Weekending- a whirlwind! And V is for very thankful

Linking up with Holly and Patty for Hello Monday:

My goodness it was a good one but a busy one! Many parts of it are not documented well via photos but I will do my best to document it in words before I forget some of the details...

Thursday, we did not celebrate Thanksgiving with a big meal. Our big meal was set for Friday. But that did not mean that Friday was devoid of eating a lot of good things and doing a lot of work for the big meal. By noon on Thursday, I had made two pies- pumpkin and chocolate chip pecan and had made a dessert called cherry delight. 

The kitchen was closed for the day! Jacob was home and ran out to get us McDonald’s for lunch (it was closing on 1:00 pm on Thursday). 

My sister arrived from Canada early in the afternoon. She and I got to work doing food prep for the next day and then around dinner time, we were on for the hunt for a place that was open for dinner. Not too many places were open- the few that were open had limited menu options that were geared for people who wanted to eat a traditional Thanksgiving meal out- think turkey/ mashed potatoes, etc. We finally found a place- a chain Italian place called Bravo that offered the full menu. We got it to go. We relaxed and all played a round of a game.

Friday was the BIG DAY! More guests arrived and Katy and I were busy in the kitchen pretty much until we ate in the early afternoon. Just lots of moving pieces to get everything ready. 

Of course the star of the day was Mary Gracia! She’s three months old but still so tiny. We couldn’t get enough of her! I bought her a couple of outfits for her to wear in December.

Her shirt says, All I want for Christmas is My Aunties

This was not nearly all the food- just what could reasonably fit on the island.

You’re not supposed to pinch the baby, Alyssa!

That look on your face when Auntie won’t stop taking pictures of you!

She looks so content with her parents. Not like with her aunts and others…🤭

Oh no, those crazy aunts are near me, aren’t they??

Two of my favorite Katherines (in one name form or another)

We ate and ate and ate as one does with a Thanksgiving meal. After “things” settled for a bit, I went on a walk with my cousin Dan and Aunt Katy. Dan has some sort of friendly challenge with a friend to get a certain number of steps each day. Dan is very active- he and I ran three marathons together and he still runs marathons to this day. He’s qualified for Boston and run it and hopes to quality for Boston again. Point being- he’s in great shape and a post Thanksgiving meal walk, was, almost literally, a walk in the park for him (we didn’t walk in a park, otherwise it would have been a walk in the park!). My Aunt Katy who is 81 is wonderfully spry for her age; Dan and I found ourselves wanting to walk a bit faster than she did but overall, for one who doesn’t walk as a form of exercise and who’s in her 80’s, she moved very impressively. When we were coming home from the walk, I saw Jacob’s car headed down the street and remembered that he had plans in the evening- he was going to a University of Dayton men’s basketball game with his grandpa. Unfortunately, that  meant that we weren’t going to get a family picture of us like I always try to do on Thanksgiving (he wouldn’t get back until late and then he was heading back to Cincy).

That evening, we watched a baking show that one of our relatives is a contestant in! It’s on HBO Max and the Food Network  and it’s called Elf on a Shelf.  Jolie, one of the contestants, is my first cousin once removed. Her mom and I were first cousins (her mom is deceased, hence the past tense) so I think that’s what it makes us. Anyway, it was a cute, holiday show... Jolie and her baking partner made it past the first round which is all we were able to watch on Friday.

Jolie is on the right in this picture.

We also watched a cute movie called 8-Bit. It’s kind of a riff off of The Christmas Story movie except that the olden time is in the 1980’s and the current time is... the current time. We all really enjoyed it. 

Saturday, we hung out with family for a while and then the Michigan family had to head out. My sister and I did some shopping. Donnie, Abby, her boyfriend, and some friends went to see a movie in the theater. Alyssa spent time with her boyfriend. It was a fun day and we ended it by watching The Christmas Story- my sister had never seen it.

Speaking of Michigan, was happy to find out that U of M beat Ohio State in football. I can’t stand OSU and yet live in OSU land. There’s nothing I can do about the OSU love except take extra delight when they lose to their big rival. 😇

Sunday, I woke up super early and ran. We watched our church’s sermon on TV as my sister was still at our house but was busy gathering her items and getting ready to go and then left. Then we decorated the tree in the family room. We didn’t finish decorating it- we still have the very tip top to do which works out well since one of the girls informed me that we needed to be eating chocolate chip cookies while decorating (per tradition).  We didn’t have any dough and we were out of time to make some so I told Alyssa that we’d have cookies the next day when we finished the tree. That worked!

Then we went to our friend’s subterranean Steelers shrine to watch the Bengals- Steelers game. Who am I to judge too harshly our friends’ preference for the Steelers over the Ohio team when I actively root for any team playing against Ohio State in football? There’s a sort of symmetry...

Our Bengals drip- Who Dey!

My jersey’s namesake player- my favorite Bengal- Evan McPherson kicking a field goal. Jacob texted Donnie that he was at the game. Not sure how he snagged tickets. It was not the best game to be at given the outcome but he said he still had a good time. Note that at least our friends like one ‘Nati team.

We had fun... and our hosts and other guests were happy with the outcome so there was that.

There were a few more Bengal fans (and this guy, our friend’s nephew is in middle school and told me that I am his favorite sub so I felt good about myself!)

We came home, watched another episode of the Elf on the Shelf baking show (my first cousin once removed has not been booted off so of course we will watch next week when it’s on again!) and then went to bed.

V is for {Very} thankful! So very thankful for the ability to indulge in the silly interests of life (the Bengals, an Elf on the Shelf baking show), for the sacred (the love of the Father as we begin the season of celebrating the birth of Jesus), for the temporal joys of spending time with loved ones- so very much to be very thankful for!