Thanksgiving 2019

My day began "bright" and early, as it did for many of you. I had already spent TWO DAYS in preparation for this ONE MEAL....I knew I'd need an early start to get everything done at the right time. 

I was a tad bit anxious about how I would lift the 24 lb bird out of the brine. My shoulder is still on "light duty." The "big rooster, as Benny calls it,  needed to be rinsed, dried, rubbed and then moved to the slow cooker. I needed it in the cooker by 0700 and no one was up.  The perfect soloution staggered up the stairs at 0630 in the form of Alex.

Arielle and Krista came in and joined the prepping....at some point I broke away to work out and take a shower. 

We have used this simple tablecloth for Thanksgiving for over 25 years....it has a few gravy stains...but it's special to us because of the signatures which have been collected year after year from our Thanksgiving Dinner guests. It's always fun to spread it out - and it always leads to reflection. 

We smiled and laughed as we shared memories of family like friends and lonely airmen from year's past. It was a perfect tribute to find our Mom's signatures.....so glad they were with us this one year....the same year that Izaak and Dakota joined.....

It is sobering to see kids' preschool signatures and realize they are now in high school or graduated....and now we add hand prints and signatures from new grand kids and son in laws....

I set up appetizers in time for our lunch.....and then brought them back out for the evening.

Pigs in a Blanket - Jamin's offering - requested yearly

Michael, Dad, and the boys checked out the Black Friday sales. Michael decided none are worth the drive to Anchorage. LOL

Here are some of the dinner options.....it grows as requests are made....many of these things only show up at holiday dinners....and then we have dairy allergies and diabetics to account for...which leads to say 2 kinds of potatoes, varied desserts etc..... Cory brought ham...yummm.....he spent the morning and this evening over working on the house..... 

Circling around the buffet line....

Our sweet Bella

Benny was the first to the dinner table. LOL 

It's still new enough to thrill us to have so many family members to celebrating together. JaRissa weren't able to be here....the other 8 Gherkins and their families were here.....and Michael, me, and Dad.

Dad (GG) and Benny make a phone call. 

Dad was remembering this is the second Thanksgiving without Mom....and how she loved to put on Thanksgiving dinner. I was pulling out her and Mom G's dishes...the memories flowed. Dad made my day when he came to me and said, "Your Mom worried about who would take care of me when she died, but she didn't need to worry. You are taking good care of me."  I am so impressed with the courage dad has shown to leave his church, friends and life in Eugene to move to Alaska with us. We are thankful to have him settling in to our crazy life.

I forgot to get a photo of the dessert table. It was excessive....4 sugar free options....cookies, candy, truffles (4 kinds), 3 pies, 2 kinds of WW mini-cheesecakes....

Peppermint, Salted Caramel, Peanut Butter Toffee, Lemon truffles

Stacia suggested I take a photo of her piece of Apple Pie - so I did. Totally sugar free. 

The pies, with the exception of the chocolate pecan pie were sugar free. Pecan is the one dad wants most - though he requested chocolate and it was sugar free. I couldn't think of a way to do pecan without sugar. I am going to look into a sugar free Karo syrup sub and play with it.

WW sugar free, mini-cheesecakes.....with non WW toppings for those who choose.

 I couldn't resist this family gift.  The kids are famous for "Gherkin house rules." Monopoly is especially long and complicated...with contracts and rights of passage and on and on.  We told the kids we had found a board game with the Gherkin House Rules. It's the cheater version of Monopoly.

Nolan collects Monopolies and has several versions

Michael suggested Farkle...but I was too tired to move and several others felt the same. We visited in the living room.   These 3 embarked on a game of Risk....Benny and Dad were helpful encouragers. 

I believe Nolan won

*Annie and Gideon WERE  here....I was simply so busy I didn't capture photos of everyone. We didn't SEE Annie - she slept through the whole dinner/afternoon.

WOW - Check this out!

Um....where did I go???? 

