Didn't I say "never again" last time.....

I would say that I don't believe I've ever been so tired in my life, but I know that would be a lie. I HAVE been.....just last year as a matter of fact.

Every year I say "never again", only to repeat it every Thanksgiving and every Christmas. I've been trying desperately to "pass the torch" as they say, to my daughter. HA, She's no fool.....she's refusing to take the damn thing. I'm speaking, of course.....of the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. How we slave for hours upon hours only to have it devoured in less than 15 minutes.

And then..........there's the clean-up. Oh the dreaded cleanup. Everyone is so full, no one wants to move, but the food has to be put away, otherwise it will spoil. The dishes have to be done, otherwise the food will dry on them, making it twice as hard to clean. Thank God for dishwashers. When I was a teenager, I was the dishwasher.....me and my grandma. Now, teens disappear quickly after a meal, so mechanical dishwashers are a blessing. Nothing is more wonderful than to walk into a nice clean kitchen after a huge meal like that. Tell me what it feels like, will ya? By the time we get all the dishes cleared up, the men-folk have decided that they want some leftovers heated up......or maybe a turkey sandwich and oh yeah.....how about another piece of pumpkin pie. More dishes, more crumbs. It's never-ending.

Each year I cut one more thing out of the equation. Pretty soon, I'll be making turkey TV dinners in my robe and slippers. This year squash was the one to get the ax; last year it was sweet potatoes, year before that, rolls. Yes....we always had BOTH sweet potatoes and squash. Why? Well, when I foolishly accepted the torch from my mother, that was on the menu. I've been dropping items from that menu every few years....and the last few have bit the dust every year. In all honesty.....no one misses what I drop; there is just SO MUCH of everything else. Hate to admit it, but I have just about got it down to bare bones; if I cut much more, it will surely be noticed.....like the dressing for example.

My family LOVES my dressing. It's something they talk about in July and their eyes glaze over. Yes, I'm happy that I've made my contribution to history as the best lil' dressing maker around these parts, but I really do want to pass things along now. I'm tired. Really tired.

My email in box has been crammed with emails all shouting Black Friday. Never have I gotten so sick of a phrase in all my life.....except for this new one; CYBER WEEK or sometimes, CYBER MONDAY. Those emails began filling up my in box the very minute Black Friday was over. I have no idea what CYBER WEEK is....although I'm guessing it has something to do with GREAT, HUGE BARGAINS all week long if you buy online. BUY, BUY, BUY.

With the economy like it is..............how can people buy?

Ah.....but they ARE.

The stores are crammed. Black Friday found swarms of people climbing all over each other to BUY. I can understand a good deal...........but not this. And they don't stick to their word. Black Friday kept on boasting that you could get Black Friday deals early......like on Wednesday. Same with the Cyber Monday hoopla. Get Cyber Monday deals on SATURDAY....get a head start on EVERYONE cause only a choice several million people know about this SECRET. Bah.

So I hope everyone had a happy and a safe Thanksgiving. I hope you made some really good memories and most of all I hope you all really thought about why we should be thankful. And even though I've been grumpy about being tired, I do it because it's a joy to see my family come together for this meal of thanks in a land where we have much to be thankful for.

Two Days Late......

and more than a few dollars short, I might add. My family has been sick with ear infections and bronchitis. Not wanting to expose me, we all decided it would be the smart thing to just post-pone Thanksgiving. You can do this with a tiny family like ours. No one is flying in from another state or making long haul drives from miles away. We are all right here.

So tomorrow is the big day for us. Tonight I am baking pies and tomorrow morning I will put two turkey breasts in the oven. Cooking a whole turkey is just wasteful for us as no one likes the dark meat. My family is feeling much better and everyone is looking forward to a good meal.......cooked by yours truly. After dinner we are going to watch "How to train your Dragon" and "Toy Story 3".

This morning I got up early, made a nice cup of coffee and got online in my flannel nightgown to take advantage of Black Friday. It was cold with snow flurries outside.....and the wind was whipping around pretty good too. I can now proudly announce that I have my Christmas shopping done. I found some killer deals and had some great coupons. At one place I saved over $60..... that's with their own coupons, plus promotional coupons I downloaded. I have to admit, though, that a lot of things I wanted to buy were sold out and it was early! Not anything "Barbie" was left at all but I did snag the Rapunzel and Flynn dolls. Also found Tinkerbell and two of her fairy friends. I was thrilled over that as my one granddaughter is really into Tinkerbell right now.

So.....we're late for eating turkey but it will still taste just as good and our feelings of gratitude for what we have.....be it ever so humble, are just as heartfelt as it would have been on Thursday.

Hope everyone's holiday was a good one and a safe one. I'll be back.............. (keep smilin')

My verdict.....

Well, if today's experience did nothing more than make my family appreciate me (Queen Mama), then it was worth it.

