WARNING! I HAVE EDITED THIS BECAUSE AFTER I HIT "PUBLISH", I FOUND SOME AUTO-CORRECTIONS AND SENTENCES THAT WENT NOWHERE. FOR INSTANCE, I TYPO'D "MATURE" INSTEAD OF "NATURE" BEFORE THE WORD "VIDEO"! NOT GOOD,HUH! ALWAYS A MILLION LAUGHS HERE! SO A FEW THINGS ARE DIFFERENT, KIDDOS! (12/12/17.)
12/10/17:
Hey friends. Yes, my brain has finally shut down. I know it stays this way all the time, but during holidays, I think it shuts off to get through them! Have you ever felt that way, or is it just me?
Oh well, soldiering through!
We did spend a few days with our son and his family during Thanksgiving. It was nice...nice that the drive isn't even two hours long. The traffic wasn't bad, not was the weather. Kristi did a crockpot turkey and dressing recipe, which we all love. You use almost turkey breast tenderloins or something, put them in the bottom of the crockpot and add Stovetop stuffing, chicken broth and a few other ingredients. After 4 hours, you've got tender turkey and moist dressing, which you use two forks to pull the turkey apart as you would pulled pork. We all loved it so much, I think we could have eaten one crockpot each! And no carcus, no getting up so early, (no thawing out and hoping it's fully defrosted before roasting), no worries. You can even do it the day before and put the crock into the fridge and reheat the next day.
I know. It's not the traditional turkey, but it gives you so much more time together, and more time to concentrate on your casseroles and other side dishes and desserts. I made chicken salad when I got there with my already cooked and chopped chicken, the chopped celery and real mayonnaise. Kristi had some homemade sweet pickles. I also had hardboiled eggs I'd done at home and I made into deviled eggs while I made the chicken salad.
This meal suited us just fine, and we had a sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and pecan topping, a zucchini casserole, cranberry sauce, and some really good rolls. You get those in the freezer section in your supermarket! Maybe it's not so traditional, but it's just us,and would rather have good and easy than long, cranky and kids going nuts to eat! (I wonder what a traditional Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner will be like in 100 years!)
We did use foil pans for all the baked casseroles, we did use everyday dishes, as well. Honestly, we're not very much the "dress for dinner" family----unless it's to a "fancy restaurant"! Ha! Maybe to the Greenbrier, where we used to go when they lived in the mountains of VS until May, 2016. It's beautiful, and our son took us all out there Christmas, 2015. Yummy and classy
Since, during this Thanksgiving, we were there about 5 days, we had a lot of good visiting with our grown kids, and with our 'tween (Kat),and teenaged (David) grandkids. Those two would come to "our room" in the evenings, sit in the bed with me and watch nature videos on the computer. They'd bring their drawing pads and a plethora of pencils, pens, pastels, etc. Then they'd d draw while we talked, and that time we spend together is more precious than anything to me. Even if they did get cookie crumbs on the sheets!
They share so much during those times than when it's the six of us in the family room. You know, their guards let down, and they trust me not to tell their "secrets. (Of course, if I needed the parents to know, I'd tell them---if it were a dangerous secret to have!)
Sometimes, we laugh so loud and hard, one or more of the "grown-ups" comes to push the door open just to see what the heck was going on! Our son grins And heads back down the stairs.
And it's usually a silly cat video, which Kat has gotten me to pull up on YouTube since she was old enough to say, "funny cat?" Or it is a joke David heard at school. Whatever. Laughter IS good for the soul, and I really need to laugh. We all do. I was thinking about how little I do laugh---which isn't a good thing.
David, while Facetiming me Friday night, shared that he'd asked a classmate, Giselle, to be his girlfriend, but she said she'd just like to "Keep it in the friend zone " for right now. He sighed and said, "I know she likes me, but just as a friend."
" Hey, being friends at 13 is a good thing to be, you know! She sounds like a very smart girl! " I said.
"She is, and she's so pretty, Mimi!"
