Well, it was a really good Christmas here; I hope yours was good as well. It is so much fun watching kids open presents! We made sure to hang their stockings on the fireplace mantel, and leave cookies for Santa on the mantel as well. They wanted to leave the cookies on the coffee table, but I told them that the dogs would eat the cookies before Santa got here, and that he would see them on the mantel beside the stockings, so that satisfied them enough to get them tucked into bed.
They were so excited that they didn’t get to sleep much before 11:30! And of course, they were awake by 4am and woke us all up so we could open gifts! Thank goodness I managed to sneak in a nap shortly after breakfast! My sister put the turkey in the oven and prepared the stuffing. Most of the food was prepared the day before so all we had to do was reheat most of it. All in all, it was a wonderful day, and I’m glad they came!
I’m having a few friends come over for Thanksgiving dinner this year. These are all friends who have no family in the area and would otherwise be spending the day alone. I expect about ten people to attend, so I have been spending the weekend getting the house as “company ready” as I can. Of course for me, that’s probably not as spic and span clean as a lot of other people’s homes - I’m a pretty casual person! But I did sweep down the cobwebs and wash the floors and vacuum the carpets and dust. And of course, made sure the bathroom was clean. I did the shopping and bought a fresh turkey - I plan to cook that the day before Thanksgiving so I don’t have to panic about exactly what time it will be ready to eat on Thursday. Everyone that was invited is supposed to bring a dish, so it will be less work-intensive for me. I do plan to bake some home-made bread Thursday morning! I love home-made bread!
We don’t get many trick or treaters out here in the country, but every couple of years we might get one or two. So I am always in a quandary about how to “prepare” for Halloween. I don’t like buying candy that won’t get eaten - that is such a waste of money! And I really don’t want to stock up on my own favorite candy because I don’t want that much temptation in the house! So I think this year I am going to simply get a couple of rolls of quarters and simply give any kids that might show up at the house a couple of quarters. I know that when I was a kid I would have much preferred cold hard cash than a lot of that garbage that some people handed out!
I was reading on the Time.com website that there is a shortage of bananas in Japan because of the popularity of a new diet fad called the morning banana diet. The “diet” consists of eating one (or as many as you want) bananas for breakfast with a glass of water, and eating anything you want for lunch and dinner (as long as you skip dessert) and you have to go to bed before midnight. People seem to think this diet works, so they are buying up bananas as soon as they reach the store shelves! I haven’t noticed a shortage of bananas around here yet, I wonder if the fad will hit here too!
We love to eat food that has been cooked on our gas grill. During the warmer seasons we put the grill out on the deck and have grilled burgers or steaks several times a week. In the cooler seasons, we put the grill in the garage and grill a little bit less often - but there are a few warmer winter days we can grill if it is a really sunny day and around lunch time; the garage will warm up enough so that we don’t mind cooking out there with the garage door open for however long it takes to get the food cooked.
There is a favorite recipe contest being held at iBuyBarbeques.com - the grand prize is $400! The recipe must include using a grill at some point. If you want to participate in the contest, you need to post your favorite recipe on your own blog and submit the entry URL to dan@ibuystores.com. Good luck!