Happy December To Ya

I know it's now December [Where'd the month go?], and I never blogged about our little Thanksgiving dinner we had last week with Ron and Monica. It actually turned out really well. Nothing was a disaster like I had envisioned, and more importantly, no one got sick or died. I was so beat by the end of the night. I think I out-did myself because not only did we have a 15-lb turkey (stuffed, of course), but I made homemade, cinnamon applesauce, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, rolls, a banana cream pie (fully equipped with meringue), and we bought a Sara Lee pumpkin pie. The applesauce seemed to be the biggest hit, so I was thinking about making some more and giving small jars of it as gifts for some people this Christmas [It's either that or a 20-lb fruitcake, folks...you choose].
I was afraid we weren't going to finish all the leftovers, but we actually cleaned them out pretty well. I'm happy I won't have to throw out too much food. I can understand why people go elsewhere for Thanksgiving. Let someone else do all the work and get fat off the leftover food.

The next day we put up the Christmas tree only to find that half of the lights aren't working on it. Of course, I discovered this after putting the ornaments on. At least you can't tell from outside that it's all screwball. It's laughable from inside the house though. I think buying a new set of chaser lights for next year will be on the top of my list.

I'm now just waiting for the 13th to come around because my sister will be up from Kentucky for a couple weeks. She was able to get some time off work to come visit. I miss her a lot, and I don't get to spend a lot of time with her anyway, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to spend at least a couple days together just hanging out.
As for now, I'm just enjoying the USB drive of Christmas music my boss gave me yesterday. He even threw on a special folder of his self-proclaimed "Badass 80s Music" since he knows I'm a fan. It does have a good mix on there, but Jon and I have a bigger and more diverse collection. It's still good though. There are plenty of good Christmas songs on here, as well. He put over 117 songs on there, which I will fully utilize this holiday since I'm lacking in the Christmas music area. Beyond 'NSync, 98°, and Amy Grant, I haven't got much variety.

Oooh, Louis Armstrong...

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's finally here, and I'm glad. It's nice to have a little break from the monotony of everyday life and spend some time with family. That's what I love about the holidays. I got an early start yesterday because we were let out of work at noon. My boss held me a little longer because he heard I was in desperate need of guidance on how to cook a Thanksgiving dinner, so he spent an extra half hour giving me tips and printing things out from Cooks Illustrated. Everything he gave me is going to be really helpful, so I was really grateful for that.

Then I needed to rush off because I promised my grandmother I would take her out for lunch (which really ended up being the other way around since she never lets me pay). We went to Perkins, and it was slower than I'd ever seen it there my whole life. It was kind of nice for a change.

Today we're heading out to my parents' house for dinner around noon. It will be the first Thanksgiving I've had at their house in a while because we're usually at my grandmother's. This means I need to get off my butt and start cooking what I'm bringing over. Boy, this is going to be a busy weekend...

So what are all of you doing today? Since we're supposed to get snow today, I loathe all of you in warmer climates.

Thanksgiving 911

Thanksgiving is coming up in less than a week, and I'm a little nervous. Next Saturday I'm planning a dinner, and Ron and his wife, Monica, get to be my guinea pigs, so to speak. I've never undertaken anything like this before, so it should be interesting. I'm a little stressed out about it, but I'm excited to be trying something new. I figure, one day we're going to end up being the ones fixing holiday dinners and having company over, so I may as well start perfecting it now.

We got a 15-pound turkey, so I'm thinking we either need to have a couple more people over or we're going to have way too many leftovers. I want to stuff it, but I haven't a clue how much stuffing I need. One of the sites I was on said I needed 6-8 cups of stuffing for that size turkey. That seems like an awful-lot of stuffing. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can only clean out about 4-5 ounces of stuffing at a time if that's all I'm eating.

I've decided to enlist the help of my parents, so I'm not going into this completely blind. I asked my dad if he could type up a recipe for me, and he's going to give it to me on Thursday, but I think there are some things I need to get cleared up this weekend. For one, I have no clue how exactly he boils the giblets (if it's in water or in some type of stock) and how long because I love those [Cue the "ewww"'s.]. If it's in a stock, then I'm going to need to get something before Black Friday. I grabbed up those turkey-sized roaster bags, so it should only take about 3 hours to cook that turkey. Thankfully, they have some instructions on the inside but no indication to how to cook it with stuffing inside. This is sad: Anyone have a clue?

Any outside help I can get, as well, would be appreciated because, as you can see, I'm completely clueless.

It's November Nostalgia Time

I'm so glad it's November [You didn't really think I'd write my next blog without saying that, did you?]! It gives me that relaxing feeling because I know the holidays are coming up. I get very nostalgic, and it's the most comfortable time of year for me (aside from being freezing cold half the time). I look forward to spending time with my family, putting up the Christmas tree with my husband, and all the other typical things that come with this season.

I'm also happy that this will be my first Christmas season outside of retail since I was in high school. I've never gotten to experience that normalcy, so I'm really looking forward to it. Those of you who have worked in retail during the holidays know how stressful that is. If you haven't, then you don't have any clue what true hell is.

Normally, my family goes over to my grandmother's for Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter, but she's going to be having knee surgery in a couple weeks, so we'll be having to go somewhere else. Hopefully, my parents are still planning on doing something for Thanksgiving, so we'll most likely head over there. However, I still want to attempt something I've never done before: fix a Thanksgiving dinner. I'm trying to get better about doing general "wife stuff" by cooking/cleaning more. I've got the cleaning handled, but the cooking needs some work. I think I need to start getting this little bit down because eventually we'll be the ones having people over for Thanksgiving, and if I don't have this mastered by that time, I'll be in trouble. Wish me luck on that one.

What I'm most looking forward to is setting up the Christmas tree again. It had been so long since I'd seen it up before I'd gotten married. Last year was our first year with our own tree (courtesy of my parents donating their old one to us). Growing up we celebrated Christmas and Channukah until I was about 10, and then it was narrowed down to solely the latter. It was hard to adjust to when every other kid in school celebrated Christmas, and they had no interest in or respect for other religious holidays. To them, my sister and I were outcasts. There's no such thing as an open-minded 10-year-old in regards to religious tolerance. For quite a while I resented Judaism as a whole, but as I've grown and matured, I've gotten over that. Even though I don't personally follow it, I have a respect for it that I never had as a young child/teenager.

When my husband and I put up the tree last year, every time I looked at, I was reminded of all the times I would come home from school and turn the Christmas lights on and pop in a Christmas cassette to complete the mood; the numerous times I'd watch A Christmas Story the weeks leading up to the day (and I still do); and--most vividly--all the Christmas Eve nights my sister and I would be awake for in anticipation of the morning. We shared a room at the time, and we would try to find ways to sneak downstairs to see what Santa had brought us.
I recall one year getting caught by our parents twice (the creaky floors gave us away), so my dad shut the door at the top of the stairs and put an end table in front of it. It was about 3:00 in the morning, and our parents didn't get up until after 9:00, so for two, anxious kids that was an incredibly long wait.

It's memories like that that really make me happy when Christmas time does come around. Even though it's only the beginning of November, I still feel "in the spirit," if you will. Maybe I'm strange, but I'm starting to get into the mood of watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music. Even though I don't want the snow to come, on some strange level I do enjoy it for the last two months of the year. It adds a nice touch. We're starting to light the apple cinnamon candles and get out the fleece blankets in preparation.

It's almost time, and I'm excited. Is that strange?
That may be, but getting an extra hour of sleep this weekend is definitely not.