Did you accomplish anything today?

[Cordelia]

Lots!                    Got most of my Christmas decorating done, the tree is up, the garland is up, my Christmas village is the only thing I haven't done yet, that will be the next major project                        

[Sax-O-Trix]

Today I repaired a barn wall, prepped a hay loft for 120 bales of hay to be delivered and stacked, pulled 25 fence posts, re-posted those same posts so I could move about 100 ft. of american horse/cattle fencing, cleaned the barn and am still standing...    

[CebuShan]

Lots!                    Got most of my Christmas decorating done, the tree is up, the garland is up, my Christmas village is the only thing I haven't done yet, that will be the next major project                        

Wow! I don't even think about Christmas decorating until the day after Thanksgiving. (I don't do Black Friday) I used to wait until December 1 but it takes me longer now than it used to!

[Cordelia]

Lots!                    Got most of my Christmas decorating done, the tree is up, the garland is up, my Christmas village is the only thing I haven't done yet, that will be the next major project                        

Wow! I don't even think about Christmas decorating until the day after Thanksgiving. (I don't do Black Friday) I used to wait until December 1 but it takes me longer now than it used to!

In Canada, where I'm from, we celebrate our Thanksgiving quite early, in mid October. By the time November rolls around, I am restless to put our Christmas decors up                 

[Riki]

Lots!                    Got most of my Christmas decorating done, the tree is up, the garland is up, my Christmas village is the only thing I haven't done yet, that will be the next major project                        

My mom stopped putting up her Christmas village, because she would put it on an old chest stereo in front of the big window in the living room, and every once in a while, a giant cat would devastate the village and it's people

[CebuShan]

Lots!                    Got most of my Christmas decorating done, the tree is up, the garland is up, my Christmas village is the only thing I haven't done yet, that will be the next major project                        

My mom stopped putting up her Christmas village, because she would put it on an old chest stereo in front of the big window in the living room, and every once in a while, a giant cat would devastate the village and it's people

       my act does that to my nativity set! I always wanted a village to set out at Christmas but have never had the room. About 15 yeast ago, we fund the perfect solution: my village is for the kitchen! It has a cookie jar; mugs; sugar bowl; creamer; salt & pepper shakers; etc! I love it!

[cariad]

I went to psychological anthro this morning despite the fact that I really was not up for it. So glad I went - we read about the bureaucracy of the holocaust and next Tuesday we're going to delve into the Milgram study. I remarked that Milgram was able to accomplish what he did because he did not have an IRB to answer to, and the prof responded 'but no one was harmed'. Uh, then we must be talking about a totally different Milgram study. I shall find the opportunity on Tuesday to ask him to elaborate.

I did my biostats presentation this morning. I think it went fine. With the prof's help I explained a transplant study that used survival models. I have no idea if they understood what I was trying to say, but I can tell you when I showed a picture of dialysis needles and explained what dialysis entailed, I saw an incredulous gaze or two.

We went to our local Occupy Protest where we all took over a bridge. It was inspiring. Two kids performed their poetry slam poems, which was rather incredible. I do consider myself difficult to impress especially in the realm of the theatrical, and yet listening to these young revolutionaries commanding a crowd so effortlessly really got to me. They each had the cadence of a great orator. I'll see if I can post a pickie off Gwyn's phone later.

[ToddB0130]

I had a pretty chill weekend.  Puttered a bit,  got out of the house to run some errands.  Did my 1 1/2 mile walk Friday night, Saturday night and tonight.  Got a bunch of phone calls made to friends and family and tidied up my place a bit.

[jbeany]

Had a successful craft show this weekend.  Did some drastic mark-downs on some things I had been dragging from show to show for a while, and got rid of them.  Yay, no more storing them!  Even took a special order for 18 ornaments during the show from someone else with a booth and managed to finish them all before the show ended.  A wee bit of cash in my pocket for shopping next weekend is a good thing. 

Also rearranged my craft room and got everything put away that had been left out in the whirl-wind of show prep.  Ahhh, clear counters ready for the next project are lovely things.

[galvo]

Had D.

