A Texas Redneck Thanksgiving

I want to tell you about our Thanksgiving. I know we've moved on and are well into the Christmas season, but I've been sick since about two weeks before Thanksgiving. Catching a cold is a job hazard of working in an elementary school. And just when I thought it was completely gone, a big cold front blew through on Thanksgiving Day. The Seguin and San Antonio area is notorious for mountain cedar allergies. Combine that with an allergic reaction to Bath and Body Works Wall Flowers in both my sister's and my daughter's homes and I was sick again. I think I'm finally over it.

My sister, Kay

I know I've told you about my sister Kay. She's my sister who's just older than me and she lives in a group home. Last summer she moved from Corpus Christi to a new home in Seguin. This makes her closer to our sister Bylinda. They spend a lot of time together and Bylinda is excellent at taking care of Kay's needs and serves as Kay's advocate. Living in a group home has been very good for Kay. It has it's challenges though. She has very little personal space and not much room for storage. This makes buying a gift for Kay extremely difficult.

Over the past several years, we've pretty much abandoned the idea of getting our extended families together for holidays. It's just gotten to be too hard and too much work. But, if you ask Kay what she wants for any gift, she always replies "I just want my whole family to be together."  That brings us to Thanksgiving this year. Bylinda agreed to host the family at her house. Of course, none of our other brothers and sisters was available. So, basically, Bylinda's family, my family, and Kay went to Bylinda's house for Thanksgiving.

A few weeks in advance, we planned our menu. Bylinda baked the turkey, made cornbread dressing, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin pie, buttermilk pie, assorted hors douevres and homemade rolls. Katy made apple pie and green beans. I made pecan pies, deviled eggs, broccoli rice casserole, and pumpkin fluff. Nick was supposed to bring a honey-baked ham.

There were ten of us for Thanksgiving dinner and we had enough food to feed at least 25 people. Nick did arrive at his sister's house on Wednesday evening with two five-pound honey-baked hams. However, he left them in her refrigerator when we went to Bylinda's house. Trust me when I tell you that he will never live it down. His cousin Zachary was not happy. He claimed that the promise of honey-baked ham was the main reason he came to Thanksgiving.

Our Little Princess "drives" the tractor

We ate to our hearts' (and stomachs') content. The men then migrated out to the "man room" for an afternoon of football while the women settled into the living room to visit and talk.

Bylinda and her husband Mack live out in the country. Their home is an old farm house that was built in the 1920's and restored by it's previous owners. It has high ceilings and is homey and cozy. Both of my kids absolutely adore Aunt B's house. Just recently they've recently added an out-building. The main part of this building is the "man room." It has a fully-stocked bar, a game table, a television, and storage for Mack's Harley. The other part is a sewing/craft/music room for Bylinda and a store room. In between these two areas is a garage where the tractor and gator are stored.

Uncle Mack giving instructions as we start our ride.

Let the Redneck festivities begin! After lunch, Our Little Princess discovered the tractor and the gator. She immediately climbed aboard and pretended to be driving. Mack asked if she wanted to ride and she confirmed that she did. Uncle Nick took the driver's seat on the gator. When the motor started, she was very reluctant to climb back on. It was too noisy for her. But after I got on, she agreed to sit on my lap for a ride.We took a couple of laps around the yard and she loved it.

Our Little Princess at Aunt B's keyboard.

Bylinda came out and gave us a tour of her newly completed sewing/craft/music room. It's really nice. She can now sew and craft to her heart's content and not have to worry about making a mess in the house or cleaning it up right in the middle of a project to make room for company. Our Little Princess really enjoyed playing the keyboard ... a lot.

After that the ladies went back into the house and the men stayed out in the man room. A few minutes later we heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire. That's right ... in the tradition of true Texas rednecks the menfolk had broken out the guns and were having target practice in the back pasture. My brother-in-law has an impressive collection of firearms ... everything from pistols to assault rifles ... and I'm pretty sure they fired them all. What? Y'all don't shoot guns and ride gators at Thanksgiving?

And where was Kay for this afternoon of family togetherness? Immediately after lunch, she, who wanted so much to have her family together, went into the front bedroom and napped the afternoon away. That's right! She slept through all the family time. Too funny!

