Category Archives: Holiday

Thanksgiving… day 2

Actually found mom’s new apartment.  I had a map.  I didn’t really need a map, it was right where I thought it was… right where pap became “uncle 5 thumbs” in the cornpicker accident.  It has changed a lot since then, my home town has grown up a bit, although thankfully not as much as where I live has.

Peanut was happy to be finally able to just hang out and be a dog.  I enjoyed a great cup of coffee… and another… and another… and I got to give hugs all around.

Hugs are a really really good thing.  I stored up as many as I could while we were there…

I felt really bad because my sister was trying to rest on the by-oh chair… and we were… a tad loud… but she seemed mostly okay with it.

Mom and I got to have a nice long chat about… well… mostly everybody… and had a nice long chat about how Squirrel is doing dealing with all of her new realities.

Me… she checked out my knuckles.  Thank goodness my knuckle bump was down and my joints were actually behaving themselves despite being cold. I was smart enough to bring my glovies so I kept my hands reasonably warm and I had on my heavy socks so my toosies were toasty too… so I wasn’t hurting too too much.

Supper was wonderful.  Ground turkey sloppy joes, Koolade and peanut-butter pie.

The kids stayed the night (Squirrel got to spend some quality time with her bestest uncle in the world and Adam got to spend some real quality time with HIS bestest uncle in the world).    Bear and I left early-ish because mom had to take Sister-in-law (almost) to the ER for a UI.  We went to visit Bear’s brother which was really nice.  Quiet visit and we hadn’t seen him in a long time.

What?  The pie?  oh… Tom’s peanut butter pie is absolutely killer.  I think it is Adam’s new favorite pie.  It isn’t really heavy… or thick… not like any other peanut butter pie I have ever had.  It is really really good and it so doesn’t last very long.  Now I’m being hit up to make peanut butter pie along with brownies.

The recipe?  it is below.

KILLER Peanut-butter Pie

8 oz cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup peanut butter
16 oz cool whip
Chocolate or fudge syrup ( optional)

Mix in large bowl the cheese, sugar, pnutbtr, and 8 oz cool who.
Pour onto graham cracker crust.
Other 8 oz cool whp can go over top of pie and can drizzle chocolate over top.

I’ve had lots of Thanksgivings over the (mumble mumble) years and more and more I realize that I have SO many things to be thankful for… Thinking about this year… my RA is reasonably managed and I haven’t been hurting a whole awful lot… I got to be with almost all of my family on Thanksgiving… Amandya seems to be controlled with her seizures and her kidney stones (thank goodness) aren’t currently causing any issues (pee test part 2 to come soon).

This year, though… there has been so much more.

Peanut tolerated a 24 hour “road trip”… 24 hours literally… stops for gas, a couple rest area stops and a couple quick meals…. Thank goodness for the water bottle I got when she was a puppy… we made good use of it.  Unfortunately, most of what she enjoyed on the trip was laying on my pillow on my lap.  She is a little dog, but she sure gets heavy.

The first really awesome place we stopped on the way up was a rest area in Ohio.  They had Hickory Nut Trees!!!  And there were a few nuts on the ground.  It was chilly enough to need a jacket and the dot was thrilled to get to take the run.

Amandya actually got the biggest smile on her face than I have seen in a long time when she saw the Welcome To Pennsylvania sign.  Not happy enough to get her picture taken with the sign, but happy.

It was amazing the ‘we are home’ feeling… there were no leaves on the trees.  There were no flowers blooming.  Houses (many many many many houses) had up Christmas lights all over the houses and trees.  The houses are normal houses.  They aren’t ‘new’ buildings.  They aren’t the houses that people build because they didn’t feel like living in the one they had or because the color of the carpet went out of style.  Some of them could use a coat of paint.  Some could use the yard cleaned up because there is a lot of (literally) junk sitting around in the yard.  Most of them have leaves in the yard and the feeling of being lived in and loved in and homes not just houses… or showcases.

Also in Ohio, I got to have my Sheetz hotdog fix (go def-dogs) and Sheetz coffee.  I’m not so thrilled with their espresso… but their coffee is still Sheetz coffee and i will take it over the coffee that is three or four times the price hands down.  Okay okay… I still LOVE Dunkin Donuts coffee (especially the yummy pumpkin coffee in my freezer and the iced coffee with cream and sugar… or their hot coffee with cream and sugar… but hey…).

A few more hours and we hit Greensburg.  Hoss’s for dinner…

Kids thought the sign was really awesome.  It was.  It didn’t really still rival the IHOP one in Amarillo that said “Senior Citizens Buy One Get One Free With The Purchase Of A Drink” but it is a close second.

After dinner… Overly’s Country Christmas!  The bonfire was great, and very welcome… it was chilly and windy.

Then to the hotel to crash and burn.  24 hours is a really long drive.

I have read Bucolic Plague (and it was a WONDERFUL book… thank you Nook for making it much easier to carry around… and I understand that people want to have a perfect holiday table… kind of anyway.  I understand how you could easily get caught up in the wonderful-ness of it all.

I even watched (okay… I got the wrong channel… it wasn’t Planet Green… it was one channel up from it) a TOTALLY Martha Thanksgiving program.  Wine and butter for basting the turkey… 4 layers of cheese cloth over the top of it so it has a crunchy golden yumminess glow.  Okay okay…

But you know, that really isn’t the holiday that I dream of…

Turkey… yep… BIG turkey… basted in whatever juices fell out of the turkey naturally or broth from jiblets cooked on the stove with celery and onions.  No parsnips and onions and turnips and carrots under the turkey’s little rack.  We didn’t have a rack… we had a turkey and a pan and usually an oven that worked.

As I recall… we also had cold weather and a great ‘extra’ storage place… an old gas grill kind of thing on the back porch.  Unfortunately we also had a cat… and the grill had holes in it just big enough for a cat who hadn’t eaten a few pounds of turkey to get IN but not big enough for a cat who HAD eaten a good bit of left over turkey to get OUT of… hmmmmm

Gravy had lumps of stuffing floating in it… it did NOT have all of the grease pulled off through a special grease removing cup.  It was usually made with corn starch rather than flour because that left fewer lumps and Jeff always managed to get the feather/hair/shell/lumps and it was just easier to keep them out if there was any chance of him getting them.

When I was little we scrubbed the dining room floor right before everyone was supposed to show up to get the coal soot off of it and make it shine.  The floor was wonderful.  It was hand painted… literally… with blocks of color (stones) with white between the blocks (grout)… it was the best place to be a totally left of center kind of kid… I could walk around the block in just 4 steps… because there was a block on the dining room floor…

Pies were homemade (usually by me) and turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.  They weren’t Martha pretty, and sometimes the crust was a little over done or a little browner around the edges of the pumpkin pies than it should have been…. but you know what… they were really good pumpkin pies… I remember measuring out the thick milk from the little cans that we only got on holidays…

The house was FULL of people.  If I got lucky I got to sit over the register where the somewhat smelly heat was either easily floating up or blowing hard enough that you could make flannel night gowns look like Marylin dresses…

We didn’t have Martha holidays… and I’m glad.  I don’t dream of Martha holidays… her house always looks so sterile… my Christmas tree is a mutt tree and that is perfect for me..