Thanksgiving Week Already?

OMG - is it Thanksgiving week already?  And it's late this year!  That means that Christmas is less than a month away.

 Don't you sometimes feel like Thanksgiving is the forgotten holiday?   All the stores are playing Christmas music and have been decorated for weeks.  Black Friday gets more advertising than Thanksgiving, and with all the stores opening up Thanksgiving day, well - it's a darn shame.  It's all about money, of course.   If people don't come, they won't have sales. So, people,  don't go.   Stay home with your families - Have a great sit down dinner, watch ball games, or a good movie, play some board games .  .  .   Boycott the stores.  Then get up at 4 AM and go shopping on Black Friday.

 Well, I have all my Christmas cards written, envelopes stamped -but I don't have return addresses on them.  I ordered new ones quite a while ago for here but they haven't arrived yet.  I'm trying to wait for them - I really don't want to use my NYS one, but if the time gets too close, I'll have to.  It's so annoying since I ordered that a couple of weeks ago.  I'm used to Amazon Prime.  I can order something one day and get it the day after.  This obviously wasn't Amazon Prime. 

We're going to miss Epril and Bill this Christmas, but they're saving for a trip to the Philippines for Epril's sister's wedding in April. (I know I've mentioned this in several posts.) BUT  - We'll celebrate with them before we fly up North.   Also - Epril's birthday is coming up and that will be cause for a celebration!   I'd like to see them up north this summer.  Perhaps for Bill's birthday in August.

Saturday evening we got a call from Bob from Alpharetta, GA.  He'll be coming home on Wednesday.  Good!  We sure miss him, but we're glad he's having such a good time with Jon and his family.   He and Martini even have their own room there.  Nicole and the kids are here now in Sarasota with her folks, and Jon and Bob will be traveling together Tuesday late.  That's good that Jon's coming down with him since it's a long trip. 

We like the new room.  If you remember from my last posting, we were having trouble finding a place for our TV and had put it in front of the Computer Room door.  Now we've moved it between the two doors.  Even though it almost fits, it looks better.  Paul painted the doors yellow to match the walls.  There's a lot of yellow in that room, but I like it.  In the evening the yellow doors almost look white because of the lighting. 

Paul's kids and Nancy are getting set with plans for Christmas.  As a gift to us - Everyone who's staying at our house will be doing the meals.  What a great treat!  (Although I do love to cook. . . perhaps I'll sneak in the kitchen and do some cooking. You never know. . .) 

I'm going to do most of my Christmas shopping on the internet.  From here.  I had asked my next door neighbor if I could ship packages to her house.  I phoned her to double check,  and she said she'd be fine with it.  Good!  I have already ordered some blankets for upstairs for the twin beds.  The ones on them were a disgrace. 

Saturday morning I skipped a pancake breakfast at the Clubhouse.  I went to water aerobics with Alice.  She said she was very proud of me. I was too.  And  I enjoyed the workout.  There were eight of us.  There's a six day schedule:  Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday at 9:30, and Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at 10:30.  With that - perhaps twice a week and Curves three times a week, I'll be very healthy and fit.   I can't believe how well my knees are doing.  I wouldn't have given a plugged nickel for them in August.  In August I wasn't able to exercise.  I was lucky to get from one part of the house to the other.  With my cane.

I am planning a Carol Sing here on December 7th with friends and neighbors.  We will put up a few decorations, but not like last year when we stayed for the season.  After all, we have two houses to decorate this year.

Paul's been practicing with Gracie and her carrier for our plane trip up north.  Even though we use her carrier as a sleeper in hotel rooms, and she was sedated,  she was very scared when she flew in it two Christmases ago.  He's been working with her for a couple of days and the training process is progressing:   Now she'll go in if  he puts treats in it, and today he carried her around in it with her head out the top.  He wondered if he'd be able to do that in the airport.  I said, I don't know, but why not?

And even if not. . . so what?

Our ice-maker is kaput.  And I'm feeling its pain.  Sure miss my ice.  Paul's looking for another one on the internet.  What a guy.  We have one ice cube tray that Bob left here, and it'll come in handy.  Thanks Bob!

Hey - good news as I write!  Paul just showed me  the ice-maker.  It looks fixable!  As I said before,  What a guy!