Our Little Princess Meets Santa

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in San Antonio. Within the next couple of days, when I have a little more time, I'll do a post about Thanksgiving Day.

On Saturday, we ventured out to The Quarry Market which is not far from our daughter's home in San Antonio. We went to Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. It wasn't as crowded as we expected. When we drove by Santa's house, we noticed that there was no line. Katy, Grams, and Our Little Princess jumped out of the car while the men went to some "man stores."

Katy has been working for several weeks to make sure that Our Little Princess knew who Santa Claus was and might not be afraid of him. She was a little nervous, but after sitting on Grams lap while Santa and I chatted for a while, she was coaxed hesitantly onto his lap for a photo.

I just have to say, this is a GREAT Santa. He was soft-spoken and gentle. He didn't mind taking the time for her to relax a little. And he had sparkling blue eyes that really did twinkle. She didn't love him ... but it wasn't traumatic either. All in all it was very satisfactory and nothing like that horrifying reaction to her first haircut.

Earlier this week I got a call from Katy informing me that she and Our Little Princess had just had their first truly two-way conversation. It went something like this.

Mom - "Who's going to come see you in a few weeks?"
OLP - "Santa Claus!"
Mom - "What's he going to bring you?"
OLP - "Toys!"
Mom - "What kind of toys?"
OLP - "ELMO TOYS!"

The only problem with this is. When I saw what Santa is planning to bring Our Little Princess, there were NO ELMO TOYS in the mix. I guess Santa (or Grams) may need to do a little more shopping.  HO-HO-HO!

Grams Made an Advent Calendar

Anyone who knows Grams knows that I am an admirer and aficionado of all things Martha Stewart. I've watched her television shows for years and have gotten more than a little inspiration to just make things a little bit nicer and a little bit lovelier.

When my kids were little we had an advent calendar that I made from a pre-printed fabric. It was a fabric print of a big teddy bear house. Printed along the bottom of the fabric was a grid with 25 days of instructions for where the bear looked for Christmas each day. One of the teddy bears was attached to a pin and each day the kids moved him from room to room as he looked for Christmas. Our son particularly loved that advent calendar and insisted that I still put it up each year even when he was in college. Last year I gave it to him for his own home.

Martha Stewart Advent Calendar

Then I saw Martha make a beautiful Advent Calender. It's made of little aluminum canisters that would normally be used to hold spices in your kitchen. It's very glittery and sparkly and I immediately thought it would be fun to make one for Our Little Princess and put a little surprise inside of each canister for her. Here are the instructions for Martha's calendar.

So this year I set out to make and fill an advent calendar. This turned out to be one of the most challenging DIY projects I've ever undertaken. It was one of those "if anything can go wrong, it will" projects.

I went shopping for the canisters. It took me at least four stores to find enough canisters all the same size and they were significantly more expensive than I expected.

For two reasons I decided not to glitter each of these little canisters. First, Grandad HATES glitter. He doesn't like it when I bring it into the house for any reason. Although, if he is ever going to tolerate it, it would be for Our Little Princess. Second, glitter and two-year-old girls is probably not a good combination.

AC1-Star font

Instead of glitter I decided to print the numbers in red and green. I downloaded this really cool font. I thought it was perfect and it's a TrueType font so I was able to resize it in MS Word to the size I wanted. I printed it out on card stock and decided it needed more color, so I used a colored pencil and colored the stars yellow.

That accomplished, I realized that the canister lids (which are clear) are slightly larger than my circle punch. That meant I had to cut all 24 inserts for the lids by hand. Bummer!

Then, I wasn't happy with the lack of glitter, so I went to Michael's and bought red, green, clear sticky-back jewels and put them on the bottom edge of each canister. The final effect is kind of like tinsel draped on a Christmas tree.

When I bought the canisters I also bought a roll of cut-to-fit magnetic tape. Which I attached to the back of each canister. My original plan was to attach the canisters to a cookie sheet, but when I laid out the tree pattern, it was too wide for any cookie sheet I could find. Back to the drawing board.

