Thanksgiving is coming!

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'  

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"  

Matthew 25:34-40

And I have the world's worst cold!!! I've had lots of colds in my day, but this one is at the top of the bad list. I went through 3 boxes of Klenex in less than 2 days. I knew I was getting this cold on Wednesday. We were to have our church group over, but Riley managed to cancel at the last minute. Then on Thursday he asked Heidi not to bring the kids until 10. He was hoping I could manage to get in some sleep, as I hardly slept at all in the night. Not a chance. Heidi wasn't too happy with me, but anyone else with a regular job would have called in sick with this cold. By about 11 I knew that I couldn't handle Emily, so I called Riley, who came home as soon as he could. He such a wonderful husband!!!!!

Then on Friday I could see that Christian also had a cold, so I told him he could stay home. I explained to him that I had an ulterior motive, that I needed help with Emily. He was cool with that. He was such a good boy. And I'm sure I would not have been able to handle Emily. She looks like such a sweet little thing - not! When she's not the center of attention she can be horrid. She can get into trouble faster than any kid I've ever known. Her little mind is going all the time, thinking about mischief she can get into. I e-mail Christian's teacher to let her know that I was keeping him home, and she e-mailed me back and said that she had noticed that he had a cold and she felt concerned. There were five other kids out that day. She told me what the work assignment was for the day, and he did it. Emily's worst feat of the day was taking off all of her clothes, diaper included, hopping into the bath tub, which is filled with her clothes and towels, then squatting down and peeing. I was soo mad at her. She avoided me for the rest of the day.

Last night, as I made it up to bed at about 10:30 or so, Riley, who was already in bed, asked if I would like him to go to the store and get me some NyQuil. That was exactly what I needed. He promptly got dressed and headed out to the store. He also came back with some carmex for my nose, which was oh so soothing. The NyQuil did the trick, and I slept all night and hardly had to dab at my nose at all. Now it's Saturday. I'm in bed, and Riley's outside raking leaves - one of his favorite tasks. And when he's done with that he gets to hose down the side walk, which I'm convinced is his ultimativo favorite task. If I don't keep an eye on him he will hose down the neighbor's sidewalks. It's okay as long as he doesn't wear himself out, as I've got lots of things that need doing before Thanksgiving, and I surely can't do it all myself. My cold has gotten to the stage where I have a huge red nose and I'm stuffed up, but at least my nose is finally not setting records for how fast it can run.



But now I've stayed in bed most of the morning, accomplishing little. My dear husband has brought me a cup of coffee, a cup of hot water, two satsumas, a piece of raisin toast and a crumpet with butter and honey. So now it's time to get going and get ready for Thanksgiving.

The main thing is that we have to get cleaned up, and we have to buy the missing food items. The sitting room, the library, and the back rooms surfaces all need cleaning. Oh, and the bath rooms and front hall and dining room, and living room and kitchen. Now since the queen of England is not coming, only one of her loyal subjects, I need not make things perfect.

guest list:

Riley and Molly
Annie and Corey
Heidi and Christian and Emily
Ken and Marilyn
Mom and Dad
Blake and Linda
with Blakey, George, Clair, Courtney, and Charles
and finally - Aunt Charlotte

That's 12 adults (of a sort) and 7 children, and with luck the children will all enjoy themselves in the back room. Annie wishes that she was one of the children, and maybe that's a good idea. She could be a monitor (I just won't tell her).

As usual it is planned that we shall have two turkeys, one barbecued and one stuffed and roasted. This seems crazy, and you know it just might be, be we seem to have done this for quite a while. But anyway, the two turkeys seem to dictate two different sets of accompaniments. The barbecued turkey has no stuffing and produces no gravy, hence the sweet yellow rice and sweet spicy carrots.

Thanksgiving Menu:

carrots and celery sticks for appetizers - I don't think such a big meal should have much more

Roast turkey
apple and sausage stuffing
mashed potatoes
candied yams and sweet potatoes
peas
turkey gravy

Barbecued turkey
sweet yellow rice
sweet peppery julienned carrots

French bread
cranberry sauce

Desserts:

pumpkin pie
rum pumpkin pie
pecan pie
pumpkin pecan pie

chocolate pecan pie
eggnog pie
Chemeketan pie (a fairly well kept family secret)
grateful pudding with lemon sauce
whipped cream to go on everything

Lots of people like to call Thanksgiving turkey day. I like to think of it as pie day. The other foods really are better as left-overs.

Well now it's Sunday morning and I'm still sick, but I only have to blow my nose about once every half hour. And it doesn't run uncontrollably, which is so nice. Riley got up early this morning and washed the kitchen floor. He looked exhausted when he was finished, and after a while reading the sports page, he crawled back into bed. So how are we to ever get things together for Thanksgiving?

There's a lesson to be learned here. I've had this lesson many times before, and don't seem to have learned it. The lesson is: don't procrastinate, because you have no idea what might happen in the end when you think you are going to get something done. Get things done at the first opportunity.

"You don't have to see the whole staircase, 

just take the first step." Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Even if you're on the right track 

- you'll get run over if you just sit there." Will Rogers