12/1/2109

Weekly Update 12/1/2019

Thanksgiving at Barbara’s was very nice! And no one left hungry! She made the turnkey and stuffing (and some roasted vegies because, well, she’s Barbara). My contribution was green bean casserole and home made bread and butter. When I went to my recipe box on Tuesday to make sure I had all the ingredients for the bread, I couldn’t find the recipe. How could I not have saved that one! I haven’t made bread in probably 20 years or more, but I made it so often when I was a contented housewife (really???) that most of it came back to me. I also found a similar recipe on allrecipes.com, and it turned out fine. I made the butter by shaking heavy cream until it turned solid, and then added some salt. Now, I had buttermilk. And I’m a southerner, so I made fried chicken on the weekend. That was tasty. I was the only one who ate my casserole, so I brought it all back home and ate every last bite in the following days. Its the holidays – let the eating begin!

my rolls, butter and casserole

chef Barbara and the turkey

check out the nice turkey / football leggings

But the very best part of Thanksgiving was the game! Barbara had kindly planned her meal for early in the day, so I could be back in front of my own tv for the kickoff. I had no expectations that the Bills would win, and the ‘Boys scored on their first drive, which added to my belief that it would be a long game. But that was it. The rest of the game was owned by the Bills. The defense rocked, the offense looks better with the decreased turnovers, and the kicker was, well, not so good, but it didn’t matter. That euphoria stayed with me for days!  

My usual Friday at DH was canceled because the high school docents take over on Thanksgiving weekend. Instead, I went to see Mr Rogers Neighborhood with Jane, June and Tom. It was ok, but I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t really about Mr Rogers, but rather about the writer who was doing a magazine article. After that, Jane and I went downtown for the annual tree lighting ceremony. It was supposed to be at 7 pm, but the tree was dark until about 7:40. We endured every dance school in Savannah with a display of their steps, downtown business leaders speeches to extol the virtues of shopping on Broughton Street, the mayor giving his two cents, and even a showing of hands to see how many out-of-towners were there. There were probably several hundred people altogether, and we all started to chant “light the tree” as children (and a few adults – myself included) were getting restless. But they finally flicked the switch and holiday spirit filled the air. Jane and I then went to The 90 for other spirits.  

I got out the nutcrackers and set them all up again. I like to take time to get them all out of the boxes and display them. I think of each person who gave me one of them, and each place I’ve visited where I purchased one for a souvenir. This year, the addition is a Mardi Gras one that I bought in New Orleans last March.

I went for a walk at Daffin Park on Sunday morning. Rain was in the forecast, but not until mid-afternoon. I decided to chance it. The Lions Club set up a Christmas tree lot in the park each year, and when I drove past Friday night on my way back home, it was full. When I walked at Daffin on Saturday morning, it seemed to be about half full. When I was there Sunday morning, it was empty. Wait a minute! It’s December FIRST, and the live trees are already all sold and drying out in people’s living rooms across Savannah? How can that be? Anyway, I digress. As I was about half way around the first lap of the park, the wind came up and it started to rain. The wind knocked a large branch off a tree just as I was under it, and it missed me by inches. I would have been injured if it had hit my head. It was really windy and the rain was really coming down in big drops. I started to run to my car. Now, it’s been decades since I’ve run anyplace, but I trotted as best I could, and I was still soaked by the time I got back to the car. I don’t know if walking is worth the risk anymore. I didn’t go out for the rest of the day.  

the empty tree lot and the deceptive blue skies in the distance