I dug through my closets and found an old gold picture frame that was the right size. Now, what kind of metal would work? Grandad and I took the frame to our local Home Depot in search of a piece of sheet metal that would work with a magnet. We found sheet metal but we couldn't find the right size. We were disappointed to discover that Home Depot will not cut sheet metal. We don't own any tin snips, so we looked at them only to find that they were about $20, more than we wanted to spend for one use. So we ended up buying two pieces of sheet metal that would have to be layered to get the width we needed, but they would still have to be cut to fit the height. Special thanks to our next door neighbor Ron for helping Grandad cut them. Grandad is kind of a klutz and klutziness, blood-thinners and jagged sheet metal are not a good combination.

Once the metal was cut, I hot glued the two pieces together and I missed. That's right, I glued them crooked and had to take them apart, peel the glue off, and re-do it. Then I realized that the seam showed too much so I would need to cover the metal. I went to my sewing box and found a piece of red crushed velvet which I stretched over the metal and glued on the back. I covered the back with white cardboard to give it a finished look.

A little Christmas bracelet and a Hershey's kiss.

Now I set out to fill the 24 canisters with little surprises. Can you guess? These canisters are so small that I had a very hard time finding 24 items that would fit inside and still be age appropriate for our not-quite-two-year-old Princess. I didn't want it to be only candy. I bought little toys, Christmas jewelry, Hershey's kisses, Christmas socks, and soft peppermints to go inside. Ten of the canisters got a little note inside that said "pick a present." So the calendar is accompanied by a gift bag that has 10 wrapped presents inside.

Next I arranged the canisters in the Christmas tree shape and lifted the frame. Now the strip magnets were not strong enough to hold the canisters in place through the crushed velvet. I went back to Hobby Lobby for stronger magnets. I bought magnetic discs with a strength number of 6. The magnetic tape had a strength number of 2. I peeled the magnetic tape off and applied the discs with hot glue. Success!

Grams' Advent Calendar

Finally, after all the frustrations, it was finished. It's done and sitting in Our Little Princess' dining room waiting for December 1st to arrive. And, we caught her peaking several times over the Thanksgiving weekend so I think it will turn out to be a lot of fun for her. And ... I made sure to tuck in some extra candy for Mom and Dad. Here's the finished product. It's a little bit kitschy which I think is perfect. I think I did a good job of taking Martha's project and making it my own.

The frustrations I encountered with this project made me think about how Martha Stewart has an entire, huge staff to work out all the kinks in her projects before we actually see her do them on her shows. I think I'll send them a suggestion for a show featuring the back-stories on some of their craft projects. It would be fun to see how many of them it takes to accomplish what one of her fans does. Speaking from experience. Some of these projects are really challenging.

Now, if only I could borrow some of Martha's staff to put up my Christmas tree and decorate my house. Grams can dream ... can't she?

I'm linking this post to ...

A Few of My Favorite Things

Maria Von Trapp sang about her favorite things. Oprah gives away her favorite things. Grams wants to share a few of my favorite things with you.  This is just a partial list, there will be more later. Here are a few of Grams favorite things ...

Pop-Pop Reading to Our Little Princess

I love reading to children, especially Our Little Princess and I love childrens' books. I also love the fact that Grandad will read to Our Little Princess any time she asks. Normally, he doesn't display too much interest in books. He would much rather stretch out in that recliner and watch a movie or television show. But somehow, whatever the Princess wants to do is okay with Pop-Pop!

Bird of Paradise

I love Bird-of-Paradise. I love it so much that I chose for my bridesmaids to carry single stems of Bird-of-Paradise.

The  plant pictured is in my front yard. It was a gift from my next-door-neighbors in memory of my mother. It's been planted in that spot for three years, but has never bloomed. About two months ago, my neighbor asked me if she could fertilize it. She gave it a Miracle-Gro feeding and it's been blooming ever since. Gorgeous!

Picture Mail

I love picture mail! It keeps me in touch with my family wherever they roam. This picture is my gorgeous daughter-in-law, Marie, and my handsome son, Nick, enjoying a winery in the Los Angeles area. They were there in September for a long weekend and, because of picture mail, we got to share the excitement as they looked at the stars on the Walk of Fame and visited Rodeo Drive. It's so great to get picture or video mail that allows me to share their lives and stay connected to them.

Bunco

I started playing bunco on a regular basis when I was pregnant with our son. He will be 29 years old tomorrow. That means, I have played bunco a minimum of once a month for almost 30 years now. For a while I played with two clubs, so I played twice a month.

