Happy Birthday to my Dad

My Dad is 81 years old today. I got to wish him a happy birthday early this morning. Dad is always up super early, so sometimes I get to talk with him on the phone while I drive into work. I love that.

Dad and Mom went down to my brother and sis-in-law's, Jim & Sue's, today for lunch. It was a beautiful day today, so I'm sure they had a wonderful, sunny drive and a great time at lunch. Nice way to spend your 81st, Daddy. And I heard Jimmy was making Swedish meatballs, so lucky you!

Joycie took this photo of Dad and Mom at the table after we had Thanksgiving dinner last November. (Wiley is in there, too - he loves Gramma!) I sure hope I look as good as they do when I'm their age, and I hope I have half their strength. I think my parents are the strongest, most wise, most dependable and most loving people I will ever know in my life. I want to be just like them... when I grow up...



Joycie also took this photo of Mom and Dad holding hands at the table. I love this photo.

Sometimes the universe speaks

Since my lovely sister, Kathy, is putting on the Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family today, I am sure she was up early stuffing the turkey. My contribution is baked ham. Easy breezy.

My favorite ham to buy is Amish Country Brand, boneless, hickory smoked & fully cooked. It doesn't taste smokey, just good, pure ham. I bought 2 whole hams, each about 9 pounds. It'll be too much ham, of course, but Thanksgiving dinner leftovers are the best.

I just got done going down into our basement to find my roasting pan to bake these fully cooked hams. Really, a few hours in the oven makes them super luscious.

So I set the roasting pan on my island counter, and I got the 2 hams out of the refrigerator. Already setting on the counter are a basket of napkins, a basket of paper plates (back from the days of attending domino-effect Longaberger parties), paper towels, a butter dish and a couple of other miscellaneous items. When I set the hams down, I knocked into the basket of napkins and then I heard something hit the floor.

The basket had knocked off a couple of small things. What landed on the floor was a little plastic container of slivered almonds and a fortune cookie. Joycie picked up Chinese food Monday, and Sammy always gets almond chicken, but he doesn't like almonds... so we always ask for them on the side (because Kev likes them), and they put them into a small plastic container. No one used the almonds this time, though. Fortunately, the container stayed closed as it landed on the kitchen floor. I picked up the almonds and the fortune cookie and went to toss them into the garbage... and it seemed like such a waste to not even read the fortune, so I popped opened the fortune cookie (we like to make the plastic go "pop" & the louder, the better, even at the restaurant) and broke it open... this is my fortune:



I smiled for the entire 5 minutes it took to get the hams in the oven.

Some people...

who I am thankful for...

Kathy, for handling Thanksgiving dinner for us all.

Nathan, for fixing my/Sammy's computer... he finally has wireless high speed 'net on his computer in his bedroom.

My boss, for being so understanding about the problems I'm having with my neck; seriously, the guy totally rocks.

Sandy, for being so patient with us uncommunicative Tyrrells.

Kathy C., for still sending my kids birthday cards even though I am such a crappy communicator/friend.

Mom and Dad, for being my wonderful Mom and Dad.

And I'll end this list tonight with that, though I'm so very thankful for each and every member of my family. I am in the thankful mood, in preparation for tomorrow's feasting with family. I love Thanksgiving.

Thankful

Yesterday's Thanksgiving celebration with my family was wonderful. We all had such a great time together. Lots of laughter through the day. Good food, too. Beautiful sunny weather, warm enough to walk outside after dinner without a jacket.

I borrowed some folding tables and chairs from Janet & Bob, so we all sat down to dinner together at one loooong table...



Not sure what Sammy's face is about, but it isn't about a mouthful of bad food... we had all scrumtious stuff. I think he was probably fixin' to bust out a laugh. Notice all the camoflage hats on the men's heads... yep, we're heathens!



Joycie's 4 pumpkin pies turned out perfect. She did the crusts from scratch, and they were perfect.



Later in the afternoon, we celebrated Joycie's 18th birthday. She finally got her evil camera (read her blog post here), and she's happy with it. Also happy with her Sims pets add-on thing, whatever it's called... she's a Sims freak, that girl. Lots of generous gifts from her family.



I'm looking forward to seeing the photos she'll be taking with that cute, little camera.

Today will be a day of basketball for Sam & I, because he has an all-day tournament. He will have a blast; I will enjoy seeing him play, but I will also be doing a lot of sitting around and waiting. Not my favorite part. Especially since neither Kev nor Joyce will be with me. Kev has to work today, and Joyce has a paper to write (which she has known about for weeks, but it HAS to be worked on today... yep, she doesn't wanna spend all day at Sammy's tournament... I don't blame her...).

We have tons of leftovers from yesterday, and I showed the family where the key to the front door is hidden, so they all better come over and help eat this food... though since Joyce will be here, I guess they don't need the key. There is actually not so much turkey left. I cooked a 23-pound turkey, and there's very little left. Everyone in our family likes turkey, and we were dipping into it later yesterday evening... cold turkey in leftover rolls makes a perfect little sandwich.

I did the picking of the bird carcass, which seems kind of gross... but I enjoy that part. My hands were all greasy and covered in turkey bits. After I get all the nice white and dark meat off and into a container for the fridge, I really pick that bird clean, and I give all those juicy (i.e., gross) bits to Betty and Barney. They LOVE me.

The wish bone is drying on the kitchen windowsill.

Turkey Day

We are celebrating our Thanksgiving today so that nearly all my family can be together. Missing will be my niece, Susan, her son, Rogan, and her fiance, Stewart. They are busy with some of Stewart's family visiting them from out of state. Everyone else will be here for turkey dinner, and then later today we will also celebrate Joyce's birthday (her 18th birthday is on Sunday).

My alarm went off at 4:00am, and I finally crawled out of bed at 4:15am. Here it is now 5:08am, and the big, fat 23-pound turkey is all stuffed and in the oven. My plan was to go back to bed, but my husband decided to get up and out of bed, to come out in the kitchen to see if I needed any help. Which is really, really nice of him. Only thing is, I was at the sink with the turkey, and he came up behind me... since I wasn't expecting anyone to put their hands on my ass and whisper in my ear... it scared the crap out of me!

So now I'm wide awake. And drinking coffee. My mind is all a jumble of what I have to do yet... must make a list...

Turkey for November

Joycie made this turkey picture in about 2nd grade, using her little hands for the feathers. We have quite a few turkey pictures with hands-feathers from both Joycie & Sammy. I love getting them out and hanging them up all over the house to decorate for Thanksgiving. Joyce got the Thanksgiving decorations out this year, and that was also a nice surprise. So I guess I should say that I love having them got out and seeing them hanging up all over the house... ahhh...

My favorite decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas are those that Joyce and Sam have made through the years, both at school and at home. Some of the older ones are getting a little ratty, but I'm positive they'll last at least another 50 years.