Thanksgiving & More!

Again it's been a busy week starting off Mon. night with the ice cream social followed by hot dogs at the bonfire Tues. night! The weather was a little chillier this week so not as many attendees at the bonfire (yeah, I know, you'd think they'd come cause the bonfire would keep them warm!)

We also put up our Christmas decorations this week! Since space was limited, I only brought a couple small decorations for each of the holidays...a small jack-o-lantern for Halloween, a small scarecrow for Fall/Thanksgiving, and a small wooden snowman and nativity for Christmas. When I was in St. Louis my friend, Gloria, had given me a small, plush snowman with a St. Louis Cardinals scarf and cap so I planned on adding that to the "decorations". Additionally I had brought along a couple dish towels representing each of the holidays. I figured we'd get a very small fake tree to complete the decor. Well, my husband surprised me when we were at Wal-mart and headed to the Christmas section where he proceeded to buy a 32" tree with fiber optic lights, snowman window clings, cotton blanket for the snow, a string of icicle lights, and green garland to hide the wiring! So as you can see from the photos, we're all set for Christmas! Since Jo likes to lay on the dashboard to get some sun, we cut out a section so she could look out, but she seems to prefer laying on the "snow blanket" under the tree!

Thursday we drove down to Rick and Jill's house in Ft. Walton Beach to spend Thanksgiving. This time not only did Mikey and Abby get to go, but so did Jo. They were our neighbors when Jo adopted us in Lancaster so they were looking forward to seeing her again and said that Romeo liked kitties. As expected, Jo initially spit at Romeo but then just made herself at home. Jill was busy preparing the Oyster Dressing New Orleans Style, so Russ and Rick spent their time trying to find an easy way to cleanly open the pecans we had brought, which were given to us by a campground neighbor. They tried several pliers, vices, and clamps but couldn't find anything that made it easy to get the meat out once opened. But it kept them busy. :-) A couple hours later we headed to Jean's house (Jill's mom) for the Thanksgiving feast. Mikey, Abby, and Romeo came along so Jean's dog, Rags, would have company. Russ and Rick were in charge of deep frying the two turkeys while Jill, Jean, and I went over to a friend of Jean's for hors d'oeuvres and some yummy homemade Sangria. When we returned, the turkeys were done, and it was time to eat and what a feast! Jill and Jean had prepared everything they had learned in a cooking class a couple weeks before, and all was incredibly delicious.

Crazy as we are, we ventured out on Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year....what were we thinking! Jill wanted us to see Old Tyme Pottery, one of her favorite stores in Destin. It was crowded but not nearly as bad as the Bass Pro Shop! Good grief, what a nightmare! Then we stopped at the Lucky Snapper Bar & Grill (http://www.luckysnapper.com/) for a Bloody Mary and a bite to eat. We had planned to sit outside on the deck overlooking Destin Harbor, but there was a bit of a breeze which made it a little too chilly. So we sat in the bar and still had a nice view. Of course, I forgot to bring my camera! Friday night Jill and I went to a Beaujolais wine party being held by Jean's friend, Sara, while the guys stayed home and watched football.

Saturday was a big day for football as far as Russ was concerned, but the only things I was really interested in watching was ESPN Game Day at 9am, which was being done live from Kansas City, the scene of that night's Border War, and of course, the BIG game at 7pm!! So after Game Day and breakfast, Rick, Jill, and I went over to Jean's so I could use her sewing machine and they could help her with some stuff. But then it was back to their house to get ready for the BIG game!! (Have I mentioned that it was a BIG game?!!?) For those of you who may not follow college football, what made this game even BIGGER than what it already was is the fact that LSU, the #1 team in America, had lost their game to the unranked Arkansas team on Friday, which meant the winner of the Missouri/Kansas game on Saturday could potentially become #1 in the nation! So we were fired up come game time (as if we needed extra incentive), wearing our Missouri shirts, and ready for a great game. Rick and Jill are loyal to their own college teams but cheered along for Mizzou as did their friend, Steve, who came over initially to watch the Florida game beforehand. In the end our Missouri team prevailed winning 38-26!! And the BCS poll came out yesterday, and Missouri is #1!!!!!!!! Next Saturday they play Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game being held in San Antonio. The winner of that game will more than likely get to play in the national championship in January. So we've got our fingers crossed and are ready for another really BIG game!!

After breakfast Sunday, we returned to DeFuniak Springs and vegged out the rest of the day. Today it's raining pretty good so am spending the day writing the blog, painting ceramic ornaments for next Saturday's yard sale, and doing laundry. Don't think I mentioned that we finally decided to give the built-in washer/dryer a try a few weeks ago. I had put it off because we had read and heard that they use a lot of amps, a lot of water, and hold very small loads. Well, we decided that while we're parked at a place where electricity and water are supplied as part of our fee, we might as well give it a go (besides it's probably cheaper than spending $10 at the laundromat!) The machine uses only 1-1/2 tablespoon each of detergent and fabric softener, and it takes about 2 to 2-1/2 hours to do a "load", but it can run in the background while doing other stuff. Hey, guess it fills up the time! LOL

Well, that's all for now until next week. Don't forget to watch the next BIG game Saturday at 7pm and root for Mizzou! (Of course, I don't expect that from our Oklahoma friends.) GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!