Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

Stop the insanity!

November 19, 2007 on 12:20 pm | In Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Thanksgiving was originally going to be just us, my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother.  My sister is taking her family to visit the in-laws.  My aunt first suggested that we just eat out somewhere since no one wanted to cook.  Of course, Scott came back and said that he would rather cook and than go out to eat.  I think the response to that was yummy.  Then he got the bright idea to invite his family over (4 adults and 2 kids).  Then my aunt says that my cousins might be coming too (not her kids, children of my uncle).  So, what first started out as just a small Thanksgiving of five people now looks like it could have as many as fifteen.  People keep asking me if it will be too much for me (I’ll be 36 weeks on Friday).  I always answer that it was Scott’s idea so he will be doing all the work.  That is what I told him when he brought up the idea of inviting his family also.

He is taking Wednesday off to get ready.  He is doing the turkey, bread, pies, and mashed potatoes.  I wasn’t going to do anything except clean the bathrooms and tidy up my stuff around the house.  But no, I had to open my big mouth and say things like, I wanna do the white/sweet potato checkerboard dish that your mom did a couple of years ago (okay probably didn’t help that I said I didn’t like his mashed potatoes, too dry).  Then I decided I wanted some mango and black bean salasa so I’m making that too.  And when he asked if I wanted coconut cream pie or key lime pie, I decided I wanted to make the harvest pumpkin roll from pampered chef instead.

So, I’ve gone from just a little bit of work around the house to now doing that plus three food items.  And I’ll probably be in charge of setting the table.  Good thing I get Friday off to recover.

Saturday before we headed out to co-worker’s party, Scott spotted an owl in the trees.  We’ve seen a couple of owl in the pine forest (about two acres of our property is a pine forest), but I’ve never been quick enough to get the camera out before it flew away.  This time the camera was almost right next to me so I started shooting pictures from the sun room.  Then we got brave enough to open the door and slowly get as close as possible.  I would take a couple of steps and then snap some pictures, take a couple of steps, some pictures, etc. until he flew away.  This is the best of the bunch.  I don’t know my owls that well, but with Google’s help, I’m pretty sure he is a barred owl which is one of four owl species commonly found in VA.