The weekend

Where do I begin?

We started the online shopping at midnight like I told you in my last post. Ronda clued me in to blackfriday[dot]com and I was lost in cyper shopping land. I really don't need much, but found at least one thing that I was excited about and thrilled to be able to add it to my gift giving pile ... without hitting a store and standing in line at 5 a.m. Because, I'm sorry, but no gift is worth that. I tried it once. That was enough for me.

We did hit a few stores on Friday. Fred Meyer for the sock sale was high on my list of places to get to. Where do socks go and why don't they last forever? The nice wool ones are just not cheap. And I like cheap. I'm the girl who expects the $10 toaster to last 100 years or more. See what the problem is with the socks? We got our fill of socks. I'm sure I could have picked up more. Already wishing I had grabbed more black ones, but so be it.

Chapstick? Maybe this was overkill. Maybe not. Winter is here. The season of dry skin, dry lips, dry everything. We're good to go in the lip department.

I think we were home on Friday evening. It's been a few hours since then.
I played with the sewing machine over the weekend. I may be a wee bit silly in my wrapping this year. For the few things I'm sending ... some of them involved a sewing machine for wrapping. Worked on them Saturday as well ... and yesterday I packed boxes. I have one more to go that needs shipping. Packing tape? I'd never remember that so I could just be done with it all. By Saturday they will all be in the mail. That will feel good.

Christmas cards are a big thing in my life. Receiving them is big. I save all the photo cards and sort of scrapbook them into albums. It is so much fun to take them all out at Christmas time and see how families have grown and changed. Only once have I not sent out cards. And this year may make it twice. I'm already feeling major guilt about it.

Have photos to share with you from Friday's snowfall. Just not today.

Ham and scalloped potatoes are in the oven and nearly done. We need to leave for Sunday School Program practice in 30 minutes ... and I should shag a napping teen off her chair so she can get ready.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone. All the preparations (with the exception of some potatoes, a bit of turkey and a few slices of pie) have been enjoyed.

I'm visiting Nostalgia Lane this morning. Blogger won't let me put these in the order I want to, so will sort of wing it here.

We mismatched china this year. I do love a dinner with china and linen. These two sets represent two different families. Ones that were joined nearly 24 years ago in Minnesota on a cold wintery day. The set in the foreground (sorry you can't see it) comes from Jari's aunt Martta who passed away recently. She was instrumental in bringing Jari's family here from Finland. Thank goodness. Otherwise this dinner might have never occurred on Thursday.

Then there is my mom's china. Somday I'll have to share "Who Gets Grandmother Yellow Pie Plate" with you, but suffice it to say that one of the most cherished things I wanted of my parent's was the set of china. We used it often. Special visitors were fed off these plates. Sometimes the table was turned diagonally in the kitchen to accomodate all the bodies, but these plates adorned the table every Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. A lot of nostalgia in the silver trim of them. I don't have the turkey platter that goes with them. Isn't it amazing that even a set of china can have bits of stories and life tangled in with them? The turkey platter took a spill one time and hit the floor. I even remember who was holding it ... I just won't tell you.

I also have a tremendous fondness for linen. My fondness for linen just might be surpassed by my love of starch. I don' t remember if we used starch at home or not. I do remember the large, strange colored green plastic bag that held the ironing. In there it was misted and allowed to sit and wait for the ironing board. I did love to iron. I wonder if I groaned about it then. I learned to appreciate non wrinkled things. I especially like the crisp of freshly starched. We don't use these often. They used to grace our coffee table often when we had visitors over for the evening. And I mean MY home, not my mom's. This Thanksgiving we used the linen. I'm going to find a convenient close by place for it so I can use it often and make it a regular part of life once again.

I did miss watching the polishing of silver this year. I must hand that off to one of the boys and teach them tradition as well. I really don't use much of anything in the line of silver, but just watching the polishing adds enough nostalgia to the day that it might be worth it.

We spent the evening at the Mat-Su Borough gym with a nice size gang of others. Visiting with Mary Maki, who is up here visiting, was certainly enjoyable. Lots of desserts ... another couple cups of coffee.  Then home to start Black Friday shopping at midnight. I got the one item I really wanted. Was thoroughly disappointed with Target's shipping policy and, quite honestly, couldn't find much in the ads that I couldn't live without. I'll certainly be online again next year.

Friday morning we woke to the phone. Heini called to let us know that Charisse and family lost everything in a fire on Thanksgiving night. All were alive and well .. for that we are certainly thankful. I did talk to Charisse yesterday so I'll share on here. I have these visuals going on in my mind. Once past the horror of being chased out of your home in the middle of the night and surviving, imagine the rest of it. Paint a picture in your mind. It really begged to have a photographer there. 0 degrees in Fairbanks. Only time enough to run, which meant whatever you were sleeping in, you ran out in. At least one in boxers. Do you know anyone who sleeps in their shoes? Not me. They didn't either. Some kind souls stopped and they were able to warm the 5 children in the car. The couple got them to a hotel and settled in. Red Cross has stepped in  to assist them tremendously and we anticipate there will be an outpouring of support from the community when it learns of the tragedy. Someday they will have serious giggles over this. Imagine shopping for clothing on Black Friday .... in your pajamas. And not shopping because you need another pair of jeans because 12 of them wasn't enough. Shopping because you have nothing. We are certainly thankful.

Happy Friday!!

Really, it's Wednesday.

But it may as well be Friday.

4 day weekend is here with much to get done in the next not too many hours. But I'm thrilled. Will be much fun. Time with family. Stress free time with family. How's that? I could use some.

Today ends another chapter in our lives. It's all about chapters isn't it? The clothes pin waiting for the next seasons laundry. Another chapter begins and comes to a close.

