The day before, the day of, and the days after

She knocked the pillows down just to stand on them

Oh dear.

Here I was thinking that Thanksgiving was just last week, and I only had yet to tell you about ours.

Then I realized that I thought that same thing all of last week, when it was actually true.

At some point I became OBE: Overcome By Events.

On Thanksgiving Eve we once again had the Hot Taco Dip

Now here we are another entire week removed.

We'd better get down to it.

Thinking linearly means going either backwards or forwards; right?

Because we're about to go backwards for a mo or two.

I'm not a pro cake baker/decorator but I did what I could

Anyway we had a spectacular Thanksgiving weekend, starting on Wednesday afternoon/evening when everyone arrived, and only ending on Saturday morning when Andrew, Brittany, Ember, and Guy drove away.

The meal that night was pizza (arranged by the kids) along with Mari's Hot Taco Dip (we omit the black olives) which is a major crowd pleaser. 

And for dessert? Birthday Cake. 

Our Ember was all set to turn four on December third, but none of us would be with her at her official birthday party.

Ember was thrilled with her book and markers

So I made her a cake, and I must tell you what a success it was.

The cake itself was strawberry flavored, made from a box mix that I zhuzhed up in my usual way:

Where the mix calls for water, I use milk (or better yet, buttermilk). Where it calls for oil, I use the same amount of melted butter. Where it calls for eggs, I use at least one (sometimes two) extra. Then I add a box of vanilla instant pudding mix, and in this case, a half-cup of sour cream.

She called this gift from TG and me her "wings"

It made a luscious cake that baked up two round layers just about perfectly.

For the frosting I went to the trouble of making a batch of American Buttercream from scratch.

That proved a challenge due to the fact that I do not own a stand mixer, but I used my hand mixer (which takes twice as long) and persevered, and the result was outstanding.

Then I decorated Ember's celebratory confection with pink sprinkles and candies and other things, and I was pleased with the outcome.

She'll be an angel in this dress for Christmas

So it was that on the night before Thanksgiving, TG and I, plus Ember's three aunts on her dad's side, brought our presents to give her after she'd blown out her four candles and we sang to her.

She received a sparkly red Christmas dress, an activity book with special clicky markers, and a play dress-up ring wardrobe, among other things.

Ember seemed happy with each and every gift and said THANK you! so sweetly to everyone in turn.

Aunt Audrey held Ember while we sang to her

That child loves life. It's a joy to behold.

So then, one sleep and it was Thanksgiving Day.

I spent the day in the kitchen, making the turkey and various sides. We ate at five o'clock.

Chad and Erica arrived at about three-thirty, having had Thanksgiving dinner at lunchtime with Chad's family.

Brittany brought these adorable plates for the littles

He told me he would not be able to eat again at five, but in spite of that, as usual, when the time came, he carved the turkey for me.

We also had loaked baked potato casserole, corn casserole (both in Crock Pots), and sweet potato casserole (made according to the Ruth's Chris recipe).

I also made the classic green bean casserole, and I've got to say: I won't be doing that again.

I sampled the turkey before handing the carving knife to Chad

I'm aware that it's pretty much a universal holiday side dish, but I just don't like it.

For Christmas I'll be reverting to my mother's tried-and-true family favorite, the broccoli casserole.

We also had deviled eggs and homemade sweet creamy Southern slaw, and homemade cranberry sauce, and the end of the bag of Brazi Bites.

I'd made yet another pecan pie

For dessert I had made a pecan pie, and the kids brought pumpkin pies and such.

No one went hungry unless for some twisted reason, they wanted to.

We hung out all evening and made plans for our annual Black Friday Picture Day.

This is the day that we all go someplace special to take pictures for everyone's respective Christmas cards.

My deviled eggs were zhuzhed up as well

It used to be that the only plan for that day was to capture Stephanie's family for their card.

But several years ago, since the others would come along for the outing, I began urging Cherica to pose up, and then Audrey and Dagny.

Then at one point, Audrey started taking pictures of TG and me, for our Christmas card.

Green bean and sweet potato casseroles

Now we just call it what it is: one big photo shoot involving five separate families.

Late on Thanksgiving night, Andrew, Brittany, and Little Andrew (our eleven-year-old grandson; he slept in our room on a pallet for the two nights his family were here) came into the kitchen.

Brittany wanted to heat up some of the leftover pizza from the night before. Little Andrew wanted some of the leftover loaded baked potato casserole.

Slow cooker loaded baked potato casserole

Big Andrew found a huge bag of Cretor's Cheese and Caramel Popcorn that I had bought at Costco and saved for just such an occasion.

We broke out a big bowl of that and the three of them snacked while I began gathering fall decorations into their storage bin.

It wasn't long before all of that was safely tucked away and I thought, let's go ahead and do Christmas.

Last batch of sweet creamy Southern slaw for 2023

The tree was already up and decorated and lit and so forth, shining in the window of the front room.

All the other decorations waited on two tables set up just for that purpose, in that room.

