On Monday Ted bought his brining bag, a new slicing mandolin, and two Christmas gifts. My old mandolin is at Kara's and the new Pampered Chef one is impossible for me to figure out. If it only slices one thickness, I got it. If it does more, I don't know what it is. Ted also brought home a rotisserie chicken so he made Stove Top while I steamed asparagus and set out applesauce. Easy dinner!
Tuesday I was going non-stop. Up at 7, we left at 8 for the airport. Kristin was arriving shortly thereafter. A situation in Larry's family had him heading south in Florida so she opted to come see us. They will both be back for Christmas. We barely made it home to drop off luggage before leaving to pick up Jennifer. We were meeting Gerre at the Whistle Stop Cafe for lunch and a little shopping. Since I was already going to be in the area, I had booked a haircut for 2:00. Jennifer had PT at 4:00 so we immediately took her home when I was finished and we made it back to the house but didn't stay long. It was another run to the airport to get Kara and Bill. We stopped at Sweet Tomatoes for dinner since it was past dinner time.
It was a whirlwind on Wednesday. Ted and Bill eventually went shooting and Kara and I spent most of the day in the kitchen. Before he left though, Ted set his turkey in brine in preparation for baking it on Thursday. I was the sous chef for Kara. I had shopped for all we needed and set up little stations for her to work in. I also chopped the onions and celery for the stuffing. Kara hates to make mashed potatoes so I peeled the potatoes using my handy-dandy rotator potato peeler. She made Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes, stuffing with bread I pulled apart and dried in the oven and three pies. She did use all my recipes though.
She added a double batch of brown bread, a traditional holiday treat in our family. Aunt Carol was bringing the sweet potatoes and cranberry dish. I filled and emptied the dishwasher several times.
Bill, Kara and Ted ran over to Carol's for a bit and when they returned we headed out to our latest Mexican restaurant for margaritas and dinner. Everyone was tired when we returned. We watched our recorded Survivor and everyone drifted off to bed.
Thursday was not too much hustle and bustle. Ted got his turkey into the oven. The potatoes and stuffing were all ready to go in the oven, the salads, veggies and rolls were ready to go and the serving dishes and utensils were at hand. Only the gravy needed to be made but we needed to wait for the drippings.
It didn't bother us inside, but the landscaper chose Thursday morning to lay the new sod, replacing what was killed by Harvey. They also found a leak right next to the deck so a sprinkler guy is coming Monday to take a look!
Terry and Carol arrived with their contributions and several bottles of wine. I think there were a half dozen bottles at the end of the evening waiting to go into the recycle bin. We are a sit around the table family and that's what we did until about 9:30.
But the last thing we did was bring Sam's full orchestra performance up on the TV through You Tube (learned something new!) for everyone to see. If interested, and you know how to bring up You Tube on the computer or TV, search Orchestra Association of Troy High. It is the 2017 Spooktacular performance. Sam is the cello player on the right side, second row, behind and one to the right of the girl in the princess dress and tiara (who later was in a skit). This is the entire orchestra with members all up and down the stairs playing without a conductor and no music! Truly awesome.
Right after our company left. Kristin, Ted and Kara took off for the mall to buy a few Black Friday specials. I, on the other hand, hit the couch and fell asleep. Bill emptied the dishwasher and refilled it while I slept.
Friday found Bill and Kara back out shopping and Kristin and I started taking down the fall things and getting all the Christmas stuff out of closets, garage and attic. I was determined to get rid of everything except just what I use. We have never put a tree up here in Texas so I had no need for ornaments but it broke my heart to give away my travel collection started back in the early 80s. But it was my travel, no one else's, so out they went except for a special ornament case storing the round glass ones just in case I buy a very small tree some day. All in all, about 7 boxes went to the resale shop. They indicated so many lost their things in the flood that there was a big need. I had already sent a huge box of lights to my niece for use in her volunteer fright house.
After two days of turkey, we opted for pizza at home for dinner. Everyone was pretty tired and went to bed before too long.
We all were invited by Terry and Carol to lunch at the country club on Saturday. We ate in the bar area so we could watch the Ohio State versus U of M football game.
It ended just in time for us to return home for suitcases and off to the airport we went to drop off Bill and Kara. Then it was back home to church where we ran into Terry and Carol again.
Once we made it home, it was "whatever" for dinner and more Hallmark Christmas movies!
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