I've been super busy with kiddos *LOL*
I'm not sure why I write in LJ....I guess I wanted one because my sisters and friends have one but I find that I lapse quite a bit in the dates for writing...I tend to write a summary every few days as opposed to writing each day...things that make me go hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...
We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner, my hubby and me, alone, table set with candles, wine, and music. My children were with their father this year so Justin and I had the house to ourselves *LOL* I fell asleep the night before around 8:30pm and set the alarm for 1:00am so that I would be up when Justin came home from work, usually around 3:30am. But Max called and woke me up around 11:30pm and really woke me up *LOL* The phone must have rang about 20 times but I didn't mind. I was happy to hear from him. Being 3 hours behind me in the time zone he had just gotten home from work. So we chatted really about nothing for about a half an hour and he said he'd call on Thanksgiving so he could speak with his sibblings and Justin.
It's a good thing he woke me up. I needed to bake pumpkin pies along with a cherry tart, get onions and mushrooms sauted for the stuffing and roast chestnuts as well. We bought these HUGE sweet potatoes, and I mean HUGE at Alberton's a few days before, they were 3lbs for $1.00 so I bought about 6lbs. I baked up 5 of them, peeled off the skins, and cut them in discs for my brown sugared/honey/buttered sweet potatoes and they were lovely.
So I got all that done and put chicken broth into a pot to make stuffing when I reached for garlic and it was not there. Justin came home with bags of stuff as he had been to Wal-Mart (one of the super stores with a food shopping section) and I had to tell him the bad news about the garlic gone missing *LOL* I figured my daughter used the last of it and in the "teenager" forgetfullness, didn't tell me. So he went and got some for me and we commenced to make a nice dressing for this turkey *LOL* We finally put it in the oven around 5:30am which I thought was kind of late. I like to cook turkeys on a low oven temperature for many hours so that they are tender and very juicy...but it was done around noontime....to my surprise. So, we had a very early Thanksgiving dinner at around 12:30pm complete with candles and wine. It was really nice. I missed my kids but I was happy that we could just have a meal, the two of us, with some nice classical music playing.
My kiddos arrived home around 4:30pm and Vinny Jr came to spend the night with us as well. They were hungry, again, for my turkey because they all complained that grandma's turkey was dry *LOL* So, they helped themselves and I've still got several bowls of leftovers in the fridge.
Where Justin works, they have Turkey day each year. They give out frozen turkeys and they are not small either. They range from 17-22lbs. One of the guys on Justin's team gave Justin his turkey so Justin came home with 2 turkeys this year plus I bought a 25 pounder the other day. So we had 3 frozen turkeys...I cooked one for Thanksgiving and I put the other one in the chest freezer along with the one I bought. I can't fit another thing in that freezer *LOL*
Vinny went home for Friday night because Justin had to work, but to my surprise, when my ex came to pick him up, my daughter put him on the spot about taking her and my youngest to spend Friday night at his house. Apparently, Vinny Jr, living with his father now, reports to my two youngest when "dad" is home and not working, going out, or having any plans. So, my daughter called him on the carpet for not visiting them more often or taking them for 2 nights like he can. To my surprise, my ex told her and my youngest to pack their overnight suitcases and he took them for a Friday night visit...I nearly fainted.
I had the house to myself and it's too bad that this could not have been planned better because Justin could have booked Friday night off from work and we could have gone out. Ah well, he'll have 2 days of vacation he'll have to use before the Christmas blackout at work so he's going to book them so he can have Christmas Eve off as he has Christmas off this year. It will be nice to have him home for Chirstmas.
We'll probably have Vinny Jr here for much of the week that the kids are home from school during Christmas and Vinny Jr is happy about that. Justin picked up all the kids yesterday and Vinny Jr spent the night with us last night. He's been on the tired side of late so he's napped quite a bit today. I think it is just from all of the excitement of having been reunited home with his dad, getting settled there, getting up early for trips to our house on the weekends, and working in the youth group at the church near his father's house. It's better he has things to do rather than sit home bored and thinking of ways to get himeself into trouble.
We have not decorated yet for Christmas. Next weekend methinks. Justing bought me a gorgeous fiber optic Christmas tree last year and it is just beautiful. I have lots of mini-ornaments that fit nicely on it and we'll probably set it up next weekend. It's lovely and it's HUGE...it goes up to the ceiling. But at night, with all the house lights off, it is lovely to see all the colors shimmer.
