye) When I went to pull it out the cord at the neck of the hoodie came flying at my eye and I felt a horrible pain. Damn cord had a silver metal ball on the end and it hit me in the eye mentioned above. Luckily my bone above the eye took the worst of it but some hit my eye. That was four hours ago and now I feel somewhat better. If I have any symptoms of a problem I will go to Mass. eye immediately but so far so good. Geesh, you never know what can happen.

As we always do, we're being incredibly lazy today. Hosted 19 people yesterday. Cooked and baked and cooked and baked all week. Today is my day to relax and do NOTHING. Had some leftovers at lunch, but I still haven't had any turkey. Didn't even have any last night. I will have a cold turkey sandwich for dinner tonight. Yum.

Here is a pic of the desserts. I baked everything except the fruit platter that is traditionally brought by SIL.

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Ah, the day after the day...woke up too early, but then my husband suggested we go ahead and get our tree, which we did. Found a beauty and now it's getting acclimated in the living room (the cats are getting acclimated to IT in the living room :).

My SIL and I saw The Descendants at a matinee showing--warning, it is pretty depressing. Then I finished my much-avoided ironing, and made a first-ever-for-me turkey pot pie for dinner using the leftover turkey. Watch my university team lose our final game of the season :(, and now have showered and will soon turn in early.

Tomorrow I'm going to decorate the tree and around the house, and have promised myself to lie down in the afternoon, read and take a nap!!

Ann

Ann, The Descendants and The Iron Lady are on my holiday wish list. I'd heard that TD was equally funny. No?

Vowing to never host Thanksgiving again.

Jill, what's the tart next to the pecan pie? And what's on the pedestal in front of the bundt cake?

DH and I both had to work today, so that made yesterday's fun, relaxing day even more appreciated.

I'm now finally relaxing with a nice glass of wine and a triple shot of ibuprofen, after painting my upstairs hall and stairwell all day. According to my back, I'm getting too old for the stretching over a two story drop, I fear, so next time it needs painting I'm hiring it out! Getting it done before the EOM, though, which was my self-imposed deadline for my home task list, and planning on starting the holiday decorating this weekend, just as soon as I can retire my roller, buckets and paintbrushes for the season. DD and new SIL are home for the holidays in less than a month now!!! :-) Glad all had a happy Thanksgiving and a good day after.

Jill, holy smokes...what a spread! I am impressed, and everything looks beautiful.

Natal, The Descendants was a beautifully made movie, and much like real life, humor was woven into the midst of sadness. However, if you go in expecting a comedy, which is basically what my SIL and I thought we'd see, I think you would be surprised and disappointed. Without giving anything away, death is a major theme in the movie and being beautifully made, the way death is handled will wrench your heart.

It's a very good movie and George Clooney did Oscar-worthy work, but again it's not a lighthearted or even a black comedy so go in prepared to shed a few tears.

Ann, thanks for the heads up.

I'm also planning to see the movie so I appreciate the knowledge. I'll still see it but now I'll be better prepared.

Yesterday was unseasonably warm (60ish) so I took 2 one hour walks instead of hauling out the Xmas decorations. I normally put the candles in the window this weekend, to coincide with the city's tree lighting.

I don't care much for leftover food so after my DH ate some left overs for his Friday lunch, my Mum stopped by and took the rest. Yay, they're out of my fridge and someone can enjoy them.

I put away some of the stuff used for Thx that we won't need again and rearranged some furniture in anticipation of my Xmas visitors.

Today is another beautiful and warm day so it's hard to get in the spirit of decorating for Xmas. Maybe I'll just haul out the boxes and wait to do the decorating until some evening this week. I've already been for one walk and will go for another later today with DH.

I want to go downtown today to support the Small Business Saturday idea. The bookstore in town is the oldest continually operating bookstore in the country, or so they claim. They have books and other items so I'm sure I can find someone I want or need there.

I put the main tree up. Put out a few other things late that I didn't take a pictures of yet.
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I went with some girlfriends to see the Breaking Dawn/Twilight movie a couple of days ago. I haven't read any of the books like my friends have, but have seen all the movies. I actually thought this one was a little more "cheesey" than the others. Didn't enjoy it that much.