[Cordelia]

Lots!                    Got most of my Christmas decorating done, the tree is up, the garland is up, my Christmas village is the only thing I haven't done yet, that will be the next major project                        

My mom stopped putting up her Christmas village, because she would put it on an old chest stereo in front of the big window in the living room, and every once in a while, a giant cat would devastate the village and it's people

Oh no!!!!       

Well, today, I got more Christmas shopping done, I'm getting to the point where I'm going to say, "I'm done"               

[galvo]

Chucked out a lot of my fat clothes.

[Poppylicious]

Today I posted a parcel to family in Prague and a package to a friend in the States.  Also wrote and sent a Christmas card to the girl I sponsor in India.  Bought two tops from my favourite expensive shop (only because I had a 15% off code, plus it was free delivery for spending a certain amount.)  Cleaned up the vomit the cat had left in the bathroom during the night (I have to love my Moggles; he always tries to be sick on hard surfaces, not carpeted ones ... bless him!)

Tomorrow I intend to busy myself with the writing of Christmas cards.  Want one, anyone?

 

[Cordelia]

            That's funny, I was doing the same thing while on D this am, writing my Christmas cards.       

[Riki]

I always liked doing Christmas cards.. I always try to send something more than a Christmas card to my best friend in NYC, but she's Jewish, so it always seems a little weird.. *L*

[Cordelia]

I LOVE Christmas            

[kristina]

I was very sad because one of my earrings became entangled in my hair (it has grown almost to my elbows).
Because of this I lost one earring.  I then looked around and found in a Charity-shop a wonderful pair of very classy pearl-look-alike-earrings
and a pair of ruby-look-alike-earrings, both pairs very reasonable priced and I am very pleased. 

I also spotted today some fresh chestnuts and have calculated     that if I cut down on my asparagus, greens and salad,
I can “afford” to enjoy two roasted chestnuts per day, despite their potassium

[CebuShan]

Still early but my house is clean and I plan on doing some more unpacking.

[Cordelia]

Sitting around for a very importrant phone call, unfortunately I've been waiting since 9 am this morning and I'm NOT getting anything accomplished due to waiting around.     

I get annoyed waiting and waiting when I could be out doing other things on my day off. I know the minute I step out that flippin' door, that's when the phone will ring, it always happens!           

[jbeany]

Memos and letters and filing, oh my!

I got a lot done in the office with everyone else scooting out early to leave for the holiday.

[willowtreewren]

We had our annual Thanksgiving luncheon at school today. We cooked a HUGE roaster full of vegetable soup, made homemade hot apple sauce and rounded it out with some nice crescent rolls. Cooking that much food pretty much tuckered me out!

The kids did the cutting and chopping of the vegetables yesterday and we used one of those dandy apply slicers for the apples.

The best part was listening to the kinds enjoy their soup!

After getting home I did some laundry and then chilled out. (Left over soup for dinner!)

Aleta

[Cordelia]

Just got my hot water tank repaired, it was not working since yesterday. Have to shower now tonight and do laundry to get caught up what I couldn't do today, it's amazing how you really realize how good you have it having running hot water available all the time and  its pretty funny how much you realize it when you miss it when its not working!       

[cariad]

We've had our dinner and the dishes are almost done. This was our first Thanksgiving in the US where we did not make a single traditional item. I had a break down two years ago as my baby was throwing the third Thanksgiving tantrum of his life, refusing to eat these foods that he never has a problem with on any other day of the year. I've banned those foods from my life. We were out of the country last year, this year we had crepes made from sour dough starter and apple cider. Gwyn roasted a chicken in the pressure cooker, then made a mixture of chicken, mushroom, leeks and cream for the three of them to fill their crepes. I had a mushroom, spinach, leeks and cream mix in mine. No screaming, no tears. I'd bought a pie at Whole Foods yesterday, but since we had two crepes left over and they do not reheat nicely, I let the boys each have one with Nutella and some fresh whipped cream that Gwyn had made, followed by a small slice of pie.

