Thanksgiving Eve

Originally published Nov 2011) The pumpkin pie just came out of the oven, and the sausage stuffing is made.   The house smells amazing!  Is it wrong that I'm cooking up the little bit of stuffing that wouldn't fit in the baking dish for dinner tonight?  I'm going to watch "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" (which we had to dvr because I was cooking) and eat stuffing.  Sounds just about perfect to me.

When I make things like stuffing, or dressing if you prefer, I always think of my Mom.  We only had her home made dressing (her word choice) once a year, at Thanksgiving.  Every Thanksgiving Eve, after the dishes were washed and the children were otherwise occupied, Mom would head back to the kitchen, in her housecoat, and begin the dressing prep.  Pretty soon the smell of celery and onion would come wafting into the other room.  If you were sneaky enough (me) you could grab a piece of dried out, torn up white bread that was sitting on the kitchen table in her big brown bowl and dip it into the buttery, celery, onion, goodness........and burn your tongue for you efforts.  Mom would be too busy cleaning out the turkey to notice.

By the time she finished there were usually two, if not three or four sets of eyes watching as she mixed the dressing and stuffed the turkey with it.  I don't do that, it's supposed to be dangerous.  However, for 20 plus years none of us ever got sick.........  Then she wrapped him up and popped him back in the fridge til morning.

My stuffing recipe is very different from my Mom's.  The only part of hers that I liked was the actual bread/onion/celery.  The apples and giblets would be picked out and set aside.  Mine has sausage and mushrooms, and it is da bomb!  It is also done, so I have to go now!

My holiday memories are so precious to me, but I always look forward to making new ones.  Times change, people come and go, old traditions are put aside, in favor of new ones.  It's all good.  It's life. As my mother used to say, "Life is what you make it." and with our holiday traditions she made ours very memorable.

Because I love this story, and it's my ultimate favorite Thanksgiving tale, and because he's coming to my house for the first time tomorrow for dinner (I wont give him stemware.) here is a holiday bonus blog:  http://queenie930.blogspot.com/2011/11/goblet-incident-of-76.html

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Pass The Cranberries

Thanksgiving is upon us again. This year I will be cooking dinner for my brother and his family, which means The Artist Formerly Known As Pablo, and his lovely wife will be joining us! I don't get to spend nearly enough time with that boy, but hopefully that will change now that they are back in this area. 

I know I have a few other blog posts about Thanksgiving, you'll definitely want to find the one with my best holiday story, involving Pablo's father when he was little. I'm currently writing with my phone, and I'm uncertain how to link to it. If I figure it out, I'll put it here.* Santa is bringing me a lap top this year,  because I'm dusting off this corner. I have a lot to say. A.Lot.To.Say.

The other day I saw this

and it made me laugh, because the top picture was my Mom, and the bottom has always been me.

Then I started thinking about her homemade cranberry Jelly, and it took me right back to the kitchen of my youth. Come along with me! Picture it, 1970 something. The cozy kitchen is painted pumpkin orange, and the appliances are avacado green. There is a big kettle on the stove, boiling fresh cranberries. Mom, or Grandma Leni, who lived with us on the weekends would be minding it, and stirring occasionally. Maybe we were allowed to when we were older, but not then. 

On the kitchen table Mom had her fruit press set out in a bowl. I thought maybe my sister still had it, but no. Neither of us like cranberries, so it's gone. I can't find an accurate picture on the internet, but here is today's version. Similar, but more flimsy. 

It took a half an hour just to figure out what this is called! When I put "cranberry press 

" in the Google machine it showed me some festive holiday adult beverages. 

To the best of my recollection the steaming hot berries were drained, (maybe not totally)  then poured into this press a bit at a time. MOM would use the pestal looking thing a-ma- bob, which was bigger than in the picture, and stained red from years of squishing cranberries, to mash the cranberries, and she did let us help with that. I remember the pungent, sour smell, and the heat coming off the mush left behind. 

The liquid was returned to the pot, sugar was added, and it went back on the burner. More stirring, more bubbling, then like magic, it was jelly!

Next up on the kitchen table were the iced tea glasses. We would see these tall amber glasses on the table for dinner on very hot summer days, (so....twice a summer?) and then Mom used them to serve the cranberry gel.(what she called it)  the glasses were pretty similar to this, and also no longer in the family. 

