It’s cookie time

I started baking Christmas cookies this week. The preschool is having its Cookie Walk this weekend so I baked sugar cookies and snickerdoodles for that. I also made my Christmas chocolate chip cookies, but those are for me to keep.

I found this recipe in my Facebook feed and thought I'd give it a try since I had all of the ingredients on hand.

I used milk chocolate chips (since it didn't specify) and pecans. Apparently, they freeze well so that's always a bonus.

‘It’s a Wonderful Life’

Andy and I went to Fitzgerald's last night with Allison and Pat for dinner and a viewing of "It's a Wonderful Life." We all had the Wednesday special, $5 burgers. The crowd booed everytime Mr. Potter was on screen.

I didn't see the Bedford Falls sign when we walked in, but saw it and tried to get a pic on the way out.

The collection continues

I added one of E and D's wedding pictures to the dining room wall. It's one from their "sneak peek" so I might change it out later if there's one of that focuses more on their faces. This one works for now - the fourth generation on my wall of wedding pictures.

Decorated for Christmas

We had a lot of snow Saturday so it was a good time to put up the Christmas decorations. This is the tree we bought after Christmas last year because I wanted a slim green tree that was pre-lit. Andy outdid himself and found one that switches from multi-colored lights to white, to red and green, just green, aqua, etc. It's fun to play with. For the moment, we're sticking with red and green.

Piper approves.

The usual fake candles on the mantel and some wire brush trees.

My "theme" this year is loosely based on the Spode Christmas tree napkins, so we're doing mostly green and white.

Back porch.

I didn't need more lights on the back porch but these snow globes with little trees and snow inside were too cute not to use. This area will be cleaned off for the drink station on Christmas Day. Not quite sure how I'll decorate the buffet. At the moment it has a green table runner on it.

Record-setting snowfall

Pretty much everyone stayed inside Saturday (except Andy who went to Costco, Home Depot and the grocery store) because we were in the midst of a snowstorm.

We ended up with about 8.5 inches, the most snow in November in Chicago record-keeping history. We could get another 3 inches today. Our snowblower isn't working so Andy shoveled the sidewalk at least twice. I'm sure the neighbors missed his snowblowing as he usually walks past many of the houses on the block, depending on the temperature and his mood.

Those are all Chicks and Hens in pots on the stairs. Fortunately, we brought in all the Christmas decorations from the garage on Friday so on Saturday we were able to do all of the inside decorating. Pictures of those decorations to come tomorrow. The outside decorating will have to wait awhile.

Almost Christmas-ready

I got a break from cooking before Thanksgiving when Andy and I went to Babygold for its $5 burger night. They're in the process of decorating with their many blow molds.

Not sure what I think of this "flying" snowman. I'm assuming Santa and his reindeer will be up there soon. They've been decorating with blow molds for a couple of years now and, I think, they add more each year. It's so festive.

Some outside waiting to be brought inside for display. Should all be up by December. I thought I saw on Facebook how many blow molds they have but, now that I want the information, I can't find it. They have a lot.

Wedding preview

E got the sneak peek of her wedding photos from the photographer.

They're so good.

This was early in the day before the ceremony but get a couple of drinks in these guys and put some tunes on and they became dancing machines.

This might be my favorite so far.

I'm excited to see the rest!

Thanksgiving

I set the table, took some pictures, then put the crystal back in the cabinet in case these cats get curious. I'm sure I got a deal on this Pottery Barn turkey candle (or I wouldn't have bought it) but it still hurt a little to light it. I also have the lighted leaf garland hanging on the curtains.

No, Ruby!

It was nice to have B home. He's doctoring up the carrots while Andy carves the turkey.

Allison and Pat joined us before going to their future son-in-law's family's dinner. I'm wearing the "gobble" shirt I found on a yard sale when Cindy and I were at the scrapbook crop in October.

Let's eat!

Meanwhile, in Florida -- Imagine L's surprise Wednesday when she figured out she would be able to make a Thanksgiving dinner only to find out that a "fresh" turkey doesn't mean it's not frozen. Andy and I looked it up the other night because I was wondering the same thing after seeing "fresh" turkeys frozen solid at the store. Anyway, she Facetimed me to see if she was preparing it right to dry brine it overnight, but I don't do that so her guess is as good as mine.

