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.

Need a pen?

Arrived at work a little early yesterday so I sat in my car, listened to some tunes and cleaned out my purse. I found 16 pens! I put 12 to the side to store at home aan left four in there. I probably don't need to carry around four either, but it's good to be prepared.

It’s official

Andy took the kids' marriage license to the County Clerk's Office (well, he had one of his employees do it) and got the official marriage license. It's pretty basic but apparently couples can purchase a fancier one if they want.

Now I can share this

This is the scrapbook page I made at Croptoberfest for the day we went wedding dress shopping with E. I didn’t share it at the time, in case D was secretly catching up on his future in-laws’ escapades, but now that they’re married and the dress has been revealed, it’s safe to show! I used Darla’s new speech bubble punch (which, let’s be honest, might’ve been the highlight of my day next to the Casey's taco pizza we ordered for dinner.) I think it’s pretty clever, but I do tend to amuse myself. Zoom in to get the full effect of the speech bubbles.

I posted a picture of our scrapbooking socks at the time but here is my artsy version in portrait mode, with scrappers blurred in the distance.

Back to the hotel

When we got home from the hotel Sunday, Andy realized he didn't have part of his electric toothbrush. Fortunately, the hotel (Hyatt House) found it so we drove out there Tuesday after his golf lesson. We saw these lights as we were whipping down I-88. They were from Morton Arboretum, part of its holiday light show, I guess.

Here's the toothbrush Andy went to retrieve so he wouldn't have to buy a new one. Ironically, we stopped on the way to pick up a $120 golf cart heater (yeah, seriously) he had ordered.

Came home and ate more of the rehearsal dinner leftovers. We might save some leftovers in the freezer for E and D when they come home for Christmas.

L and W arrived safely back in Florida on Monday night. She was off work Tuesday and cleaned the kitchen and decorated for Christmas. Looks festive.

Getting back to normal

L and W took my car Monday morning to explore some more so I was stuck at home washing and folding the tablecloths from the rehearsal dinner. Having no use for eight matching tablecloths, we took them to church for future uses, hopefully. We also left the flowers I used for the rehearsal dinner and the chip baskets. I was sure to let my friend, M, the usual church party decorator, know they were there.

We also picked up the leftover food from the rehearsal dinner - chicken and beef fajitas, fiesta potatoes, rice, beans, chips, tortillas, salsa and Andy's favorite, marinated carrots. E and D bought food for 50 and there were probably 40 people at the dinner, but we have a good amount of leftovers. We packed some up for Allison since she helped us out that night and tossed some things in our freezer for us to eat eventually.

We drove L and W to Midway for their flight home. Unless we visit Florida in the next six months, we don't expect to see L until Cousin C's wedding in June (she's a bridesmaid again ... E will be too). Since I hadn't done the week's grocery shopping because L had dibs on my car, we had Allison over for dinner. You guessed it - a leftover Mexican fiesta!

The day after

The newlyweds stopped by to see us before their flight back home. They opened their wedding cards and wanted to deposit the cash they received instead if flying home with it. A good idea.

L and W spent the day driving through the suburbs. W wanted deep-dish pizza again so this time we went to Pizzeria Uno downtown. Surprisingly, we got seated right away.

W said the toppings were better on Uno's pizza but the butter crust at Malnati's was better.

We haven't been to Uno in years but thought it would be neat for him to experience a mire traditional Chicago restaurant vs. a chain.

For some reason, L wanted to take him to a Jewel. L said she misses Jewel ... and the prices. Lots of the Chicago brands (such as Home Run Pizza) if they're available in Florida cost a lot more. Maybe I should have handed her my list and have get my groceries while she was visiting.

We drove around the city. This was on the museum campus. This, I said, is the perfect place to get a shot of the city. They were texting pictures to W's mom in Colorado.

We drove up Lake Shore Drive and past B's apartment, which L has never seen. We were on our way to nearby Wrigley Field. They weren't the only ones who hopped out from an illegally parked car to grab a couple of pictures.