Evening all. Catch up time with you all.
Annie – How’s your weekend been? I want to see Spectre – we always go see the latest James Bond movie.
Shad – No surprise you're looking forward to getting home – you’ve been gone a long time and hardly been back at all during that time! And it’ll be so nice to have the family around. Or did you say one son and his partner are going on a cruise? Will they be around for the holiday?? Looking forward to seeing the photos from your weekend sightseeing. Too bad about the cameral giving you problems...
Dee – How was your holiday with the family? Your scalloped potato dish sounds tasty with the two types of taters. LOL re the “pink panther poo” dessert.
Happy – Sounds like your new recipes were a success. Yeh, the green slime dessert is just a thing that pops up at my family’s holiday dinners now and then and has for years. Having made it with the crushed pineapple this time around, I think I like it better without. Actually, I wouldn’t mind making that strawberry pretzel jello dessert thingy – I never made it, but I’ve had it a few times and it’s yummy. I don’t know about decorations on State Street, though Macy’s still has their holiday window displays...I’ll have to walk over and take a look sometime in the next week or two. ---Re your hubby dropping the rx plan – I hope that works out for him. All these years having an FSA with no issues, and this year I have this giant balance to use. Aaargh.--- Good to hear that the shelter software is coming along.--- Maybe if you just focus on the aspects of Christmas that you like, you’ll get in the spirit. I don’t like it creeping into the Thanksgiving space, and get a bit put out with people decorating so early (some in the neighborhood had a tree up before Thanksgiving). And the commercialism of it stinks, of course. But I do like the lights. And putting up the tree – for me it’s all the memories associated with all my ornaments.
Susie – Sounds like you had a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving. But what happened with the sink overflow – NOT relaxing!! Glad nothing got damaged with all that water, especially your cell phone! I liked your Thanksgiving post.
So true.
Ceejay – I hope you didn’t get all that rain that was forecast! The fleece tops sound cozy – and what a deal for you. I was really not in the mood to shop over the weekend at all, even online, but I did get out Saturday and today for some mundane stuff, not gift stuff. Well, one gift. My mom likes those Ferrero Rocher candies and CVS had a buy one, get one free deal on them, so I officially have started my Christmas shopping!
Hellos to Terra and Michelle – miss you & hope to see you back here soon!
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Well, my long weekend is down to tonight and tomorrow. Wednesday and Thursday were busy with food prep and some cleaning. My Thanksgiving was nice, just bf and I, his mother, and two friends – nice and quiet. However, we had the usual hectic last minute kitchen stuff. I really would like bf to be more organized and do more upfront prep so there’s less of that. Sigh. Food turned out well though considering we’ve not done a full-out turkey dinner with all the typical sides. I made a fresh cranberry sauce with some orange zest and orange juice and a cinnamon stick – yum. I might process a bit of that with a bit of mayo to use for a turkey sandwich (a local restaurant has that on their menu – yum). Have to use all that leftover turkey and sides somehow.
Friday was rainy and chilly. We lazed around all day. My only physical activity was a dog walk. Saturday I had my brows done, then did a bit of run-of-the-mill shopping at a couple places. Took advantage of a 25% shopping pass at CVS, but some stuff was still cheaper at Walmart, where I went afterwards. Last night we watched “The Imitation Game” on dvd. I’m glad I finally saw it – it was a good movie.
Today we got outside and raked leaves in the backyard (hardly any in the front – nice!). I’m gonna be sore tomorrow from the raking and from the bending to put the leaves into the yard waste bags. Right now I’m just fatigued, and of course my hands are throbbing from gripping the rake. But I’m glad that’s done. And the tree out back is nearly clean of leaves!
We'd finally bought our patio set cover just before that big snow Saturday before last, and it was nice to have the set covered in time for that heavy snowfall. But I noticed that melting snow/rain accumulates on the table where the cover dips down (the seat backs are higher than the table). So today I went to the dollar store and looked for some type of inflatable toy that I can put on top of the table under the cover, like what they do for pool covers I think. In the boy’s toy area, I found a Ninja bop bag, LOL. Sort of like one of those kiddie punching thingies that have a weighted bottom I remember from way back when. This one doesn’t have a weighted bottom – I have no idea how it’s supposed to work as a toy, but I hope it works for my purposes.
I also bought a bunch of small plastic baskets for our entry closet shelves. It was such a mess with all the hats, scarves, gloves, ball caps, etc. I sorted that stuff into baskets – his, hers, scarves, gloves, hats, etc. I hope this works for us. If not, it’s only a few bucks anyway, and the baskets can be used elsewhere. I LOVE the dollar store.
Hey, I even found a Rodney Yee yoga dvd there. I’ve never done one of his workouts, but I’ve definitely heard of him re yoga, so I thought I’d spring the buck for the dvd and give it a try.
Well, I have one more day off tomorrow and no firm plans. I’m thinking of getting a massage... The park district winter session starts this week though and I intend to take the intermediate Pilates class again - a Monday night class. Sigh. I will have to suck it up and get myself registered for it and go to class - first one is tomorrow night. And I will buy a group fitness punchcard!!! I need my exercise!!!
Okay, that’s it for me, so I’ll get this posted.
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for sharing your beautiful vacation with us 
I guess they got the word (the deer not the hunters) this is a safe sanctuary. Everyone behaved themselves, the new group was understandable skittish. DH put some feed out and whomever got it, got it. 
so I'm not sure how much I will be decorating. Perhaps the open loft area can be made to look festive while the rest of the house is looking like new construction. I'm sure DH is going to make a mess of dust and such too based on the repairs that need to be done.
I am enjoying the more simplified approach myself. Good thinking on the blow up doll for the patio set. Will save wear and tear on the cover for sure. 
Will just have to address the new thread later. 