He sent me a picture of the raking leaves together, and she's a tall, pretty girl with blond hair. (Apparently she was named appropriately!)
These teenaged years can be achingly beauticul, or simply aching. Some teens don't even make it through.... :(
My heart aches for David, though. Both his parents aren't very tall, really---Ed is 5 '9 and Kristi is 4'8! I feel like during all that time his Crohn's disease went undiagnosed, his growth---both weight- and height-wise, was stunted. He has grown some since the Fall, and they switched his meds, but I don't know how much growth he lost before he was finally diagnosed?
The Humira is still working pretty well, but the doses may need to be moved closer together.Kristi said they have good insurance. If they didn't, a month's worth--(or two shots)--would cost them $14,000.00 per month. Can you believe it? He has not achieved remission yet, but he's so much better. I know he is only 13, but he needs to learn to pace himself better, I think.
But---I want him to enjoy being young while he is young!
Oh, and our Kat-girl has got to see a neurologist on the 21rst. She is having headaches regularly, and although they could just be hormonal or even tension related, we want to rule out everything. Her mom had to have brain surgery at 12, caused by tangled veins. She nearly died, but they said it couldn't be "handed down". We just want to know. I'll be glad when we do.
Frankly, she stays on her little iPod so very much, I wonder if severe eye strain could be involved? I know I get a headache if I'm on the computer too long. You know how fast an hour can pass by on the computer! Kids even do homework on their computers nowadays! (I don't think we could have ever envisioned that! At my house, pencils and notebook paper were hard to come by.)
I know, I haven't shown you any decoration pictures! There aren't any. It's just too much for us to get it down and get it done, so maybe I'll set out the Nativity scene and a little lighted ceramic tree---but that is it. Our Christmas is really spent with our little family, where the house is so big, we could be all in the house and not be close enough to notice each other.
There's not much need to try to get up in the attic and pull things dow here. I fall too easily and hubby's back aches so badly. (He got ready to sit down in his chair last night, got off balance, and fell on his hands and knees. He sits with one leg underneath him, and that is not good for someone who has had hip surgery.)
We're okay without decorating, because we don't really have to decorate to feel Christmas---but I absolutely love to see everyone else's and I do love visiting around the blog-block and and seeing all the beauty! I love it that people go on with traditions and don't let life get in the way of life!!
I hope autocorrect hasn't destroyed this post so much. I haven't even read it over, so I hope ---if you got through this boring post-- you could understand most of it!
If I don't get back on to post before Christmas, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, sincerely! To me, it's not about how much money you have to spend, how many or how few people are in your life, or all the outer things we are inundated with. It is what we feel, the love we show to others, the faith we feel in our souls that there is really a reason for this season that matters.
Not about the smile on our lips, but the smile in our eyes! It's not just whether we hear or say, "Happy Holidays!" or "Merry Christmas!" , but it's more how real our love for others really is. It's how much grace and understanding we give to people in all walks of life. How much peace we want to create around us, instead of the usual holiday fussing and fighting! That's just a few things that come to mind. That we find that, crossing cultures, and religions, and ethnicities, we are all so much the same!
Enjoy your holiday, good folk! Make it what you want, no matter what or how other people seem to want to cause hurt during this season. Take a deep breath, (or several!), and let go of all the thoughts and feelings that keep you from your peace! At least for a couple of days or weeks, let us search within ourselves for the Spirit of peace and not depend on others for our happiness. ( This is a hard one for me, because I've been married since I was 16, and it seems I have always been reliant on someone other than myself.)
When we do rely on someone other than the One who created us --and the world around us for our peace and happiness -- we're likely to end up hurt and disappointed.
I hope I can take my own advice and lean on Him and not on my own understanding! To seek a quiet joy, and search inside myself to find the peace that is always there for the taking of J look for it.
I know we can have joy. Oh, it may not be the exuberant joy we experienced when we were little ones, but it can be the kind we will always have the assurance of being there!I
Do you feel it? Sure you do! It's right here with us!
the wanderer