DH and DS and I will be going to see Jack and Jill this weekend at some point. My DH has brainwashed my DS (and me to some degree) that we LOVE Adam Sandler movies!

Bac: How exciting! You'll have to report back to tell us all about the big day!

Yaya: I hope you're feeling better by today. I feel your pain -- no, really, I do! I was playing a little tug-of-war with the dog (a little Cairn terrier) when she decided to just let go and BAM! That toy (a double-headed Kong -- so not a soft toy) smacked me in the eye. Or I should say, I smacked myself in the eye with the toy. The pain is gone now, and no obvious eye problems, but sheesh... I felt stupid, she looked at me like "what a stupid mom!"

And Shee: What a pretty tree! How long did it take to decorate? (I don't celebrate Christmas, so all that stuff is foreign to me!)

Natal - next to the pecan pie is a deep dish winter fruit pie. It has apples, pears, cranberries and dried figs, with a walnut crumb topping. On the 3 pedestals -- in the back right is a coffee cake (made in bundt pan), back left is an apple cake, and front right is a olive oil citrus cake. The 1st time I made the olive oil citrus cake, lots of people turned up their noses. Then they tasted it and loved it! It's very citrus-y and quite delicious. It also has a grapefruit glaze on it.

I've been eating the left over apple cake, and DH and DS have been eating the left over coffe cake for breakfast. Yum!

Leahcate - thanks!

Jill, would you mind sharing the citrus cake recipe? I tasted a piece at the farmers' market years ago and forgot about it until you mentioned it. I remember thinking this is going to taste weird and it didn't.

No, I don't mind at all. In fact, I consider it fair compensation for your fabulous honey chipolte pecans that I also made for Thanksgiving :-)

The recipe is from one of my favorite baking cookbooks -- Rustic Fruit Desserts by Cory Schreiber and Julie Richardson. Everything I have made from this book has been really good.

Here's the recipe:
Cake:
1 1/4 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3 eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon plus 3/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1 grapefruit
zest of 1 orange
zest of 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon oil (optional)
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350.
Using paper towl, coat a 9-inch by 2-inch round baking pan with olive oil, then sprinke with about 1 tablespoon granulated sugar.

To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together twice. Using a handheld or stand mixer with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar, and zests on high speed for 5 minutes, until the eggs are thickened and lighter in color. Add the vanilla and lemon oil. Turn the mixer down to medium-low speed and drizzle the olive oil into the batter, pouring slowly along the edge of the bowl. Add the flour and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the cake is golden and has domes slightly in the center. Cool to room temperature.

Glaze:
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

To make the glaze, sift the confectioners' sugar into a small bowl. Add the grapefruit juice and whisk to combine. Pour the glaze over the cooled cake.

Storage: Wrapped in plastic wrap, this cake will keep at room temp for 2 to 3 days.

I made the cake 4 or 5 days earlier and froze. Defrosted overnight and glazed Thanksgiving morning.

I use the optional lemon oil as I like lemon-y desserts.

Here is the cookbook. My DH bought it for me after he read some reviews. I highly recommend it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rustic Fruit Desserts

Thanks Jill! Our citrus season is in full swing and I think I'll use oranges and lemons or just one or the other. I also have a couple bottles of lemon oil and orange oil infused olive oil. I might use that in lieu of the orange oil.

Pammy - Thanks! Honestly, after I fluff the tree it takes usually between 5-6 hours. It's pretty full and layered inside to out. There are usually a few food brakes, Christmas movie changes, etc. I like to take my time and have fun doing it.

Shee, I thought that looked awfully full. It is beautiful, but I wouldn't have the patience to spend that many hours decorating. ;) I just looked at a pic of my tree from last year ... it's more tree than ornaments, lol. Oh well. It puts us in the spirit.

Today I got my tree decorated as well as the house...so pleased to have that done! I can now put away the bins with the holiday lights/ornaments/decorations which is part of my goal this year. Usually I've got those (#*^$ bins cluttering up the back hallway the entire holiday season. I vowed this year I was going to get the decorating done AND wrap early and as I purchase gifts. No more frantic marathon wrapping sessions a day or two before Xmas.

