Stick Horse Cowgirls

I awoke with a start this morning before 4 a.m.  It is not unusual for me to be awake at this hour, but to be so fully awake and with such purpose right off  is not my norm.  What has got me going is the holiday bustle.  Belatedly. I’ve mentioned earlier that MIL came up with the bright idea of going out to eat.  It seemed, at first, an affront to long-standing family tradition, but as I thought it through, I came over to the other side.  We’ve found a lavish Thanksgiving buffet to attend and have duly made our reservations.  My family will gather at the restaurant this year, and each one of them seems excited by the change. Because I am not cooking for the meal, I have not purchased one, single extra item from the store.  Son is away at the beach for a week, so it’s only me here.  My mother is coming tonight.  So I knew I had to get a few things in for while she is here. And then it happened: the slide back toward busyness. ...

  I said before: For me, once Halloween passes, it seems like time hurdles toward Christmas.  MIL made a motion that we go out for Thanksgiving dinner, and that’s what we’re doing.  I had mixed emotions about it, being afraid that I would miss being totally exhausted by the time the meal is here and spending huge amounts of $$$$ on groceries and then having to clean up to boot.  I’ve decided I can get over that…I’ll miss the leftovers, but I surely don’t need them hanging around here.  And, let’s be real; my Thanksgiving dinners never looked like Norman Rockwell’s depiction, anyway. I will miss cooking at Thanksgiving, as I love to cook and no longer have any reason to…being single and all.  I have quashed that regret, however, mollifying myself with thoughts of cooking my you-know-what off for Christmas.  I have spent the morning sipping coffee and wrapping Christmas presents, and there is where the “smugness” of the title comes in.  I am...

I feel very much like I am in a countdown to Thanksgiving. It is Sunday evening, and I have three full days of work at the office ahead of me. But the turkey is in the fridge, thawing, and the ham is down at MIL's because my refrigerator is bursting at the seams. There is an undercurrent of bustle that is surpassed only by that before Christmas...soon on the heels of this bustle! No wonder I'm exhausted by New Year's. This year my mother will spend Wednesday night with me, as will my niece Ellie and any other nieces who want to join in. We will spend Wednesday evening baking pies a nd getting everything ready for the "real" cooking on Thursday morning. We will, of course have pumpkin pie (obligatory)and Ellie and I have a new dessert recipe to try out--may be reporting to you all on that outcome. Though I like that whole-berry-orange fancy cranberry sauce, my entire family insists on the jellied sauce as well. My mother's specialty is cornbread dressing t...