Holiday Weekend Wrap-Up

Well, the weekend isn't exactly over yet as technically it is only Sunday morning but as far as I am concerned, there is no weekend fun left for me so it might as well be over. The remainder of the day will be spent helping my son get a 10 page paper for Ethics ready to be turned in soon. And a take-home final exam. And the final reworking of a 2nd 10 page paper for another class. Oh yeah, the weekend is definitely over for me. And while I will be tackling the homework "joy", my husband will be out enjoying lunch with a friend at Hooters. I would rather be subjected to waitresses in short-shorts than be on the "I-hate-school-why-do-they-make-us-do-all-this-work!" train but here I am.

Can you tell I'm going into this with a positive mind set?

Anyhow, I digress. The weekend was really very nice, although a lot of work. It always surprises me how tired I get from simply preparing food. But this weekend was a little different, too, in that we had a guest (my husband's sister) from out of town for a couple of days that we entertained and entertaining is exhausting! Thanksgivings past were a lot of work, too, but once dinner was over and everyone went home, I just sat around like a slug for the rest of the weekend. But that's not so easy to do with company. Although I tried. I actually sent her (and her dog) to my daughter's house to sleep. Not that I have to entertain company at 3:00 a.m. or anything but by having her sleep somewhere else, I could at least sleep-in myself. And not get up early and make breakfast. Who's lazy?

But oh the food this weekend was awesome (yes, I am patting myself on the back). I mean, really good. Usually there is one thing I make that is not so good but everyone eats a little just to be nice. But this year it was perfect. Excellent turkey, plenty of stuffing, fabulous potatoes, spinach and cheese casserole to die for, green beans, cranberries - even the dip was superb! Love that. If I'm going to work in the kitchen for 2 days, the results had better be fabulous and there was no disappointing this year. Even the turkey sandwiches the next day were so good.

We also enjoyed time together as a family going over the Black Friday ads, watching the newly released "Christmas Carol" animated movie from Disney and getting our faces read. Um yeah. That was not at all my idea. See what happens when you have company for the holidays? It was ok, though - we don't mind humoring our out-of-town guests a bit. We're hospitable like that.

 And most of the weekend, post turkey, had us all looking like this:

Son-in-law and husband with beer.

Son wondering why I am taking his picture. No beer.

Visiting sister-in-law with wine (and more beer on the table).

Daughter with 2 sleeping dogs. Also no beer. Smart girl.

Looking back over the weekend, I know I have a lot to be thankful for. Good food, fun times, people (and a pooch) I love. All good. Except homework.

Harry Potter Part 1

Tonight, I spent the evening at the movies with my husband, son and a friend to see the 1st of the final Harry Potter movies. It is always interesting to see what I recall from the books when I see the movies - and yes, I have read every book and seen every movie so far. Don't judge me. If you haven't read the series, you most definitely should. My whole family are Pottermaniacs and it's been a treat to share it all with them.

But, as we were talking at work, it always surprises me how much I forget from the books. Or get mixed up between books. For instance, for those of you who are fans, you will remember the character of Bellatrix. I called her Beatrice earlier in the day. Forgetful. And my friend Kathy (who went to the movie with us tonight) was thinking the trio (if you don't know who I mean, you won't care about this reference) were carrying "pieces of 8" around their necks. Umm, yeah, that would be pirates. The correct term being horcruxes. Horcruxi. Horcruxees. Whatever.

Overall, the movie was very true to the book - even the snake popped out of the old lady. Now you want to read the books, don't you? I think before Part 2, I will read the book once again just to refresh my memory. And see Part 1 all over again. And then, when Part 2 of the movie concludes, I'll be sad. The end of the Potter era. Nothing further to look forward to.

Except a trip to Harry Potter world at Universal Studios. That will definitely be in our future. Relive the magic. Long live Harry Potter.

(Go read the books. Trust me, you won't be sorry).

PS- if you see the Deathly Hallows, Part 1, I would love to know - did it end where you thought it would? I was pretty spot-on in my guess, give or take a minute or 2. Don't want to give it away so leave me a comment with your thoughts.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Why, you might ask? It's all about food. Nothing bad about that! And, although I am still going to Weight Watchers, I shall not be watching what I eat this Thanksgiving Day.

We host dinner at our house on Thanksgiving mostly because my sister has an aversion to sticking her hand into a raw turkey. So I took over the duties a few years ago and have it down to a science. I make a few things a day in advance and just reheat the day of while other things are being prepared. Like the turkey. And Grandma's stuffing. The only thing I don't make is the pies. That's my Mom's job. She's likes to make them so who am I to argue.

This year we might be having two extra guests from out of town so I decided I should decorate the place a bit so Thanksgiving doesn't look like it's the holiday that was forgotten. Of course, if you focus on the food, like I do, you know it's not forgotten at all. But a few pilgrims and turkeys needed to make an appearance this year as well. Here's some photos of the non-food holiday decor:

This cutie stuffed turkey sits on an end table in my family room. He's wearing a bib so he doesn't get any cranberry sauce on hisself.

New to the decor are the wicker-looking Indians and their counterparts:

the wicker-looking Pilgrims.

In front of the fireplace are a few pumpkins and a new turkey piece. Gotta love the spark-lay pumpkin.

