Today in My History

2000:  The Creative Touch
2001: To All My Estonian Readers
2002: An Elegant Sufficiency
2003: Self-Esteem Saturday
2004: A-HEM
2005:  Motorcycle Barbie
2006: He Finally Did It
2007: Shhh--Writer at Work
2008:  Mom's Christmas Crisis--a Bit Early
2009:  Another 3-Show Weekend
2010:  In the Holiday Spirit
2011:  Amber and Neely
2012: The Book Club

Bitter Hack
Updated: 11/27
Spring Awakening

Books Read in 2013
 Updated: 11/16
"A Town Like Alice"
"Ramona"

Kiev
Zaporozhye
Kherson
Sevastopol
Yalta
Odessa
Istanbul

Magpie Journal

mail to Walt

I am replacing my Funny the World logo for the rest of this month with a link to a site where you can donate to help in the disaster relief in the Philippines.  I know there are a zillion organizations which are working to help the people.  You may not want to donate to compassion, but I hope you choose the organization you prefer.  Just donate.  The need is so great...

STUFFED

29 November 2013

I have emerged from a tryptophan-induced coma to write this entry.   We got home around 8 tonight, fed the dogs, watched Jeopardy, and I promptly fell asleep, waking at 1 a.m. and staggering off to the living room to continue my sleep, but once I got settled on the couch, the thought that I had not yet written a journal entry started to nag at me (yes, I'm that compulsive about this journal), so I finally got up to write it so I could finally get back to sleep.

We had not one, but two Thanksgivings today, and neither of them was spent with any of our children, the first time since 1966 that we have not been with any of our kids.  We did talk with both Ned and Jeri, and Tom sent a text message, though.

We started our turkey-o-rama at Atria, where we went to their Thanksgiving brunch, a gala affair with ham and turkey with all the trimmings except stuffing.  No stuffing!!!  But the food was, as always, very good and we enjoyed ourselves with my mother and, for a time, with Peggy, who was waiting for her daughters to arrive so they could enjoy their own feast.

We finished our visit and said goodbye to my mother and started out of Atria, when Sandra, the receptionist, told me we should take a pie from the stack of pies all over the lobby.  Since we already had 2 pumpkin pies at home, we chose a fruit pie with red showing.  I didn't know what kind of "red" it was, but we took that one (it turned out to be rhubarb).

At around 4, after watching the National Dog Show on TV (I'm no dog show expert, but was happy to see that the dog I picked was the winner), we drove over to the home of Ned's in-laws.  Ned wasn't there, being at home in his neck brace and unable to ride in a car (but his friend Jessica came to cook turkey dinner for the two of them).  But we found things in the Wilson kitchen under fabulous control of Marta's step-sister, Lindsay.

It wasn't long before the turkey was ready to be carved.   Lindsay's father-in-law Dan did the honors.  Walt said the best thing about having dinner at the Wilsons was that he didn't have to carve the turkey!

Lindsay's daughter had made place markers for everybody that were very cute.

(I posted the above photo to Instagram, which posts to Facebook, and as we were sitting down to dinner, Lindsay thanked me for posting the photo, which means she had things so well in hand, she had time to check Facebook before serving the meal!!)

There were three tables set up.  I didn't get a picture of the kids' table, but these were the other tables:

We actually didn't know several people at the dinner, though enjoyed getting to know them a little.  Lindsay's in-laws, though, we had connected with on our Russia trip.  They were taking the same cruise, but on a different ship and we ran into each other in the Amber Room of the Hermitage and arranged to have lunch together that afternoon ("your ship or ours?")  We have since enjoyed comparing notes on our respective cruises.

When dinner was over, there was the choice of which dessert to have.

And then, after sitting around chatting some more, we finally decided we had to get home to feed the dogs.  I really wasn't sure how today was going to go, not being with the kids, but it turned out to be a very lovely Thanksgiving, even if I don't want to have turkey OR pumpkin pie tomorrow.

And now Im going to see if I can return to that tryptophan coma I was in and finish the night under a fluffy blanket and a Chihuahua.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

Gift pies at Atria

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