There is no doubt our fall schedule - out of the home five nights a week; something scheduled six days a week is busy - but we were handling it well...and it's easing up already. (This week we finished pre-marital counseling with a lovely young couple...so now we have commitments four nights of the week....its the start of margin).

BUT....the reason for the absence of posts has more to do with the incredibly SLOW laptop I had.....it took Stacia 30 minutes to simply sign on to her Facebook page!!!! It took about 20 minutes to turn the computer on. Things would go missing. Grrr.....and yet....I kept posting.....

UNTIL I injured my shoulder about 4 weeks ago. I couldn't type or text....or really sit still even. I hadn't been in pain that required movement since labor 14 years ago.  I went to the doctor and was given a shot and muscle relaxants and told to alternate a couple of anti-inflammatory meds around the clock. The drugs made me sleep and I slept the first week away. I felt a bit better by the second week, but still couldn't type and was doing all I could to simply complete school and prep for Bible study, attend pre-marital sessions.....I felt good this Monday and had a doctor appointment. I avoided a shot as I could do everything requested of me in the exam....but after all the manipulations, I couldn't sleep again Monday night.....and was back taking 800 mg of Ibuprofen every 8 hours..... I also can't SLEEP for more than a couple of hours before the pain wakes me up....but THAT is MUCH better than the past 3 weeks when I couldn't lie on either my side, or my back, without pain. I've been sleeping in "my" recliner in the nook (Mom's old recliner that Dad brought up).....streaming Netflix and reading to get my mind off pain.  This is week four - and I am still in pain....but it's more of a dull ache. I have been told to go back on the meds if it hurts and to avail myself of a hot tub - which I don't have. ::snort::

Injury, slow computer....no motivation to be online. 

Michael had an appointment in Anchorage on Wednesday.  I stayed home as I was doing some serious Thanksgiving prep. He came home with TWO gifts.....

LOOK at this thing. It has a GOLD lid....and it is fast. Michael told me it would be the fastest computer I've ever used...and it is.  I was NOT expecting a Cadillac of laptops - I'm used to the Pinto of laptops. It's an I7 HP Specter. It SINGS....I've been told it has plenty of space for graphics and will be fast for editing videos too. It seems some would like me to get the YouTube Channel running again.....It took hours to edit video each night and I wasn't very good at it....but maybe I will agree to a weekly update. We'll see....first I have to transfer everything from the slow computer and return it to IDEA (Our home school charter program).  The speed amazes me! Our computers were very fast in Japan. We can't get those Internet speeds in the states (at least as civilians).....even with our sluggish Internet up here under the mountain.....this is as fast as our computer in Japan - maybe faster.

He also came home with THIS - a total surprise.  The color printer has been down for months and Michael was researching buying a new print head or a different printer. It made it difficult to work on graphics for women's ministry AND impossible to print photos for his sister....

This is a Color Laser printer/copier/scanner. 

Michael found a great "Early Black Friday" sale.....and both were significantly under normal retail prices....the laptop costs nearly 3x what I've spent on the laptops I've previously purchased.....but oh, how it sings! 

I'm motivated to work on the computer.....but first....I will work on RETREAT SESSIONS..... I don't think I've shared  I will be traveling to Mt Hermon Retreat Center to speak at the Travis AFB PWOC retreat the end of January. The computer has been so slow I've been handwriting my session notes. It's been frustrating to come back and not be able to ready what I'd prepared.....because when I get on a roll I write too fast to be legible. I'm set now. I thought I'd be escaping from the snow when I flew to California.....hmmm....no snow here. I GUESS I NEED TO MOVE TO ARIZONA!!!

Before There Is Thanksgiving There is the Great Cranberry Hunt of 2019

MONDAY - I PLANNED to  do our Thanksgiving shopping, and then make truffles, snack mix, cookies and cheese cake.