I even had time this afternoon to read a bit and take a nap. Delicious.

Tomorrow I'm going back country canoeing in Everglades National Park with my husband and a big group of people he knows from volunteering (so all of them are rangers, scientists or otherwise connected to nature). Should be a very relaxing day. So peaceful, quiet and tranquil out there. I'm even looking forward to that nice turkey sandwich I'll be making from our leftovers for our picnic lunch :).

Ann

We camped. It was GREAT! We haven't been in a while. We hosted Thanksgiving, but ate early (noon) as my brother and SIL were going back to her parents to eat again that evening. Worked out well as we left late afternoon. We're within an hour of The Great Smoky Mts. national park and Cades Cove is one of our most favorite placess. Hubby had taken the camper up on Wednesday, so it was all set up. We took Thanksgiving dinner leftovers and had it all again Friday night. Took breakfast foods and snack type stuff (cheese/crackers, fruit, sliced ham, etc.) so other than warming everything Friday evening, I did no cooking. Temps were 60's in the daytime but quite chilly at night. Stars were amazing. We have heat in the camper and I had a set of flannel sheets and a warm blanket - so we were snug. We took lots of long walks/hikes,so hopefully worked off the extra calories. It was so nice to relax and enjoy the beautiful outdoors after a week of prepping and also dealing with a situation with my grandmother and her assisted living. Her roommate passed away and is has caused a bit of regression on her part. But anyway, it was just what we needed. Came home today and I'm in my jammies, taking it easy. House is clean, laundry is going and I'm just enjoying! We will decorate later in the week. Had thought to maybe put out the wreaths, greenery, etc. outside this afternoon but it rained earlier and still damp.

Ann - I know you will enjoy tomorrow - have fun!!
tina

Nice way to camp! And all this time I pictured you in a tent. That's the only camping I've ever known. And I was never in love with it. ;)

Sorry about your grandma. Hopefully she won't have to wait long for a new roommate and the two of them will be a good fit.

I finished decorating in the house yesterday. Still too wet to do anything outdoors. Maybe Tuesday.

Thanks for the wishes for my grandmother Natal. It is sad to see her regress. She "took care" of her roommate. She's never stayed alone at night and even tho she is in a villa with others, she's in a private room. She's much happier sharing it.

Oh I've mentioned our trailer before but probably in camping threads. I know there are a few others who like to camp. A camper was our 25th anniversary gift to each other. We love outdoor activities, so camping fits right in for us - even if we don't "rough it". We don't do the "concrete campgrounds", but we do have our comforts LOL. Kitchen/bath, heat, etc. Our retirement plan is to do more, and if we do, probably upgrade.

tina

We broke our cardinal rule about never shopping on Black Friday. In fact I was at Sears by 4:30 AM.

We always go down to San Jose for Thanksgiving and this year was no exception. We left the dogs for Aimee to tend to and we planned to leave early Friday to come home as she was going out of town.

When we arrived at my MIL's house, I was dying of thirst so grabbed a water glass and it was gross. Milky stuff that rubbed off was on all of her glasses. So I opened her dishwasher and noticed undesolved dishwasher soap was everywhere. Her dishwasher is old so we decided she needed a new one. She is 89 with mobility issues so we discussed what she wanted and got up in the middle of the night to run to Sears to buy her one because we really needed to leave early because of the dogs being locked inside.

That said, we were lucky to find her a dishwasher that was originally $825., marked down just for one day, to $450. Stainless outside and in. A Kenmore made by Whirlpool. The handles match her new refrigerator we bought her last visit. They aren't the same brand but they will look great together.

Can't wait to see if she is pleased tomorrow when it will be delivered and installed.

Golddust, you are such a sweetheart . . . and a great DIL! She's blessed to have you. I'll bet that your MIL is going to have such a wonderful day today!
Lynn

I did a Christmas Tree search on all forums and just now saw Shee's tree! OMG, it's gorgeous!!!

Shee, you need to put this picture in the Christmas Tree topic on the decor side. And you have it in a perfect spot, too.

I take my time doing my tree also. I find it relaxing and it puts me in a good mood. The fluffing is the hardest part, but well worth it!