Pretty table with a Disney flair, of course.

She cooked for her boyfriend W, roommate Tyler, coworker C and friend J, who recently moved from Chicago.

Looks like a success.

And in Seattle, E and D left early Thanksgiving morning for their honeymoon in Hawaii. They got to the airport so early the security line wasn't even open. Oops. Those are the stories they'll laugh about years down the road. They're flying first class so that will be nice and relaxing.

We drove B home and there was very little traffic so we came home through the neighborhoods instead of the expressway. I got a nice picture of Wrigley Field with, surprisingly, no people around. I feel like I was just there. Might be the last clear night in a while. They're predicting 8 inches of snow this weekend.

Messy tree

Our neighbor's parkway tree drops all of its needles seemingly overnight. The needles are even in the street.

The village has a map of all of the parkway trees and this one is a bald cypress. It's the state tree of Louisiana and typically grows in swampy areas. It's planted elsewhere as an ornamental tree. Seems like an odd, messy choice for a Midwestern parkway.

No wonder the needles fell yesterday. It was so windy with gusts up to 50 mph. Even made our lighted trellis tilt. (The tall grass is pretty this time of year). When I got home from work the wreath from our back door had been blown into the yard.

Puzzle of many cats

This puzzle had lots of cats ... and often a real one.

All of the pieces are there! I finally figured out that I need to cover the puzzle when I'm not working on it and close the box of pieces to try to cat-proof it.

This was a fun puzzle. Instead of "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, it said "The Old Cat and the Sea" by Hemingway's Cat and "Lord of the Rings" was "Lord of the Cats." And I finished it just before I need to clear the dining room table for Thanksgiving.

I need pecans?

I work today so I needed to get a start on Thanksgiving prep yesterday. I wanted to bake a pecan pie but realized I didn't have enough pecans. So, change of plans - take a shower and run to Costco to buy pecans.

Of course, it's hard to leave Costco with one item. I also bought fake Ugg boots, a sweater and a cracker assortment. I hope the boots hold up better than they did last year. I did manage to make the pecan pie that afternoon, put the stuffing and corn casserole together, and made the meatball sauce.

Photo Christmas cards

Just like last year, Walgreens offered a few free photo cards for Christmas. I picked out pictures from E's wedding and write a brief note on the back about what each kid is up to ... and that we're adjusting to life as empty-nesters.

Bears vs. Steelers

Our friends, Matt and Renee, invited the golf buddies over Sunday for the Bears vs. Steelers game. Matt serves food from whatever city the Bears are playing so the menu was Pittsburgh-focused with Primanti Bros. sandwiches, haluski, and pepperoni rolls.

I skipped the pierogies and cabbage dishes, but the pepperoni rolls and sandwich were good.

The best we could do to keep with the theme and not show up empty-handed was to bring some Pennsylvania-based beer. Harder to find than we thought so we settled on IPA from New York. Close enough. Gotta love Matt's Bears hat. Bears won - 31 to 28!

Thankoffering dinner, B and lights

Andy went out golfing Saturday morning and didn't get home until 2:30 (a little ridiculous, if you ask me) but came home and hung our new patio lights to try to redeem himself. We bought our last (and only) ones in 2017 at Costco but the store no longer has any with a remote ... and we need a remote. We found these on Amazon - it's 100 feet so we only needed one strand (we had two last time), they can be dimmed, they flash if we want to make the neighbors crazy and, of course, they have a remote. The old ones still work but a lot of bulbs are out and the remote died so we left them by the trash can in case some passer-by wants to give them a try.

Last night was our annual Thankoffering dinner at church. I made corn casserole.

My friend, M, decorated and used the green tablecloths I donated to the church from E's rehearsal dinner. It looked fabulous, as usual. Lots of golfers at this table and, yes, they discussed golf. Oy.

We asked B if he wanted to come along and he said yes! B isn't a fan of corn but he'll be back at our house on Thanksgiving where he can have his favorites - stuffing and meatballs. It will be just the three of us this year so hopefully I can convince him to take leftovers home.

Always so much food. Andy heard 100 people were there. I managed to get a slice of the only pecan pie I saw.