In reality, I spent considerable getting Dad set up for Medicare. We still have to find a licensed insurance agent to buy a supplement, but his meds will be covered under D and that's the cheapest option for him. Unfortunately, we discovered there is NOTHING like medicare advantage in Alaska. NONE of the options cover dental and vision and we'll have to pay that out of pocket. OUCH.... We were both a bit bummed and sober when we left the office. Dad suggested a sandwich and soup at Sophia's.  PERFECT.

We came home, I got dinner, Michael and I went to the church to meet with a darling couple about to become Mr. & Mrs.

TUESDAY. I woke determined to get the shopping done. I was there bright and early...and stayed for 3 hours.  I was not able to pick up Dad's meds or cranberries.

Ready to get home and begin baking - Note the absence of snow!

 Stacia, Dad, Arielle and Benny were on hand to unload the van.

"Heavy, Baachan, heavy!"

We checked back at Freddies for meds and cranberries at 2 p.m. The truck with the cranberries was predicted to be in. It wasn't. We did get one med. Evidently, they called Dad about the other med. I need to hunt down the message.

Stacia and I got busy and made brownie bites and the inside of truffles.  That's all we got done  before I needed to get working on dinner and out the door for Gather Bible Study.

I checked Freddies after Bible study. 9:49 p.m. and I scored cranberries. I bought 5 lbs. I will NOT be caught without cranberries again. I may even sell baggies of cranberries to those who didn't have the foresight to buy extra for Christmas dinner. ::snort::

WEDNESDAY. Stacia and I managed to work in time for our Brave study.  We like going to Sophia's....Michael had an appointment in Anchorage. We decided I would stay home so Stacia and I could focus on getting as much of the cooking as possible done before Thursday.

We covered truffles in chocolate....these were not sugar free. We made 4 kinds before deciding we did not have time to make the other 2 kinds.

crunchy peanut butter toffee truffles

Krista got home from work and made a cheese ball. She asked what else she could help with - I promptly set her to making two mini-cheese cake recipes I adapted from WW. I made them SF so Dad and I can eat them. The jury is still out on the WW version of  chocolate cheesecake,  but I LOVE the vanilla cheesecake. I chopped up some sugar free chocolate and added it.  I plan to use this recipe in the future and add cocoa to make sugar free mini chocolate mint cheesecakes.

Arielle and Benny came up to keep us company....and to help. Here, Benny and I whip cream - which we mixed with sugar free Lily's chocolate to make a reduced calorie mousse. We used this for Michael's pie....and as a side dish. We've since discovered how to turn it into a truffle....watch out world.

Arielle prepped sugar free apple pie filling while I made pie crusts and cut out shapes for the top of one.  I made the Chocolate Pecan pie filling and we assembled pies. I want to figure out how to make a sugar free pecan pie....suggestions? Dad loves pecan pie.

Chocolate pecan and Apple pies

Dad called Mikhail and Elizabeth (our nephew and niece).....Benny was happy to take a break with GG....for just a minute.

Michael got home from Anchorage and was FULL of surprises.....a new computer and printer. He had agreed to take care of the brine for the turkey as my shoulder protests at 24lbs....getting better all the time...but I was told to try to rest it and proceed to light duty....I'm trying to listen. I do NOT want to end up going up the pain scale again. I don't pick up Benny or Gideon.....I don't pick up roasters with 24 lb turkeys in them.

Benny was QUITE interested in this process. He and Dad came over to observe/help. 

Such a persistent helper.

 "Ewww....papa."

And there the turkey goes for 12 hours. 

First Snow 2019

We got snow on Michael's birthday, Nov 17th. That is much later than the past two years....but we made the most of it.

We had 6 inches overnight and another 2 inches before the day was over. 

Certainly enough snow to play in!  

Dash wasn't totally thrilled to play in the snow. 

Stacia and Benny made me an Olaf.

Tried some maple candy....

Gideon is bundled up for the weather....

Photo from BreAnne

 Bella's sporting a Happy Hat...