I have never liked Thanksgiving. My earliest memory of it was lying in my room, in the dark, hall light on, little bell by my bedside, listening to everyone else somberly eating their dinner while I was too sick to join them. The following years we went to the country club, my mother would not let us eat all day (well, she probably let my siblings eat, but not me) then we would get there around 3PM, I would be half-crazed with hunger and would be set loose on the buffet. The next morning I would have a weigh-in (as always) and my mother would scream bloody murder at me for gaining weight. So, while it is hardly a popular stance, I admit it, I find Thanksgiving to be utterly stupid. All the hand wringing over the food, the way we are all supposed to eat and enjoy but also watch our weight and never gain an ounce and chastise ourselves as soon as the holiday is over.

Tonight I feel especially free. To hell with traditions that have never meant anything to me, and never will. It did feel a little strange today, as we also no longer have broadcast television, so I did not even flip past the parade. It did not feel like Thanksgiving, but that was what made it so wonderful. We did go around the table and mention what we were thankful for, but we pretty much all said the same thing.

[jbeany]

Tonight I feel especially free. To hell with traditions that have never meant anything to me, and never will. It did feel a little strange today, as we also no longer have broadcast television, so I did not even flip past the parade. It did not feel like Thanksgiving, but that was what made it so wonderful. We did go around the table and mention what we were thankful for, but we pretty much all said the same thing.

Traditions are meant to be broken.  Or revised as needed!  We had done turkey, ham and more turkey for Christmas for years.  The first year we bought the family restaurant, paying the bills was a group effort between myself and my parents.  They owned the seasonal business, so they couldn't really collect unemployment.  I was technically an employee, so I was getting a tiny unemployment check.  We couldn't afford to pay ourselves much at all at the start, so my unemployment checks were nearly invisible.  Mine was being carefully budgeted into food for the 3 of us for the entire winter.  Then the holidays came, and we were still expected to serve the giant family dinner we had always given.  I juggled and clipped coupons and just couldn't stretch it.  I laid out my budget for my dad and asked him what he suggested.

He thought hard for a while, then crossed the turkey and ham off the shopping list, leaving me enough money to cover all the other things.  He drove down to the restaurant and raided the one remaining  freezer that we hadn't emptied to bring home to eat.  He walked back in with the last case of lobster tails and a partial case of New York strips.  He hadn't brought them home because they just seemed too expensive to serve for a weekly family dinner.  He was hoping to be able to use them when the restaurant reopened for the season, but it was that or nothing, given the budget.  So that was our family holiday dinner.

That was 1993.  Both my parents have passed away; the restaurant is long sold, but my family has had steak and lobster tail for every Christmas dinner ever since.
Turkey?  Who needs Turkey?

[CebuShan]

Tonight I feel especially free. To hell with traditions that have never meant anything to me, and never will. It did feel a little strange today, as we also no longer have broadcast television, so I did not even flip past the parade. It did not feel like Thanksgiving, but that was what made it so wonderful. We did go around the table and mention what we were thankful for, but we pretty much all said the same thing.

Traditions are meant to be broken.  Or revised as needed!  We had done turkey, ham and more turkey for Christmas for years.  The first year we bought the family restaurant, paying the bills was a group effort between myself and my parents.  They owned the seasonal business, so they couldn't really collect unemployment.  I was technically an employee, so I was getting a tiny unemployment check.  We couldn't afford to pay ourselves much at all at the start, so my unemployment checks were nearly invisible.  Mine was being carefully budgeted into food for the 3 of us for the entire winter.  Then the holidays came, and we were still expected to serve the giant family dinner we had always given.  I juggled and clipped coupons and just couldn't stretch it.  I laid out my budget for my dad and asked him what he suggested.

He thought hard for a while, then crossed the turkey and ham off the shopping list, leaving me enough money to cover all the other things.  He drove down to the restaurant and raided the one remaining  freezer that we hadn't emptied to bring home to eat.  He walked back in with the last case of lobster tails and a partial case of New York strips.  He hadn't brought them home because they just seemed too expensive to serve for a weekly family dinner.  He was hoping to be able to use them when the restaurant reopened for the season, but it was that or nothing, given the budget.  So that was our family holiday dinner.

That was 1993.  Both my parents have passed away; the restaurant is long sold, but my family has had steak and lobster tail for every Christmas dinner ever since.
Turkey?  Who needs Turkey?

   We have turkey for Thanksgiving because my husband likes to deep fry. But for Christmas, we usually have prime rib. We splurge like that because it is almost always just us two on Christmas night.