Thanksgiving's Eve.....and the Day Before

I have been working in the kitchen the last two days and it's just about halfway done. 

I started over here at this end of the kitchen and am working my way across and down and then the other side.

As I go through the tubs, I find some things that will go in another room and I still haven't found some things I am looking for specifically. 

It's like seeing old dear friends pulling out the Christmas stuff.

I haven't really bought much new lately - other than the three new trees.

I took a break about 1:30 and met Brenda up at Hollywood Nails for mani-pedi time.

It was such a relaxing couple of hours!

Brenda had a lot to do to prepare for Thanksgiving and so did I - but that massage chair and getting our nails done was such a pleasure!

Back to work!

By starting on this counter I then had a clean working area to fill the peppers Louis Dean seeded for me on Tuesday night. It took him an hour and a half to do a gallon of peppers. 

It didn't bother him at all - until he stood up and walked out of the kitchen. (He had carried one of his music stools in there to sit on while he worked. Smart man! I never think of doing that!)

That's when his eyes teared up and he couldn't see! We washed his eyes with cold water and used eye drops but it took a good 20 minutes before he calmed down.

I haven't been cooking meals lately but I did make Louis Dean a lot of cornbread the other day so yesterday I actually cooked some food to go with it!

Fried cabbage, scalloped potatoes, fried ham and a couple pf pepper poppers.

We needed to try them out to see if they were really hot before we took them to Fort Worth.

They were GOOD! A bit of heat but not overly so.

This morning (Wednesday) Tabitha was all over Louis Dean!

I get up first most mornings and the first thing I do is go in the guest room and feed the cats and do poopy scoop. Tabitha hops on the bed and waits for me to comb her and pay her some attention.

Samantha ignores me and goes straight to the food bowl!

Then when Louis Dean and I are in the living room having coffee and our Bible and out loud reading, she comes in and demands attention from him by wrapping herself around his neck.

We do love our kitties!

Louis Dean is on a new kidney medicine and he MUST eat something when he takes it.

He isn't much of a breakfast eater until nearly noon so I have started just fixing him a small plate and presenting him with it! I am not asking what he wants anymore and it works like a charm!

After playing phone tag for 2 weeks trying to get an appointment for his memory testing - we finally connected and he will be going for that in early January.

He barks about it being nonsense and I say, "You may be right but we are still going to do the next right thing and that would be the testing."

The living room is now finished exccept for decorating the tree!

I'm glad you can't see into the dining room because we have to walk sideways and stepped over things to get through there!

I'm still loving my new carpet!!!

It's close quarters in there but it's cozy!

I have dozens of Christmas music CDs and I change them every day or two so I can listen to them all.

The foyer.....

This afternoon I stopped cleaning and decorating and went over to the Bells!

Amber and Mike took me to see The Glass Onion!

I am a huge Daniel Craig fan and loved this fun movie!

I don't even remember the last time I went to see one in a theater.

I used to go every week back when Ruth Ann lived in Irving!

We shopped a bit at Costco before going back to the house and then I left to come home.

I had called Louis Dean as soon as we came out of the movie and he answered by saying, "Did I do it?? Did I call you???"

I said, "No, I called YOU!"

He had been trying to call me and couldn't remember how to do it so we will be practicing that some more. He doesn't seem to forget how to answer because all you do is push the green lighted button.

I need to learn more about the phone myself so I can teach him.

Some days we are like the blind leading the blind!

It came a big rain storm on my way home and it was a stressful drive.

I can see on Bush but all that rain caused two cars to skid and slide around until they were going the opposite way. Then there was an accident right before I got up on Bush Toll Road.

Thankfully the rain let up some when I was nearly home.

I changed clothes and went back to work in the kitchen!

I never could find frozen chopped broccoli - so I chopped my own.

I remember when it came in little square paper boxes in the freezer section. 

Do they not do that anymore?

Dipped pretzels are always a big hit so I made a tin full to take to Fort Worth in the morning.

The broccoli-rice casserole is in the crock dish and I will get up really early in the morning to take it out of the fridge and turn the crock pot on.

I'll be doing the cream cheese corn as well and put that in a crock pot and go back to bed.

The pepper poppers will bake while we're getting dressed and then we will be off to Fort Worth for Thanksgiving.

I'll close tonight's journal entry with this photo of Benjamin and his Aunt Nita.

I'm looking at her and thinking how can she be gone??

I haven't cried in a few days - just teared up - but sometimes losing her just hits hard.

I'm so grateful for last year's Thanksgiving and I am going to be grateful for this one.