Tonite we are without our foreign exchange student. That chapter of life has been closed. He has left with his luggage and will be boarding a flight back to Finland early Saturday morning. It has been an interesting experience. We have met a very talented young man. Some of his finer qualities could rub off on all of us. :) He is very dedicated to anything he attempts to do. Let's hope we all learned from this exprience and will grow in some way. We send him home with our best wishes and know that God directs our path through this life. He hears our prayers, even those that we cannot utter. He has a plan for all of us. That our lives crossed paths with Samuli, even for a short while, was of God's design.

Off to start Thanksgiving dinner preparations. Pie crust is thawing. Strawberries are thawing. Shoot! Forgot the rhubarb! Turkey is thawing. Vegies are half chopped for stuffing. Heather thinks I'm a bit nuts, but I really do iron my linen napkins. With starch. I need to go find those. Table is covered with Christmas stuff. Have done a little bit of that this week. Feels good to try and accomplish something in that direction.

Wishing you all a blessed Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for. Faith. Health. Family. Friends.

O Little Tree of Christmas

What do you think?

Will it work for an outdoor Christmas tree? At night it is quite lit. The power ends of the cords aren't quite twinkling, but they're lit.

It actually warmed up these last couple of days. I almost don't like it. The wind was threatening to start blasting with a gusto, but it died down. The slushy roads will turn to guess what. Need a massage by the time I drive too far. I actually felt a few snowflakes tonite while I was outside hauling out trash. That would be Mom Job #412. Anyway, it was 32 degrees when I ran to get Tia from school today. Gotta love those calls. "This is the nurse from Colony Middle School. Tia is in the nurses office and really needs to go home." Again? So she didn't feel good this morning, but I did the mom thing and sent her anyway. She was home last week Thursday and Friday with a stomach ache. Fine all weekend. What's up with a stomach ache again on Monday. Does sound a bit fishy, doesn't it? When I got to the school to pick her up, I felt horrible. She was white as a sheet. I don't own any white sheets, but I'm imagining what white sheets probably look like. Brought her home, fed her Ibuprofen and ran back to work. She's fine this evening. Wonder what morning will bring.

So, speaking of Christmas trees. Christmas this year is going to be a bit on the slim pickin' side. I just spent several hours on the phone with Ronda. Love those chats. :) She had several fabulous ideas. Idea #1: plasma donation. I don't know if they pay for it here or not, but they do in Phoenix. Might be a bit on the negative side financially for me to boogie down there to earn $50, but am going to check and see if Anchorage has any such thing. My vehicle gets about 10mpg ... let's say 60 miles to the donation site (if one exists) ... that should be 6 gallons, right? Now ... at $3.50ish a gallon we're up to $21 for a trip to town. Hmmm. If they pay big money it might be worth it. That means I only put $30 in my pocket. Unless they pay like $150 per visit. Then it might be worth it. Might be able to buy more than a tub of licorce at Costco. Might even make it to the produce section of the store. Enough of that idea. Idea #2: I'll share another day after I check it out myself. (That wasn't nice, was it?)

Mailbox prizes yesterday

I ran to the post office yesterday. Part of the usual Saturday routine around here. No more running to race my dear hubby to the mailbox when the letters came raining in the mail chute.

In the box of goodies from Mummu was this telephone. Made for great fun on Saturday. Tia has never dialed a rotary telephone. "Why do they have numbers on them?" Society changes, we change along with it and never even realize that there are such simple things that our kids will never know as being a part of everyday living.

The bread was certainly "flat" bread. The pulla delicious. Thanksgiving preparations are tucked here and there. Thanks to Fred Meyer for the free turkey. Still need to go get a few more of them. They may not be free, but they'll be turkeys.

The temperature has warmed up but not enough that I can't use my outdoor refrigerator. Gotta love this time of year. Count the blessings for even the little things. Such as left over pizza that doesn't fit in the fridge, but certainly keeps cold outside.

So much for my boasting about my bread machine.

The bread really won't do any rising in there if you forget to add yeast.

Ugh.

Shhh ... don't tell anyone ...

it's snowing outside this morning.

The cars are covered with white and nobody knows it yet.

They're sleeping.

I love Saturday mornings.

I mean ... I REALLY love them.

I don't wake up the kids at the crack of dawn to start dusting window ledges. Maybe I should, but I don't.

My theory is that if the work gets done ... I don't care how or when it gets done. Just don't let me see it UNDONE!

Maybe it's because I really like Saturday mornings.

My alarm rings at 7 a.m. on both weekend days. That is quite a sleep in for me. After the 5:15 a.m. ring the rest of the week. I feel quite rested when I get up.

8:12 a.m. as I post. It is still dark outside. I've hopped a few blogs this morning and chuckled and ooh'd about a few things. My pulla dough is rising. Double batch mind you. The bread machine is mixing bread dough for me. I really have come to love that thing. 99% of the time I don't use it for baking bread. I use it as a mixer. I cut Mummu's bread recipe in half. I dump the ingredients in the bread machine and hit the "Dough" button. It mixes and sits there to rise. I punch it down, put it in pans and get myself 3 loaves of flat bread. I do love flat bread. The other bread I buy at the store. I really don't want to spend my precious time making bread for sandwiches or toast. I want the good stuff with my dinner. When it's done, I slice and freeze it. (Thanks Mom!)

Now I'm off to try and find the grocery store ads. Haven't picked up anything for Thanksgiving yet. I thought I was going to be off on Wednesday and running to the dentist all day long .. and baking. Not to be. Good thing I looked at the vacation book yesterday. I need to cancel the dental appointments. Oh well. Couldn't afford that trip anyway. We have 2 more days scheduled in December. The moral of all that was ... I need to accumulate the food fixins for the holiday!