With the aches and pains I'm having from this damnable arthritis plus my bad knee, I just find it way too hard to be standing on my feet for hours at a time preparing a huge meal for my family with no help. For years now I have been whining and complaining about this but it fell on deaf ears. I kept asking for help in making the food and also the clean-up but help was minimal. Finally, this year I decided that enough was enough. I announced to my family that I was not cooking dinner. That I didn't care what we ate or where we ate it....but it was not going to be prepared by these little hands. My daughter said that she would take over. The torch was passed............sorta.

She decided.....since she really does not like to cook.....to buy the dinner already prepared. At our local grocery you can get such a meal. For $69.99, you get dinner and dessert....enough for 8 people, already prepared. All you do is warm it up. She ordered this meal and picked it up the night before Thanksgiving. All looked in order. Thanksgiving day she put the turkey in the oven and when it was ready (after 2 hours) she then warmed up the rest of the stuff.

Now the picture above is of a TV dinner and I'm going to tell you that I think this particular TV dinner probably has more taste than what we ate. This already prepared meal was very bland. The turkey almost had no flavor. Its beyond me how you can mess up a turkey. The mashed potatoes tasted like a mixture of instant and real....we will probably never know for sure what it was. The dressing, however, was good but the gravy was horrible. It was the color of vanilla pudding and had no taste at all. I didn't even try the broccoli or carrots. The fruit salad was good. The pumpkin pie was awful.

My family is spoiled because I am a good cook. I cook with love and I take extra measures to make sure the food I prepare has a wonderful taste. Nothing bland comes from my kitchen.

I think my family learned a lesson. Everyone agreed that nothing could compare to what they are used to. My daughter announced that at Christmas she was going to learn how to prepare a meal like I've always fixed and asked if I would show her how. (haven't I been trying to do this for 15 or more years now?)

So, my verdict on already prepared meals.....at least from this establishment....is a score of 2 out of 5. If you can make a meal out of dressing and fruit salad. True, it was cheaper to put it on the table than it would have been if we had bought the groceries and prepared it.....but we have nearly no leftovers and the food was not that good. For the first time....I didn't even CARE if I had leftovers to bring home.

So sometimes you just have to show your family (tough love) what its gonna be like without a home-cooked feast in order for them to actually do something about it. I think I'm going to go to the store and get the stuff to make some pumpkin bars and/or a pumpkin pie. I really missed that. I'm already looking forward to Christmas dinner.

How many ways can you fix turkey.....

I had to work Wednesday, much to my dismay, but when I got home my daughter and family were here and we soon were well on our way to prepping and baking for the big day. It had been snowing most of the day....a wet, heavy snow...which is just perfect to make a snowman or snowoman. I guess you could call this a picture book Thanksgiving in just about every way, including the weather.

My family did not leave until Sunday and by then I was beginning to get a bit cranky. I'm so used to being alone that a house hopping with noise, laughter, a 6 yr. old running from room to room, games and TV going was a little much for me....not to mention my dog. She hid under the bed frequently but the fragrance of food kept luring her out so she had that "deer caught in the headlights" look on her face a lot. The kids did go outside and make a snowoman, complete with an old hat of my mom's on her head. They gave her blue bottle cap eyes and a red bottle cap smile. A piece of celery made a perfect nose. Its interesting to note that the birds would come down and "steal" the bottle caps, only to be disappointed. I suspect they were hoping for berries. They never touched the celery nose. Note the svelte figure of our snowoman....she apparently stayed away from the Thanksgiving table.

My granddaughter lost her front tooth while here and we had to put it under armed guard to make sure it didn't get lost before she could get home to leave it under HER pillow for the tooth fairy assigned to HER house to come get it and leave her a reward. Do you know that the going rate seems to be $5 a tooth now? She had gotten the official word from the kids at school who had already been through this. Heaven forbid HER fairy leave her something less!! We assured her that her fairy was a union member and up on the latest trends and not to worry. She must have checked on that tooth, securely wrapped in a plastic sandwich bag, 200 times while she was here.

By today our official snowfall topped off at somewhere between 8 and 9 inches. I don't remember getting so much snow this early in the winter season. It should make the ski resorts happy. Monday morning the roads were nearly impassable. I traded my working days so I wouldn't have to drive in it. I was so grateful to crawl back into bed early Monday morning and snuggle down under the comforter. Monday evening rush hour wasn't much better and I was, again, grateful to be home....warm and comfy with PLENTY of leftovers to eat. I'm just about fed up with turkey for a while at this point. I think I'm growing tail feathers.

I don't know how many of you ventured out for Black Friday to do some shopping. I know of several of my co-workers who look forward to this event every year. I am NOT one of those brave souls. This year I was informed of CYBER MONDAY, which is online shopping with wonderful deals at a lot of stores. I took advantage of that while sipping coffee in my jammies and I can tell you that my Christmas shopping is done except for the secret Santa gift that I will have to buy for work. Everything I bought was at a reduced price with free shipping. Some of the items were more than 50% off. I am, indeed, a happy shopper. We are not buying for the adults, only the kids....so my shopping list is not too long...but its nice to know that its done. I will have to work a lot of days this month so it works out nicely. Well, its getting late and I'm rambling. I simply MUST get around to all of your blogs so I'm leaving now. I hope your evening is wonderful and if you live in snow country....be careful out there!