Lots of love

August has been getting lots of love lately.

I was organizing the basement storage area and came across a pack of Christmas cat toys with a "best by" date of 2016. Figured there was no point in keeping them any longer so I tossed them on the living room floor. August tore the catnip mouse to bits.

And B spent some qualiy time with August before he headed back to college.

Too easy for B

I gave B this puzzle to give him something to do in his spartment before classes started up. It was 50 pieces but had images on both sides so I thought it would be a little challenging for him. It was a puzzle of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin, inside on one side, outside on the other. We had just finished getting gas at the new Champaign Costco when he sent this picture. What a show-off lol! Way too easy for him. Guess I'll have to search for some more challenging puzzles - ones with 1,000 pieces minimum.

Back to Champaign

Beautiful sky on the way to take B back to college today. He thinks he'll be able to concentrate more at school than he would if he stayed home. Fair enough.

He didn't see the sky though. He was either sleeping or on his phone.

We took him to two grocery stores to get stocked up on food. The temperature in his apartment was 54. Brrr. They turned the heat down before break.

L stayed home and texted me this picture of her broken chocolate bombs. Muffles jumped on the kitchen counter and knocked them off.

And on the West Coast E and D took Azula to a corgi meet-up. She said Azula had a lot of fun.

Hot chocolate bombs

L's latest business venture is making hot chocolate bombs. She paints melted chocolate in a silicone mold (we got from the OP free FB page) and once it hardens fills it with hot cocoa mix and marshmallows.

Then comes the tricky part - sealing them together. She's already delivered a few orders and is getting great feedback. She's selling each 3-inch diameter bomb for $3. I've seen other people selling them for as high as $7 each.

They look great. You put the bomb in a mug and pour warm milk over, melting the bomb and releasing the mix and marshmallows. She makes milk chocolate, dark chocolate, mint, peppermint and salted caramel. All are made to order. This will keep her busy.

The tree is up

Had to get the Christmas decorations in the house while B was still home on break. We love having help carrying the boxes into the house and back to the garage.

Our tree is up.

My mantle is loaded with candles and wirebrush trees.

And I hung the curtains I made and strung up some red lights in the dining room.

Andy decorated the outside with a little help from B. So nice to have him home.

More outside lights ...

and our backdoor with a lighted wreath I picked up at a garage sale this summer.

Thanksgiving in a pandemic

Have to keep the celebration small this year. Our table is set waiting for our only guest, Allison.

We went easy on the appetizers - cheese and crackers, olives and B's favorite, meatballs.

The smallest turkey I could find was 17 pounds. We'll have lots of leftovers.

Ready to eat!

A little of everything except cranberry sauce. We really should have made some green beans. This is a really yellow carb-loaded plate of food. L made a yummy mac and cheese dish from scratch.

B's traditional after-dinner nap with Allison.

Begging for some scraps.

Zoom call with Andy's family. E joined in and got to show everyone her dog and BF. B was sleeping the whole time and L was making cocoa bombs.

E's Thanksgiving dinner with ham instead of turkey.

Delayed breakfast

B sat down next to August to eat his cereal but August kept licking his hand so he couldn't eat.

Once he was done with breakfast, B stayed by August's side and gave him some hugs.

Sad for August

We found out yesterday that August has liver disease. We're all so sad. Could this year suck any more?

So far he seems fine and is acting normal. Here he is, sitting in the window watching it snow today.

Brotherly love.

New blinds

Yesterday was day we finally bought new blinds for the back porch. We bought them at Lowe's and had them cut to size.

Since we moved in we had been wanting to replace these roll-up plastic bamboo-like blinds that came with the house. They're hard to raise and lower and we never liked how they looked.

Andy got to work right away to take down the old blinds and put up the new.

The new blinds look good and they block out the sun.

We also bought a blind for this side window where we've never had one before. With Andy working from home the sun that comes through this window puts a huge glare on the computer screen.

This should stop the glare.

Our pretty cats

Interesting doorstop

Andy's cousin dropped off a bag with this note at Allison's the other day. We're not sure why she thought Andy would want it but once he saw what was in the bag he said he'd take it.

It's a handmade doorstop that their grandmother used for her sewing room door. Andy plans to use it for our bedroom or L's which is probably a good idea because this being an old house, the doors sometimes shut on their own if they're left open. Kind of spooky.

New mugs I-L-L...

L brought home new coffee mugs for me and Andy. They're huge.

The kids are home!

Andy and I got to Champaign around 10:30 this morning. First stop was to pick up B at his apartment. Then we drove to L's dorm, passing Memorial Stadium (above).

B went into L's dorm to gelp her move stuff out - she realuzed she overpacked in August - but here he is walking out empty-handed. It took several trips to get all of her stuff and we filled up the Buick. Hopefully, most of the stuff won't be returning with her in January.

Don't they look happy to be going home?

And one of the first things they both did after bringing in their stuff was to pet the cats.