We had a really nice Thanksgiving dinner, my hubby and me, alone, table set with candles, wine, and music. My children were with their father this year so Justin and I had the house to ourselves *LOL* I fell asleep the night before around 8:30pm and set the alarm for 1:00am so that I would be up when Justin came home from work, usually around 3:30am. But Max called and woke me up around 11:30pm and really woke me up *LOL* The phone must have rang about 20 times but I didn't mind. I was happy to hear from him. Being 3 hours behind me in the time zone he had just gotten home from work. So we chatted really about nothing for about a half an hour and he said he'd call on Thanksgiving so he could speak with his sibblings and Justin.
It's a good thing he woke me up. I needed to bake pumpkin pies along with a cherry tart, get onions and mushrooms sauted for the stuffing and roast chestnuts as well. We bought these HUGE sweet potatoes, and I mean HUGE at Alberton's a few days before, they were 3lbs for $1.00 so I bought about 6lbs. I baked up 5 of them, peeled off the skins, and cut them in discs for my brown sugared/honey/buttered sweet potatoes and they were lovely.
So I got all that done and put chicken broth into a pot to make stuffing when I reached for garlic and it was not there. Justin came home with bags of stuff as he had been to Wal-Mart (one of the super stores with a food shopping section) and I had to tell him the bad news about the garlic gone missing *LOL* I figured my daughter used the last of it and in the "teenager" forgetfullness, didn't tell me. So he went and got some for me and we commenced to make a nice dressing for this turkey *LOL* We finally put it in the oven around 5:30am which I thought was kind of late. I like to cook turkeys on a low oven temperature for many hours so that they are tender and very juicy...but it was done around noontime....to my surprise. So, we had a very early Thanksgiving dinner at around 12:30pm complete with candles and wine. It was really nice. I missed my kids but I was happy that we could just have a meal, the two of us, with some nice classical music playing.
My kiddos arrived home around 4:30pm and Vinny Jr came to spend the night with us as well. They were hungry, again, for my turkey because they all complained that grandma's turkey was dry *LOL* So, they helped themselves and I've still got several bowls of leftovers in the fridge.
Where Justin works, they have Turkey day each year. They give out frozen turkeys and they are not small either. They range from 17-22lbs. One of the guys on Justin's team gave Justin his turkey so Justin came home with 2 turkeys this year plus I bought a 25 pounder the other day. So we had 3 frozen turkeys...I cooked one for Thanksgiving and I put the other one in the chest freezer along with the one I bought. I can't fit another thing in that freezer *LOL*
Vinny went home for Friday night because Justin had to work, but to my surprise, when my ex came to pick him up, my daughter put him on the spot about taking her and my youngest to spend Friday night at his house. Apparently, Vinny Jr, living with his father now, reports to my two youngest when "dad" is home and not working, going out, or having any plans. So, my daughter called him on the carpet for not visiting them more often or taking them for 2 nights like he can. To my surprise, my ex told her and my youngest to pack their overnight suitcases and he took them for a Friday night visit...I nearly fainted.
I had the house to myself and it's too bad that this could not have been planned better because Justin could have booked Friday night off from work and we could have gone out. Ah well, he'll have 2 days of vacation he'll have to use before the Christmas blackout at work so he's going to book them so he can have Christmas Eve off as he has Christmas off this year. It will be nice to have him home for Chirstmas.
We'll probably have Vinny Jr here for much of the week that the kids are home from school during Christmas and Vinny Jr is happy about that. Justin picked up all the kids yesterday and Vinny Jr spent the night with us last night. He's been on the tired side of late so he's napped quite a bit today. I think it is just from all of the excitement of having been reunited home with his dad, getting settled there, getting up early for trips to our house on the weekends, and working in the youth group at the church near his father's house. It's better he has things to do rather than sit home bored and thinking of ways to get himeself into trouble.
We have not decorated yet for Christmas. Next weekend methinks. Justing bought me a gorgeous fiber optic Christmas tree last year and it is just beautiful. I have lots of mini-ornaments that fit nicely on it and we'll probably set it up next weekend. It's lovely and it's HUGE...it goes up to the ceiling. But at night, with all the house lights off, it is lovely to see all the colors shimmer.