All of this would have happened the Saterday or Sunday before Thanksgiving, and I'm sure we used the gel as a side right up til Christmas. Uh, we, meaning other people in my family, definitely not me, and apparently not my sister either. 

It was tempting though. The jelly smelled good, and was such a pretty red color! I know I tried it every year, I still do. I always think that it was a mistake, I must really like it. I do not. I also burned myself every single year, because I had to touch that beautiful red jelly, newly in the amber glass. It was too tempting! I would still do it now, if I could. 

I have never made the gel myself, mine comes from a can, and for the first time in my life I didn't even buy one. No one likes it, no one eats it, why do I buy it?  However, I will miss it. That little blob of gel on a plate, with rings around it from the can. Is it even Thanksgiving without it?  There are a couple days left, who knows......

Happy Thanksgiving!  Maybe this year I will put the turkey right side up in the roaster! 😀 

*In trying to find the story of my naughty brother, I found "Thanksgiving Eve" which I originally published in 2011, and at the end of that blog is a link to the one I was talking about! Due to my "I don't know what I'm doing." It is republished right after this blog. So, easy peasy! 

Seasons of a Dog

I took our Good Boy Jacob to the vet today. He goes monthly for his Librella shot, which is used in pups with bad hips. Jake has always had bad hips, and I wish this med had been around in his younger days! Jacob was born in the spring. We brought him home mid May, which is the best time (in both our opinions) for a pup. In the springtime of his life his hips were already wonky, but never bothered him, or slowed him down at all. 

In the summer years Jacob s hips didn't visibly affect him, but we started a regimen of glucosamine, condroitin, and fish oil, to keep things limber, and they did. Jake has always been an extremely healthy boy, and we made sure to keep him a healthy weight, knowing those hips would thank us later. In his late summer years we also got him a baby brother,  Loki. Same breed, Great Pyr- German Shep mix, but good, solid hips. Solid. That's a good word to describe Loki. 106 pounds of love, and loyalty. We thought Jake was smart, Loki is smarter, and not as opinionated. Jacob has his own ideas, especially when it comes to listening to me. 

During the fall of his life, we noticed a little tenderness, but no real slow down, and the Dr. prescribed Carprofen,(kinda like ibuprofen for dogs) which he has been on since, along with supplements. Jake and Loki continued their daily play battles, and patrols of the border, and Jake helped Loki  to be a Good Boy too. In fact it wasn't until Jake was somewhere in his 10th year, the Winter of his life, where we started to see a decline. 

Jake is 12 and a half now. Fully into his winter season. I requested a "geriatric appointment" at Librella time this month, because I don't think the once a year physical is good enough when your Good Old Boy is in his final season. The librella was a wonder at first, but the last six weeks have been a backslide, and we are back to square one. We'll continue the shot, to get whatever benefit we can. His carprofin is at its max, so we will add some Gabbapentin as needed. That's about all we can do. Otherwise, he is a healthy, very happy Good Boy.

In this final season, he can get a little goofy at night, but we have a supplement that handles that. He now hates storms, which never bothered him before. His eyes and ears are not what they were, but he's maintaining weight, so that's good. He still only listens when it suits him. We are laser focused on giving him the best Winter we can,  making sure he has the best quality of life possible. When quality comes into question, I'll handle it with a heavy heart, but it's my job. A large dog like Jake usually doesn't live this long, we know how blessed we are. 

Winter, the actual season, is Jacob's very favorite thing. I was suprised that we still had him last winter. I'm just hoping he has another chance to play in the snow. ❤️ 

On Being Me

Every year on my birthday eve I post something on Facebook, and/or write a blog post that briefly encapsulates the year gone by. Since Cece died in October '22, there have been no blog posts, because how could I continue writing about my life, without speaking about this devastating loss, and the struggle to get my head up above the ocean of grief that engulfed me. I'm not sure that I will ever put more than the above into words on a page, but let's just say that it knocked me off my path and into the woods for awhile. 

In mid April of this year, as the earth was waking up from her winter slumber, so was I. It was like I had just been floating on auto pilot for a year and a half, until the day I could not physically get on the floor to play with my Great nephew, Henry.(wlWho just turned two, and now has an 8 month old sister, Ruth!) Then, I woke up. 

