THANKSGIVING AND POST-THANKSGIVING 2021

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving last week. Jack and Olivia came to visit...and Olivia did all the onion chopping and hand dish-washing going for two days! Molly and Ben came for dinner, and Molly made the most wonderful Cherry pie and two Bourbon Pecan pies I have ever tasted. It rained, so my plan of sitting outside did not pan out. We even had a bon-fire ready to go...however it would have been a smoky dud if we had tried to start it. 

I even got the Christmas tree up, although to be honest, it pretty near whipped my butt. I had loaned Ben my "pre-lite" 6 foot spruce, but after all the moving and stuff the top part would not light up anymore, so he had stored it and bought him a new tree. I was just going to put lights on the top and make do, but in the confusion of packing up Chances stuff for Virginia and the rest of Beth's (ex- daughter-in-law) stuff...many things got removed to the local dump. Alas, my fancy half lighted tree was one of those items. Ben saved the day though. He looked in his attic, and lo and behold he found a Christmas Tree box, with an actual tree in it! It was an older spruce where each limb is color coded and hooks onto the main trunk. It has a heavy duty fold open base and it was a quality tree when they purchased it years ago. Said tree had no instructions...but seemed pretty clear cut. Fire up that first glass of wine and lets get started. Dave has  snuck out to the other room, after the yearly argument over having a Christmas tree. He may be Baptized as a /Southern Baptist now, but those Pentecostal roots run deep. I call him my "closet Pentecostal"...the Christmas tree hating kind. Anyway, so I have stacks of tree branches everywhere. I start...I am working semi-from the bottom up, just at least one of each size branch in place to remind me where they go...and the damned branches just keep falling off. Fire up glass of wine number two, put on the Christmas music, hunt for my readers so I can see the letters on the branch ends. I had worked the night before, I had only slept 2 hours, my cognitive skills were already pretty sketchy.  I send Ben a Text that I am having a hell-of-a-time with the tree because it is different that what I have put together in the past, He ad Molly offer to come over after the pies come out of the oven. Well that is an option I can live with! LOL. I notice that one of the branches looks bent...so I lift up on it as I am pushing back...OMG...THEY LOCK IN PLACE. Now I have to back-track and LOCK IN PLACE every previously mangled branch I have managed to get in place. Awesome! Text Ben Back "Don't come...figured it out". LOL. Fire up glass of Wine number three. Fly through putting all the other branches on. OMG, the needle fall-out. Grab the vacuum cleaner and clean the floor. Now is time for fluffing the branches. This part took an additional hour. OMG,  the needle fall-out...repeat of the vacuum cleaning, dog who hates the vacuum has now left because she is terrorized. Fire up glass of Wine number four....by now the box of wine is getting low, lol. I pull out the new strings of lights, find an extension cord and plug them in...all of them work. Starting at the bottom and working to the top I place all 600  multi-colored LED's strategically so that any thin area of the tree will not show. Then comes all the glittery ornaments. I am down to just a few glittery stars...and on to Wine glass number five when JACK AND OLIVIA arrive.  I am still standing (barely...my poor feet are hurting, but my balance is great). Olivia helps m with the last of the ornaments. I start packing up the ornament boxes and stuff I didn't use and I find another box of ornaments...I mean at least one hundred more ornaments...nope nope nope nope...we are done. (DAVE has already deserted to the bed). Jack helps me put the boxes in the attic (I do the stairs and he hands the crap to me). I vacuum one last time. Done....Glass of wine number six is chilling in the glass.  Did I every tell anyone I am not much of a wine drinker? I mostly don't care for the taste, but todays boxed wine was mighty fine. 

We stayed up a while. Olivia made guacamole, I made tater salad (needs made the day ahead so the flavors are all good). It was fun. Go to bed late. Next morning...gee why is my head hurting? Dave got up at 5 and started roasting the Turkey. I get my first cup of coffee (throw in a shot of Pecan Praline Whiskey to deal with the wine headache) and we are off to the races. Make a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and biscuits with butter and whatever kinda jelly ya want. OJ, goat milk, water, coffee, tea...paper plates (cause I am that kinda gal who hates dishes). We got a call from my Nephew Michael about this time...good to hear from him. I wish he could see this Ornate Tree I constructed by myself! I the put the dressing in the oven and got the last minute items on to a slow simmer. (Can't do without that Turkey gravy!). Dave didn't think I should make breakfast since we would have so much food for lunch, but he ate anyhow. Thanksgiving dinner was planned for 2 and we actually started at 3, when Ben, Molly and the pies arrived., so I was glad I had made breakfast.  We also had pies that Jack and Olivia brought, pumpkin and chocolate, so all the bases were covered.  We had so much food I was in a coma. Later realized we didn't put out any cranberry sauce...lol...it was not missed.  the good thing was that it was cool enough, we just kept everything covered on the bar and it was snack at your own risk. LOL. Paper plates made clean up a snap...and bless Olivia's heart over there doing the hand washing. We had so much fun. 

I had to work the day after Thanksgiving, so Jack and Olivia left around Noonish so I could get my nap. I knew it would be busy the days following the holiday, and it has been...like insane crazy busy. I pulled into work with an ambulance pulling into the ER bay. I see CPR in progress...oh HELL...run in, don't worry about clocking in, throw my work stuff in the break room, grab my stethoscope and pen and get to work. This little lady had been down for awhile before being found, so she did not make it. Sad for the family the day after Thanksgiving. So the shift started with a bang and just kept going from there. I think I clocked 12,000 steps that day. 

And that my friends...is how our Thanksgivings roll...good one day and crazy the next.