Thanksgiving Weekend

This Thanksgiving weekend was just right. 

Friday was our traditional Christmas shopping day, but this year, it was done almost all online.  I don't think I have finished almost all of our holiday shopping online before, but with COVID out of control around here, it seemed like the smart and safe thing to do. I found it was actually fun to pick out gifts for family members, and it was easier for me to stay on budget than it is going to the mall, from store to store.  I don't make as many unplanned purchases when I am shopping online.  I know what I want, search for just right thing, purchase it and I'm done. I will just need to make one quick trip to the mall tomorrow to pick up a gift card to a specific store that Josh likes.   

While I was online, we decided to take a leap of faith and book a couple of vacations for the late next summer, when, hopefully, we will have all received COVID vaccinations. We will wait to purchase the airline tickets for a few months, just to make sure.  

Although Charly and I took our usual walk every day over the weekend, I also decided to go downstairs in the and use my exercise equipment while watching TV and enjoying the electric fireplace we got last Christmas.  Our downstairs family room is rapidly becoming one of my favorite rooms in our home, because it has my exercise equipment, the cozy electric fireplace and a lot of our books.  Even though it is in the basement, it is a light and pleasant room. 

This weekend, I also worked on getting our Christmas cards and family newsletter ready to mail.  I didn't quite finish all of them, but they will be finished and in the mail within a day or two.  We even got our first Christmas card this weekend, and hung it on the back of the front door, which will hopefully soon be filled with lots of cards.  

I added a bit to our Christmas decorations this weekend by putting up this small tree by our front door entryway.  

I am using our table top tree this year, and have it set up in front of our big living room window.  It makes the room bright and cheerful. It was easy to put up and it will be easy to take down after the holidays.  

On Sunday, we went to church in person...

...then I attended Zoom Sunday School/Scripture Study.

I made a delicious meatloaf for dinner and we also had some of the leftover mashed potatoes and coleslaw from Thanksgiving.  It was a good Sunday dinner. After I finish this post, I plan to sit on the couch by  my sweet husband and read until I am too tired to keep my eyes open, and then off to bed.

That was our relaxing, and low key, yet productive Thanksgiving weekend.  It was a perfect Thanksgiving weekend, in what has been a very imperfect year. 

Tomorrow, it's back to school, but it will be online until December 8, due to increased COVID cases.  Monday, teachers will work from home, but starting Tuesday, we will be back in empty classrooms trying to hold Zoom class meetings. Teaching by Zoom is not my favorite thing, but I am grateful to have a job, and I am grateful for technology that allows us to try to stay safe while COVID rages. 

Enjoy the week ahead.  

Thanksgiving Week Favorites

It has been another week of blessings.  I am joining again with Susanne and friends who link over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five. 

School back online - This is our school district COVID dashboard showing how many cases of the virus are at each school. Our school reached 15 more cases of COVID on Tuesday of this, so we will be back to 100% online until December 8, with no students in the classroom, when we go back to school next week.  I am just grateful that we will not be exposed to students who may have picked up the virus when spending Thanksgiving with their families and friends.  Despite pleas from our governor that we not gather for Thanksgiving dinner in large groups, a lot of people around here disregarded that and had large dinners anyway.  

A good book and a good recipe - I have been reading this book by New York Time restaurant critic Ruth Reichl.  It is quite an interesting book about the author's experiences.  My daughter gave it to me a while back.

In addition to descriptions of the food in some of the best restaurants in New York City, there are also a number of recipes.  I decided to make sour cream/vanilla cake recipe for Thanksgiving dinner.

This was the first scratch cake I have made for years, and it did not disappoint at all.  It was very good and a great addition to our Thanksgiving dinner. 

Thanksgiving - We had a nice traditional Thanksgiving dinner - just the three of us - Charly, Josh and I.   In fact, the entire day was good. It was relaxing and laid back.  I even took a tryptophan induced nap, which was lovely.  The food was excellent.  We ordered the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, biscuits and cole slaw, from KFC. The pie was given to us by the real estate company we used to purchase two of our properties here in Salt Lake City. I cooked the stuffing, candied yams, fresh green beans, and of course, the sour cream cake. 

After dinner walk - Charly and I took a late afternoon walk on Thanksgiving.  It was cold and you can see the dusting of snow and clouds shrouding the mountain.  It was great to be able to get out and "walk off" some of that good food. 

Connecting with friends and family- Even though it was just the three of us here at our home for Thanksgiving dinner, we were able to connect with our children who were not with us.  I also got texts, emails and messages from friends and other family members. 