So I brought a whole bunch of them into the kitchen and decorated the table, and the ledge, and the coffee cart.

Then I took some stuff into the TV room and placed it here and there.

Crock Pot corn casserole

Before I slept on Thanksgiving night, Christmas was pretty well in place at Chez Weber.

What do you think of that? I told little Andrew: Around here we don't let any grass grow under our feet.

He gave me a blank look so I said, You don't know what that means, do you?

Homemade cranberry sauce

He admitted that he didn't, so I told him and then he smiled and agreed that we certainly don't.

And then it was time to sleep again.

Black Friday turned out to be perfect weather-wise, for our photo shoot. At three-thirty that afternoon, we all met downtown in an area that I call "behind Mast General Store" because that's what it is.

Dagny and Baby Elliot a/k/a Skippy "the Peanut" Porter

It consists of an alleyway with several picturesque scarred brick walls, some interesting signage, and a colorful loading dock.

I've taken so many pictures there through the years, I can barely remember them all.

Then we walked down Main Street to the Columbia Art Museum, which has a large forecourt featuring a very nice fountain.

Audrey and Dagny at the big mural

On the way I took pictures (with the Nikkor 18-200mm zoom lens affixed to my Nikon D7000) of a downtown squirrel who, although there were many people walking in his proximity on that fine day, was undeterred from his nut-consumption activities.

At the museum, I made sure to get photos of all four of our kids together in the same picture, as well as the grandkids all together in the same picture.

That's not as easy as it looks, since our Melanie won't let anyone near her except her parents.

Andrew, Brittany, Ember, and Guy

If anyone else comes within three feet of Melly, she becomes agitated and is likely to lash out.

We're not sure why she began doing this several years ago, because due to her disability, she does not have speech and cannot tell us.

We work around it. In this case Stephanie placed a chair a little ways from the fountain, so Melanie was included in the group.

Cherica with Rhett and Elliot at the loading dock

We take what we can get and it's all good.

After getting those shots, we continued walking another block to a massive mural wall, which presented endless opportunities for interesting backdrops.

By then it was beginning to be twilight, so we walked back to Mast General Store where we were all parked, and went inside to look around.

Stephanie, Joel, Melanie, Allissa, and Andrew at the museum

Although Mast Gen is the sort of store that makes you wish you were well-off enough to buy every single one of your Christmas presents there, I don't think anyone bought anything except for me.

Actually, TG bought it but I handed it to him and said I wanted it. It's a metal sign that I will show you in my next post, when I reveal all of my Christmas decorations.

I hope you're able to sleep between now and then. Apologies if the anticipation proves to be too much for your delicate psyche.

TG and me, Black Friday 2023

At any rate, all of that accomplished, it was time to say goodbye to our Stephanie and her family. 

They live in North Carolina, less than a three-hour drive away, but it's their tradition on this day to stop someplace special for supper.

Speaking of supper, on the way home, the rest of us went to Cracker Barrel for ours, then back to the house for coffee and leftover desserts.

L to R, youngest to eldest: Andrew, Erica, Audrey, Stephanie

I think you'll have to agree that not only did we not let any grass grow under our feet, but that we didn't waste a moment of our time either.

Speaking of time, it's now Christmastime, which means that everyone's favorite holiday is coming at us like a runaway freight train.

On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, I designed and ordered our Christmas cards.

Our eight grandchildren ... click to embiggen

On the Monday after Thanksgiving, I picked up said Christmas card order at CVS.

All one hundred-forty of them will go out to their fortunate recipients this week. 

(If you don't get one, it means that you have not provided me with your address.)

Rainbow on the coffee cart a week after Thanksgiving

Ninety-nine percent of my shopping is done, and my goal is to have everything wrapped and under the tree by the end of this week too.

The stockings are hung and as for my children's giant ones, they are stuffed with stuff.

Meanwhile there have been rainbows on my coffee cart in the morning. Upon said cart sits a Christmas corgi mug given to me by our beloved daughter-in-law Brittany at Thanksgiving.

Corgi's even cuter with foamy froth coming out of of his head

(I am much enamored of the corgi breed and it wouldn't take much for me to get one. Except, I already have a dog. So maybe later.)

Speaking of pets, my tuxedo cat, Sweetness, knocked the Christmas pillows off the bench in the sun room, just so that she could stand/sit on them.

Cheeky little sucker.

Black Friday for a busy downtown squirrel

Tell me in the comments about your Thanksgiving (if you want to look back that far), and about your Christmas preparations so far.

We're not getting any younger, you know.

And that is all for now.

=0=0=0=

Happy Tuesday

Comments

[Judee]

Your Thanksgiving meal looks wonderful . I know I would love the homemade slaw ! How nice that you were able to make a weekend of it, celebrate your little one's 4th birthday with that special cake, and capture so many memories in beautiful family photos.

[Jennifer]

@Judee ... it really WAS a special time! We are so grateful. And you would love that slaw! xoxo