The living room features these corn-butt Pilgrims. Their faces aren't so white in reality - the flash from the camera washed them out. But then again, they are pale-faces so maybe I shouldn't be too concerned. For some reason I seem to like my ancestors to look like anything but real people because I don't believe the true pilgrims had lower halves made of ears of corn. Or wicker. See above.

The view of my entertainment center. I did the artificial floral arranging in the cornucopia and "made" the signs framed on the wall.

Here's a close-up. These are actually just printables I found on the web that were printed on photo paper and framed in a garage sale purchased frame. I spare no expense when I decorate.

So that's how we're rolling this Thanksgiving. Which cannot get here soon enough so I have an excuse to blow off a day of dieting.

Glamour Shots

A couple of days ago, I saw a news story about the "in" thing in photography called "boudoir" photos. Yeah. Cause I want my bod posing in front of a camera. On my bed. In lingerie. No, thanks. But as we were talking about this at work, I remembered Glamour Shots. Do you remember these places? A walk-in, get-a-makeover-and-get-your-photo-taken place in major malls? I thought they were so, well, glamorous and I couldn't wait to get my photos done. They "poufed" up my hair, layered me with a ton of makeup and big jewelry and I thought I was so H.o.T. Here's the photos I dredged up to share with you all:

Seriously, what is with that hair? And all the gold trim on the clothes...like Mr. T picked the wardrobe (I pity the fool!) But I have to say, my complexion never looked better! And hubby loved these photos so much, he still has one framed and sitting on his dresser. I guess he wants to remember me as the sex goddess I once was. Not as I look currently:

Hey, I just turned 50, what did you expect? Heidi Klum? I guess I will have to look into some boudoir photos just for you. And instead of big hair, maybe I'll just ask about some teeth. What do you think?

This week in retrospect

I am getting lazy about posting. I don't mean to be lazy, I just forget. Or don't think I have anything to say. Which is unlikely since I always seem to have something to say. So to catch up, I am recapping this week for your enjoyment. Or not.

Monday I took the day off work to spend a little time with my aunt who was in town for a visit. She and my mom picked me up and we did what we do best - anything that involves food. We went out to lunch. We went to the Russell Stover outlet store and the Rocky Mountain Chocolate store. We did manage to stop at one non-food related store so that's a plus for us. And you wonder why I need Weight Watchers?

Tuesday it was back to work and that's all I have to say about that.

Wednesday was Princess Leia's Birthday. No, not the one from the movies. Our Princess Leia turned 4.

You go, you party animal you! Who doesn't care that it's her Birthday?

Thursday was pretty uneventful. Work again. A little TV. Yeah, I got nothing to say about Thursday.

Friday evening was family movie night against Jacob's better wishes. But that is typical. We always ask him to join us for a movie and most of the time he agrees but only after he complains about how he doesn't have time, how he probably won't like the movie, how it's creepy to hang out with your mom and dad and watch a movie, and so on. And then he watches it anyway and usually enjoys himself. This time we watched How to Train Your Dragon. It was cute.

Saturday started out with a late breakfast followed by some homework with Jacob, rounded out with a trip to the salon for a hair cut, a little perusing the holiday goodies at Hallmark and then home to create a mediocre dinner of chicken tortellini soup and homemade bread, topped off with a couple of episodes of Boston Legal (we're almost done with Season 4) and some blogging.

Now it's time to turn in and get my extra hour of sleep. Tomorrow it will be dark out by 5 pm and winter will officially begin to suck. I can't wait.

Halloween Wrap-Up

Halloween has come and gone. That's ok - it's not really my favorite holiday anyhow. Frankly, no one in my house is a big fan. My daughter and her husband love it but they don't live here so we don't have to get too caught up in their excitement (and last minute costume assembling). But we do pass out candy every year and I make the entire family sit outside and join in the fun. Freezing, boring fun. Because we only get about 50 kids, if that. And it was a little cold this year. However, no one lost any limbs due to frostbite so what are they complaining about?

This is a look at the porch where the little kiddies came to get their candy. The witch's hat is hanging on a spider-web shepherd's hook and has a light inside. The bat pumpkin was our uncarved jack-o-lantern this year. Yes, you might think I took the easy way out by not carving a pumpkin but come on - how many people do you know that spray paint their pumpkins? And the little orange "jack" was the candy holder.

I also brought my ghost lights from inside the house to the yard as added spooky decor. Only thing is, since we start trick-or-treating at 6 pm, it was too light out and you couldn't see these little guys glowing. So no spooky. Not that these look like they would instill terror at any rate. Unless they were lighting the way to Dracula's Castle or something. Not in the yard of a middle aged woman handing out Tootsie Rolls.

So we passed out the goods for an hour and a half, then warmed up inside with some munchies while watching the old black and while movie (is there a color version?) of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. Fun movie. If you have never seen it, add it to your Halloween movie list next year. Forget about Saw 29 or Chuckie the Demented Doll or whatever creepy, gross movie is out next October 31st. This a classic everyone should see once. And you can probably watch it instantly on Netflix. Check it out.

Other than that, Halloween was pretty uneventful. And now it's time to take down the decorations and figure out what to put up for Thanksgiving. My favorite holiday. Cause it's all about food. And that makes it a favorite of mine every time.

Speaking of food, do you think the squirrels will get poisoned when they try to eat their way through a black spray-painted pumpkin?