Earlier in the week, I was surprised with these "snail mail" cards from two lovely women whose blogs I have been reading for years - Faith over at Gold in the Clouds and Rita at SoulComfort's Corner.  I am so grateful for family and friends who keep in touch. 

Christmas shopping- I have also been doing some Christmas shopping this week.  I haven't purchased everything through Amazon, but my goal has been to do all the holiday shopping online if possible.  I will probably have to make at least one quick trip to the mall, but hopefully everything else will arrive safely on my doorstep. 

These are some of the things I am thankful for this Friday.  Have a good weekend and remember that there is always much to be grateful for. 

 

 

Best of the Week and Weekend

It has been a busy, and sometime stressful and anxiety-producing week.  I was honestly so exhausted that I did not get my usual Friday Favorites post up, but because I still have so much to be grateful for, I decided to post about the highlights of the week and weekend together.  

One of the highlights of this past week was completing our Operation Christmas Child boxes and getting them delivered to the community church that is a drop-off point in our area.  You can see this was a family service project for us, and I even snuck pictures of Charly and Josh filling the boy's box.  We filled one box for a boy and one for a girl and loved seeing if there was some way to get just a few more things in the box.  Finally, the boxes were finished and I dropped them off at during my lunch break from school on Friday. The ladies at the church were so kind and helpful and it was so nice of one of the women to pray out loud with me.  We have loved doing Operation Christmas Child in past years when the kids were younger, but we had fun with it this year and plan to do it again next year as well! If you aren't familiar with this wonderful project for truly needy children, you can read more about it here. 

Last week, I found out, through research on Familysearch.org, that I have an actual real life connection to the Pilgrims who came over on the Mayflower.  I knew my biological family came over to the "new world" very early on, but I found out last week, that the older brother of my 12th great grandfather not only came over on the Mayflower, he actually fell off of the Mayflower during a storm.  Don't worry, there was a happy ending and he grabbed onto a rope and was able to get back on the ship.  There is actually a children's book about his real-life adventure, shown above.  My direct ancestor did not come on the Mayflower, but he did come over to America a few years later and lived and died in the Plymouth Colony in the 1600s.  Interestingly, a direct ancestor of my adoptive father also came over on the Mayflower, and in fact, signed the Mayflower Compact.  I thought it was quite a coincidence that an ancestor of my adoptive father may have actually known my biological ancestor there in the Plymouth Colony almost 400 years ago.  For anyone interested in family history and genealogy, Familysearch.org is a great site. It is totally free and easy to navigate and research.  

On the weekend, we had some shopping and errand running to accomplish, but then I spent the rest of the day putting up the  Christmas decorations around our house. I decided to use our small table-top tree this year, and put it in the front window.  When our kids were all home, we would put up two full-size trees every year, so we have lots and lots of ornaments, most of which are still packed away in the basement.  Even at that, you can see that this small tree is loaded up with decorations that are special and memorable to us. 

Most of my nativity collection is on my piano. 

Several more nativities are on a bookshelf. I love them all. They are an important part of the true meaning of the holiday.

I put some lights around the banister of the stairs going downstairs. 

I am not big on outdoor lights, but I did put lights in the front windows of our home.  This is the living room window.

This is the front bedroom window.

Saturday night, after a busy day of Christmas decorating, we got this delicious pizza for dinner.  Our family loves pizza and after Saturday night, we just may have a new favorite pizza place.

We decided to go to church in person Sunday morning.  Honestly, I'm good with Zoom church right now, but Charly and Josh really like to go in person, so we put on our masks and off we went.  You can see that everyone was fairly spread out in the chapel, which was good. There was LOTS of friendly visiting after, and while we didn't didn't want to seem unfriendly, we tried to say our hellos from a safe distance.

During our Sunday afternoon walk, the temperatures were cold, but the sun was shining.  Charly and I listened to a podcast as we walked.  We often do that. 

Sunday dinner was homestyle comfort food - country fried chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh green beans, and roasted squash and onions.  It was all delicious. 

Coming up this week:

• In-person learning with students in school will only take place on Monday this week. 
• Tuesday will be an online learning only day.
• Wednesday we will begin our Thanksgiving break.
• Thursday, we will have a quiet Thanksgiving at home - just Charly, Josh and I.  We have already planned our dinner.  It will be low-key and relaxing, and I am really looking forward to it. 