If you're not familiar with bunco, it's a dice game for 12 people (usually 12 women).  The only skill required is the ability to count to 21 and a whole lot of enthusiasm. And, to tell the truth, the ability to count to 21 is optional because everyone has a partner and you can depend on someone at the table to help you count. For me bunco is a girls' night out once a month and an opportunity to let off steam and act silly. Some clubs play for prizes, but we play for money.

Books

I love books ... fiction, nonfiction, romance, fantasy, bestsellers, classics, leather bound, paperback, whatever! You name it. I love it. I discovered books at a very early age. I was one of those kids that would stay indoors and read all the time. My mother had different plans and would chase me outdoors and make me play with other kids. Now, rather than isolate me, books help me interact with others. I belong to a fabulous book club. The twelve women who are members of The Book Snobs share my love for books. Once a month we get together to discuss a great or not-so-great book, share a glass of wine and a lovely dinner. This group feeds my soul like few other things in my life.

These are the little things that make life lovely for Grams. There are many other things that also belong on this list. I'm thinking of making this a regular post.

Grams Made Southern Pecan Pie

With Thanksgiving quickly approaching, I've been making my shopping list. If I don't get called to work tomorrow, I'll be going to the grocery store early in the day. Hopefully, some people will still be working and it won't be overly crowded. I can always hope, right.

I'll be doing my baking on Tuesday evening. We're going to my sister Bylinda's home in Seguin for Thanksgivng Day. She's doing the turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, homemade dinner rolls, and macaroni and cheese. Knowing Bylinda as I do, I know she's making a couple of desserts too. I'm taking broccoli rice casserole, deviled eggs and pecan pie. Katy will bring her mile-high apple pie and Nick is bringing honey-baked ham. Travis is making home-made cranberry sauce.

Just a personal note here ... I'm so proud that my children always go to family dinners with a dish in hand. So many of the younger family members just show up and eat. Grandad and I worked hard to instill this responsibility in our kids and it's so rewarding to see them follow through on things that we taught them.

It's always been interesting to me how family members seem to get assigned to bring certain things to family gatherings. In our family at least, once you make a dish, you own it. I got this pecan pie recipe from a co-worker more than 30 years ago. Ever since the first year I made it, I am always assigned to bring pecan pie. Everyone in the family considers this the best pecan pie they've ever eaten. One year I tried a different recipe and my family was not happy about it. The next year I went back to this old reliable recipe.

In the South, pecan pie is as important to Thanksgiving as pumpkin pie. Most cooks use pecan halves in their pies. I chop the pecans because they stay tender and the pie is easier to cut. I have also discovered that the pie filling does not set if I use a metal pie plate. Be sure to use a glass or Pyrex pie plate for best results.

1 prepared pie crust (I use Pillsbury All-Ready)
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup margarine
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 teaspoon salt

Place prepared pie crust in pie plate and flute the edges.

Blend sugar, syrup and margarine in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture comes to a boil. Blend hot mixture slowly into beaten eggs. Stir in vanilla extract and salt. Pour into pie shell. Top with pecans.

Cover the edge of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent over-browning. Remove it after 20 minutes. Bake at 375º for 30 minutes.

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First Haircut

Grams and Grandad had a visit from Our Little Princess and her mom last weekend. They came in early on Friday. It was my pleasure to accompany the Princess and her mom as she got her first haircut at a salon. She's had home haircuts before, but this was her first trip to the salon.

It seemed okay at first. She took her seat in the booster seat in the big chair.

The paper collar made her a little bit nervous.

She giggles when Grams uses the spray bottle at home, but in the salon with the big chair, not so much.

It was just about this time that the whole thing went south. She did not like the salon. She did not want to sit in the big chair. She pulled off the cape. She yanked off the paper collar. She climbed out of the big chair into the safety of Grams' arms. I stood and held Our Little Princess turning her from one side to the other and trying to keep her still. This was the expression on her face throughout the experience.

The very patient young lady managed a pretty good haircut under the circumstances.

She sure looked adorable with her new "do." And, what was it my mother used to say? Something like "it's the price we pay for being women." I'm afraid this is only the first of many lessons to come.

Wordless Wednesday

Just like my Pop-pop!

Wordless Wednesday is a great day to post an awesome picture that “speaks” for itself, no words needed!!