Saturday, November 24, 2018

here come the holidays

It's been a lovely, long weekend around here. My mom hosted Thanksgiving dinner and this year it was us, my sister and her family, our cousin, Greg, and my mom's neighbor-friend who otherwise would've been alone that day.

Brian and Greg had the honors of carving the turkey and ham.


I tried to get a selfie with Tim, but he wouldn't have any of that. Instead, I got a photo of lots of hair. ;-)


As always, we were blessed with an abundance of delicious food. We had turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, stuffing, and veggies (I made a corn casserole, green beans with gremolata, and roasted carrots and parsnips with honey and fresh thyme. They got a little burned when rewarming them in my mom's oven, but no one seemed to mind). Mom also made a layered Greek dip as an appetizer and two homemade pies ~ french silk chocolate and pumpkin.

It was a low-key few hours of good conversation and laughter ~ what family and friends are all about.


 No Black Friday shopping for us the next day. We chose to browse a few little antique shops about 20 minutes north of us. Low-key, no crowds, no mass merchandise. My kind of shopping. (Besides online shopping.)


See the set of four wooden Santas towards the front bottom right of the table? They are vintage wooden bells ~ and they came home with me. 




The only other thing I bought was a 9 ft long vintage garland made of red and green wooden beads.


We tried going to the lighting of the Woodstock Square last night. This is where the movie, Groundhog Day was filmed. It's a beautiful, small town in our County, just 1/2 hour from our house. Little did we know this once-small, neighborhood event has now turned into a commercialized frenzy of thousands of people due to social media. We looked for a parking space for about 25 minutes, driving blocks away, to no avail. There were throngs of people walking everywhere and crossing streets in the dark...it was just nuts. We gave up and went home.

(Google images)

We ended up watching several episodes of The Kominsky Method on Netflix last night. We loved it! Great acting with Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin, with a lot of laugh out loud moments. Can't wait to watch more tonight. Too bad there's only eight episodes.

We are due for a whopper of a storm tomorrow. Depending on how it tracks, we could get as much as 8-14" of wet, heavy snow ~ what they call "heart attack snow". And winds will be whipping at 45 mph. They are saying with the wet, heavy snow being on power lines and the high winds, a lot of people could lose power. The contractors that are working on building our new front porch/little deck are supposed to be back on Monday to finish up. They said before they even started the project that they work in the snow, so we'll see. Sneak peek...porch demolition.



Obviously, we're staying home tomorrow. We didn't have any plans, anyway. I think it will be a good day to dig out the Christmas decor and start decorating, though it will be minimal. I swear, it seems like I just packed all this stuff up and put it away. Doesn't it seem like Christmas comes quicker every year as you get older?

Here we go...



10 comments:

  1. What a fun time you had. My daughter got sick and so we moved Thanksgiving to my duplex. Mom and I got it done but we were exhausted. The Grands had a good time. I'm hoping they will come over this afternoon to help me decorate my little tree. I don't do Black Friday shopping unless it's online. I must say I love going to Antique shops this time of year and those wooden bells look adorable. You'll have to share after you get them in your home decor! Hugs!

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  2. Sounds like you had a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving. I did not venture out on Friday, I decorated instead. Now for online shopping, I have been doing a bit of that too. Have a good week.

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  3. I do love seeing your family Thanksgiving photos, Melanie! And your menu sounds delicious.

    Did you get the big snow storm? Still have power? Stay warm and safe and enjoy that Christmas decorating!
    Dewena

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  4. It sounds like you had a greaat family get-together for Thanksgiving. Our was quiet - 8 adults, 1 toddler and 1 newborn. It was a nice time. Dinner was good, conversation was pleasant and our tummies were filled with good food. We, too have watched The Kominsky Method. We haven't laughed that much at a television show in a long time. Now we're watching "The Good Cop" with Tony Danza and Josh Groban. It is fun... gentle detective work and a dysfunctional father/son relationship that is fun to watch. We will be getting your snowstorm in a couple of days. Right now we have sunshine which is nice to see. It gets rather dreary in the Cleveland, OH metro area. Stay warm and safe!

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  5. Sounds low key and very relaxing. It's cold and windy here today. Yesterday I had the air conditioner on.
    Brenda

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  6. I am glad you had such a nice time with family, Melanie. Love the picture of you and "hair"--I have kids like that! lol I haven't watched the Kominsky Method yet but it is on my "shows to watch" list.

    I didn't do any black Friday shopping either. You couldn't pay me enough. We stayed home and visited a sweet shop on Saturday instead.

    I hope you don't get too much snow, Mel---it can really be wicked sometimes. xo Diana

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  7. Looks like a nice Thanksgiving with family and friends. The best part about Thanksgiving is the leftovers for me. You had some yummy foods. I have visited some of those vintage shops in Woodstock and they are pretty great.
    Hugs,
    Kris

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  8. Your Thanksgiving sounds lovely, and the food spectacular! I'll have to remember the carrots and parsnips idea. I love parsnips, and the honey and thyme seasoning sounds yummy. We drove through the southern part of that snowstorm on Sunday! Coming back from Oklahoma, through Kansas.

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  9. Sounds like a lovely day...and your Black Friday shopping sounds dreamy!! That's my kind of outting. Hope you didn't get walloped with snow...but I have a feeling you did. Stay warm!!

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  10. Looks like you had a very nice Thanksgiving. I could go for those green beans and roasted veges right about now. Yummo! I have never done Black Friday shopping. Would much rather go antiquing like you did. A shame the lighting ceremony has become so crazy. We definitely would have turned right around and gone home, too. Happy December!

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