Weekending

Friday afternoon was gray and rainy as Charly and I took our daily walk. 

Mt. Olympus was shrouded in clouds. Just as we were finishing our two miles, more rain came.

After a Friday night dinner of leftovers, I made some more baked oatmeal, which has become a new family favorite. 

I added dehydrated apple slices and walnuts to the recipe.  It's a quick good and nutritious breakfast.

Friday night, Charly and I settled down on the couch and watched the one show that I watch with any regularity - Dateline. 

During our walk on Saturday morning, there was sunshine and blue skies to the west of us...

...clouds and stormy skies to the east. 

About mid-morning, we went to the library to get some books I had on hold. When we got into the library, we found that they had a special sale on used library books - ten cents each! I checked out two books and bought two other books for twenty cents.  What a deal.

We also went over to our rental condo to check and see if it needed a new furnace filter.  It didn't. The condo is empty right now.  The former tenant moved out at the end of October. 

Later, Josh and I went to our nearby Target and Walmart and got the things for the Operation Christmas Child Christmas boxes we will be donating.

These are some of the things we got to go in the two boxes we are preparing for this awesome service project.  You can see that there are clothings, toys and hygiene items.  Josh picked out all of the items for boy's box, and I picked out the things for the girl's box. Tonight, I have been wrapping and preparing the shoe boxes these items will go in. We plan to deliver them to a Operation Christmas Child participating church in our area later this week.

Sunday morning we watched our church service on Zoom because the virus is raging around here. We decided to stay home and stay safe. 

After our church service, I participated in Zoom Sunday School scripture study.  

Later, Charly and I walked, I spent some time indexing, and getting the Christmas Child boxes ready.  Dinner was dirty rice, buffalo ranch salad, and corn muffins.

When I am finished with this blog post, I plan to do some reading.  This week, I am reading these books.  As you can tell, I read all kinds of things (well not ALL kinds of things...) but I do have many interests and like to read all kinds of books.  While I do enjoy reading novels, I find that most years, I tend to read about 75% non-fiction. 

That was our weekend.  Hope yours was good, and that the coming week brings positive things to everyone.  Remember...

 

Best of the Week - Cold Friday Favorites

It's been cold this week, but there were still good things that happened, so again I am joining with Susanne over at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five.  Here are some of the best things about my week.

Sunny and Cold - The week started out snowy and cold.

It is still cold, and there is still snow on the ground, but Thursday was a beautiful and sunny day.  The sky was an amazing clear blue as Charly and I went out for our afternoon walk. I am grateful to be surrounded by such beauty.  I am also thankful for the blessing of snow that will mean water for this area next spring and summer.

Family Christmas Card - Last weekend, I created, online, and ordered our family Christmas card for 2020. Wednesday, I got a text telling me the cards were ready and had been shipped. 

The cards were delivered Thursday  (a day early) and they did not disappoint.  The family Christmas letter has also been written so I am on track to get our Christmas cards out the weekend after Thanksgiving.   Sending cards and staying in touch with friends is a big part of our family Christmas tradition and I like to get them in the mail early as a start to our Christmas season. I am thankful that the cards turned out well.

Help From a Colleague - With most of our instruction and assignments being online this school year, we have all had to learn new technology and educational platforms.  I was having a bit of trouble figuring out one platform, but Thursday morning when I got to school, my first hour co-teacher had figured the entire thing out and provided me and my students with step-by-step instructions.  That was such a help and so much appreciated. 

Zoom Staff Meetings - COVID is on the rise and out of control here in Utah right now,  and I was grateful that our school decided that teachers can attend staff meetings via Zoom for the foreseeable future, so that we don't have to assemble in large gatherings.  I am all in favor of doing whatever we can to stay healthy and safe.

COVID Vaccine - Speaking of staying healthy, the good news about a COVID vaccine being ready in a matter of weeks was also a favorite of this week.  I realize that most people won't be able to get the shot right away, but the news that the vaccine works better than expected and is almost ready is certainly something to be grateful for.

Poll and Election Workers - as the vote count seems to go on and on in this crazy election, poll and election workers, many of whom are volunteers, are my final favorite for this week. These people have worked night and day since the election to get votes counted and preserve our democratic process. I grateful for their hard work, honesty, integrity, and perseverance, often under trying circumstances. They made sure that voting could take place, and that every legal vote is getting counted. 

Thank you for stopping by to share with me some of the things I am grateful for as this week ends.  Hope you are also seeing the blessings in your week.  See you again soon!