Small world

So I listed these socks on the free page and when I went to message the first responder I found out she's from Bunker Hill, just a town over from Staunton. I had to mention it to her and found out she knows my cousin. In fact, my cousin's son was in her wedding (what!?!) and is good friends with her husband. And she was a year ahead of one of his daughters in school. Perfect small town story.

November sunset

Ran out to grab a gallon of milk and saw this beautiful sunset. Good timing.

Bad elf?

L brought out her Elf on the Shelf to photograph it and try to sell it. She left it on the sofa and when I came in from taking the garbage out, the elf was looking like he was standing in the corner being punished. I'm guessing B did that.

Back to school

Andy and I drove L back to school today. She sent us home with a few moremthings from her dorm room. Two weeks of classes, a couple final exams and she'll be home for Christmas.

We went to Papa Del's for lunch. She took the leftovers so she'd have dinner too. we had to make a quick stop at Walmart to get a paintbrush so she can touch up the paint in her dorm that came off when she took down her lights. Those lights Andy worked so hard to put up in August.

She had two sample-size cans of paint (slightly different colors) and whichever one she tried she said was a pretty darn good match. She was going to wait for a friend to finish because she needs some help moving furniture.

Christmas decor

L joked that when she left for work yesterday she was leaving fall and returning home to Christmas. She was pretty much on point. We put up the tree. It's a silver ombre tree we bought last year but didn't use. It's pretty but different. Going to take a little getting used to.

And the mantle is decorated. Still debating what to do with the buffet space.

Dining room garland.

Back porch so far. I'm debating adding some ornaments to hang from the garland. I was busy putting up snowflake clings on the windows. They're all over the back porch, dining room and kitchen.

Ready for Black Friday

L was dressed as an elf to sell shoes today for Black Friday.

The whole crew dressed up.

Thanksgiving Day

Table is set ...

We had some light appetizers.

Tried to get a nice family picture before we started eating.

Lots of food and leftovers - turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, cranberry salad, cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls and Allison's corn casserole. Then pecan and pumpkin pies for dessert.

With just six of us I was able to set out water goblets along with the wine glasses. I think it's only the second time I've used the water goblets. Space is usually at a premium.

And E and D are in LA. They're spending today at Disneyland.

View from her hotel room. She paid with points she "earned" from living at the Marriott long-term stay diring her internship in 2019. I think she said they're within walking distance from Disneyland. She rented a car and said traffic leaving the LA airport was horrible.

Thanksgiving prep

Gorgeous sunrise today.

Allison and Pat are coming over for Thanksgiving tomorrow but regardless of how many guests we have we always seem to make the same amount of food. We have to have leftovers. So far, the pecan pie is made.

The cranberries are chopped and ready to be put into a cold salad tomorrow.

And Gram's stuffing is put together ready to be baked tomorrow. It's the reason B shows up for Thanksgiving. That, and the appetizer meatballs.

Too cute

Our doorbell captured video of this little boy posing with our plastic Santa and, I assume, his dad, taking some photos.

Outdoor decorations

Andy and B took advantage of the warm weather yesterday (about 55 degrees) to put up some outdoor Christmas decorations. We put the snowman family and this tree along our fence ...

and decorated the front porch with some lights, a tree and our old, big Santa.

Looks good!

Only part of our dad snowman is lighting up. We put them outside our fence this year so passers-by can see them better. Andy plans to add lights to the bushes too.

Bath time

August is trying to nap but Muffles decides he needs some grooming.

She’s home

Allison and I drove down to pick up L yesterday morning.

I told L these antlers had to come off before I drove her car back on the interstate.

We packed up the cars and had lunch at Applebee's before driving home. L got on the interstate and drove for awhile before we switched drivers.

Family update

Andy left Wednesday morning for a conference in Dallas. He was pretty excited to get breakfast and a bloody Mary at the United Club while waiting for his flight.

Nice view from his hotel room. He was part of a panel discussion Thursday and came home late last night.

As part of L's final for her food and nutrition class she had to buy and serve a five-aspect meal (not sure what that is) to at least two people and take pictures of her explaining the aspects to her “students." She used her Journeys co-workers as her students.

B's been busy working from home. He likes to wrap the cats up in our blankets and see how long they'll stay put. It's entertaining.

And E went to quilt show on Sunday. She found a place where she can rent a long-arm quilting machine by the hour and they'll let her practice on quilts for charities.

And I've been busy doing all the grocery shopping for Thanksgiving. If everything goes as planned, I won't have to go to the grocery stores next week when they'll be packed with people. I was wondering how this carrot slice got into the bag of baby carrots. It's the little things that amuse me.

White Sox puzzle

My latest puzzle was the White Sox's US Cellular Field (it's old, obviously). It was only 500 pieces so I put it together in less than six hours. I had to laugh when I saw the Pope in the crowd. Who knew he's a Sox fan?

All done with very little help from B.

Latest home project

For as long as I can remember (maybe since we bought the house?) there's been a crack in the plaster that's over the basement stairs, covering the underside of the stairs that go to our second story. I guess 20-plus years of the five of us going up and down the main stairs took its toll and I recently mentioned to Andy that the plaster seemed to be pulling farther away from the slats behind it.

He pushed on it and immediately made this hole. Well now, I said, you need to fix it and get it done by Thanksgiving.

Challenge accepted and Andy got to work tearing out the loose plaster Saturday.

And we decided while we're at it to fix a few cracks in the wall. I did the fabulous spackling job. Of course, we now have to try to match the 17-year-old kitchen paint.

I woke up Sunday and Andy had the drywall in. It looks good.

Here he's getting ready to sand. Yes, I made a "Boy in the Bubble" reference.

Tuesday afternoon and it's pretty much done. A little touch-up paint is needed and another coat or two on the white part, but it looks so much better than before. Now the trick will be to vaccuum up all the dust from the stairs.

Find the shoes

L is coming home Friday for fall break and she's promised to make it worthwhile for Allison to drive down and bring back some of her things. (The plan is that I'll drive L's car home since she has no experience highway driving.) L said if I find her Disney Adidas shoes she'll bring home all the shoes she has at school. She said they were probably in E's room. I walked in and found this one on E's bed. But where is the other one?

Balancing precariously on the shelf in E's room, of course. The shoebox they came in was on the shelf too, in a different spot, but no shoes were in it.

Fall trees

It seems all the trees in the neighborhood have their fall colors now.

Fall from our front porch.