Photo from BreAnne

These two were whipping up fudgesicles...no added sugars....really good....though sort of an odd thing to make on our first snow day. LOL

Since this is a post looking back (it's Dec 2nd now) I can share the snow MELTED within a day and we had green grass, warm temps and no snow through Thanksgiving. Green grass for Thanksgiving - I wouldn't have believed it.

A Grand Day

My day began by playing with Benny. While everyone else worked. 

Very cool light. 

I am ending the day by playing with Bella and Gideon. 

Gideon combs and styles my hair 

Bella was not to be left out 

BreZaak are at a big launch party for True North Recovery Inc and Alive Alaska. Izaak and Bre are planting Alive Alaska Recovery Church. A Christ-cenetered, recovery focused church. They have a heart to walk the recovery journey with those coming out of various addictions. 

Between the grand bookends of the day I did some laundry, visited with Dad, helped Stacia launch an internet presence for Happy Hats (her micro-business), and picked up pizza to bring to BreZaak's.

I'll post a link when the Etsy and Paypal store is up. 

Why did I bring pizza to BreZaak's? Because Michael, Nolan and Alex are next door working at CoRielle's. Youth group is tonight. It's the only way we could make all the parts of the schedule work the available vehicles. LOL

Michael enjoyed a dinner break with the grands.

Papa and Bubbie!

Bella wants to play too. 

Bella and Papa. 

BreZaak and Annie got home at 9:30 or so....a successful community party. Friday night is the soft launch for the church.

*The pitsy selfies are because I dropped my new phone on the asphalt before the case arrived and cracked the screen. 

Benny the Contractor

Benny has watched so many contractors  he KNOWS the routine. He wandered around the house saying, "2....2....2....yeah, yeah window."

Photo by Arielle

Cory painted  ceilings, ordered cupboards and counters, and patched walls.

Arielle continued washing walls and started painting.

Nolan patched walls and helped paint.

Michael and Alex put in light fixtures and finished the power outlets. They are nearly done with the light switches. This involved a trip or two to the attic.

I watched Benny -  until I watched BreZaak's children.

The Tribe Goes to work for CoRielle

You may remember CoRielle closed on their first home in August. They are still living in the basement apartment. WHAT? It was a rehab loan. The home needed work. The bank required even more things to be upgraded than CoRielle would have done. They hired a contractor and began to wait to move into their home. All the paperwork clearly noted this was a rehab loan and work had to be completed by Oct 31st.  They KNEW they wouldn't move in in August...but they also KNEW that all the work would be done by Oct 31st - as required by the bank. 

As the weeks went by and work wasn't started, Cory began to do all the demo work himself. Anything to speed up the process.....he took up flooring, removed insulation (moldy), removed baseboard, doors and frames, removed all kitchen appliances, cupboards and counters, removed all bathroom features, removed a wood-stove and hearth that wasn't up to code....In the end they have the bones of a house....empty, cleared and ready for a contractor to zip in and finish by Oct 31st.  It was obvious the contractor would NEVER get it all done by Oct 31st and he hadn't done anything by mid Oct.

It became apparent...even with all the demo done....the contractor was not going to make their home a priority.....it was not going to be finished by the bank's deadline. So....the contractor is out of the picture, the bank has extended the date for the work to be done, and the  tribe has moved in to "get er done" under Cory's direction. 

Cory has spent an incredible number of  hours working
alone at the house - while working full time. 

Cory took Tuesday and Wednesday off. Michael and Alex cleared their schedules. Arielle goes over after work. Jamin and Nolan have both shown up after work.....Cupboards, counters, appliances, bathroom furniture, paint,  carpet and flooring are waiting. It WILL get done. 

Arielle is ready to get it DONE. 

They worked long and hard today. I love the way Benny shadows his Daddy and Papa.  He should know how to build a home before he's 2 years old. LOL 

I've been told the plumbing is ready for the tub and toilet to go in....3 electrical fans are up and 15 plugs ins are wired and connected. Arielle washed walls so they can begin patching and painting.

Viva la Familia! Go tribe go. I'm proud to belong to such a big group of peoples.

*Note all photos are from Arielle.