I took a hard look in the mirror, and thought, "Who is this fat old lady?" Sorry, but that's what I thought. Then I realized enough was enough. I'm not going to watch life on the sidelines because I have too many aches and pains to play and enjoy it. Yes, that comes with the territory of gaining years, but for the most part that isn't the case here, yet. 

My deep issue is rewarding myself with food. Maybe consoling myself with food is a better way to explain that. You had to do something you didn't like today? That's ok honey, you can have a Big Mac for dinner. So for a year and a half, while floating around in this ocean of grief, I consoled myself with every comfort food available, and as much as I wanted. 

Two pants sizes later, and I was not able get down and play play with Henry. (It's the getting up that's the problem.)I couldn't do a lot of other things either, but I didn't care. Not being able to be an active participant in the kids lives, that kicked my butt into gear. 

I have always been, and I'm sure I will continue to be, a curvy gal, and I'm cool with that. I just needed to make a giant shift, and some lifestyle changes to be a healthier gal, with curves.  

So, how am I doing? Great! Twenty five pounds are gone, and so are those two pants sizes. I can get on the floor and play with the kids, and we even went to the zoo a few weeks back, which I walked without difficulty.  How am I doing it? Counting calories on a free ap, which keeps my portion sizes where they belong, and keeps me accountable to myself. I make better choices, and still have anything i want, in moderation. I have a new scale, and I make myself get on it, because it matters. Now that I can move, I do. Formal exercise gives me gives me hives, (figuratively) so I don't see that happening any time soon. I just want to enjoy the rest of my years in a healthy way. Body and mind. 

So, as I rock in my chair, on my porch, on the last day of 54, I am very proud of myself. My mantra always has been, "Be who you are!" There will be a lot more of that around here, from now on. Inside, and out. ❤️ 

That time when I crawled on the floor at Aldi

I was just going to do a Facebook post, but this one deserves a longer space. 

Many of you know that my sister Kate has had several brain aneurysms operated on over the years. She had one repaired a little over a week ago down in Minneapolis at Abbott Northwestern. It's amazing what they can do these days, and she was only in the hospital over night. She's also well on the road to recovery!

I work as a PCA (personal care assistant) for my sister's 17 year old daughter Cece. So when things pop up, Auntie Jojo comes to stay. (That's always the way it has been, well before actually getting paid for part of it. ) I slept over on Wednesday and Thursday night last week, and then stayed until Kate, and her husband Tom were settled in on Friday.

 I guess the universe thought there wasn't enough going on, so their older dog had a cancerous tumor open up (all over the house) while Cece and I were out in the country at my house. Thankfully Kate and Tom were only an hour from home when it happened, so they were able to say good bye. That one is going to stay with me for awhile. 

Tom went back to work (railroad engineer,  so away from home) Sunday night, and again Auntie Jojo's bags appeared at Cece's house. We spent the week hanging out, taking care of Mama, and running out to the country to let Jake and Loki out each day. My fabulous niece Tater, whom Cece adores, came along to help. Handling the dogs and Cece trying to get in and out of the house is not a one woman job! 

Cece was good for the most part, but for whatever reason on Tuesday she had enough of the world and was crabby all day. Yelling, not listening, refusing to leave my house when it was time to go. Demanding radio changes all the way home at the top of her lungs. When we finally got settled back at her house she started the same with the TV and I put my foot down. She had her iPad, so she could do what she wanted, I was watching what I wanted. I told her to put her attitude in her back pocket and sit on it. She screamed at me one last time and threw herself on the loveseat, where she slept like this for an hour! She woke up in a much better mood! (Teenagers......)

So today I had some time to myself, and of course, I had errands. I bought some goodies at Aldi, and as I strolled up to the checkout it went like this:

Oh look! There's a 12 pack of Summer Shandy way back in on the bottom of that display! (I'm not a beer drinker, but I like this one. ) I haven't had any this summer! I'm going to have to get on my hands and knees to reach that box, but I'm going to do it! So I did it. Got down in my hands and knees and crawled in and got it out! 

The lady in front of me said "Oh gosh, I would never be able to get up again!" I just beamed at her with my prize and popped back up and put it in my cart. 

"Aren't you Katy's sister?" 

"Yep" is what I said out loud.  "This is what they've driven me to. " is what I thought.  I laughed all the way home. 

So yeah.....Kate? Jen says "Hi!"