A Pre-Turkey Day Tale

'Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except the husband microwaving some leftover pizza because I refused to cook him anything on the eve of our great stuff-your-face feast tomorrow. The doggies were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of mooching for handouts at the Thanksgiving table danced in their heads. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night!

Lake house holiday cheer

In a couple weeks I'm hosting a small gathering of friends at our lake house, so the husband and I drove up there today for me to put out my santa decor and see if there were any holes that still need to be filled in advance of our holiday ladies weekend. Plus I needed to hand water a couple of the landscaping beds and check the Christmas light wrapped oak in the backyard to make sure our neighborhood tree rats hadn't wrecked my hard work yet again.

I love the santa above that I put on the back porch coffee table, even though he's really Christmas beach themed. Because seriously... who could resist St Nick in his sunglasses, flip flops and old fashioned blue swimsuit.

I looked all over for a double sided Christmas flag in shades of blue to hang off the boat dock, but finally had to give up since I didn't have time to get a custom one made. Maybe next year. This red and gold one will have to suffice. And I'm just lucky my brand new holiday flag didn't get a good dousing since a couple ducks were paddling around beneath our boat dock, unbeknownst to me. They came out flapping and quacking when I was putting up the flag and about scared the bejesus out of me.

These two Fitz & Floyd mugs in the pic below come from a line created back in the early 90s. Back when I started collecting santas at the tender age of 24, my then boyfriend-now husband bought me my first santa cookie jar that I've proudly displayed every year as the collection grew. I found these two matching mugs from that same line on eBay this fall for a steal, Russian santa with the bear, that I took up to the lake house to put at the coffee station as a sentimental reminder of the original one I have here at the big house on the family room bookshelves. 

I gotta say, it's looking pretty done. The only thing I don't really like at this point is the larger dining table decoration because it looks a bit sparse. I think I just need to make a run to one of our local craft stores to get some pretty shatterproof balls to give the tablescape a more finished look. In the pic below, on the bottom shelf, you'll see a cute little Radko ornament of santa in his motor boat that coordinates with a santa boating print I found on Etsy. 

The ornament stand I ordered was way too tall for boating santa, so I brought it back to our primary residence to swap out with a smaller stand I was using in our family room bookshelves for a larger Radko ornament. I also ordered a snowflake front door mat to match the snowflake and wreath combo front door decoration I made. I really think that oughta do it for the lake house this Christmas!

 

Getting lit!

Christmas has come to town at our primary residence in the city! My santa collection is on display, and the outdoor lights were installed, too. Our female cairn terrier, Pepper, spent a chunk of the afternoon going from window to window, watching the light company make a dozen trees into striped candy canes. She'd give them a good barking every once in a while, but was mainly just taking it all in.

 

Tree rats & horror movies

 I was up at the lake house last weekend enjoying a lovely visit with a couple old teacher teammate friends from back in the day and gave the Christmas tree wrapped oak a trial run Friday night while we were hanging out on the back porch. 

Of course, that was AFTER I had to spend more than 30 minutes readjusting the lights, and then fixing them in place with more tacks. One of the ladies spied a big fat squirrel in the yard. No doubt it's one of the local tree rats raiding our oak for acorns and jacking up my holiday lights on a regular basis.

I took my teacher friends over to the Grand Central Cafe in Kingsland for a late lunch Saturday and we had a treat - one of the employees doing his best imitation of the Leatherface character from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie for us diners. Originally located in Round Rock where the then-dilapidated farmhouse (built circa 1910, see below) was used for filming, it was disassembled in 1998 and moved to the grounds of the Antler Inn in Kingsland to be restored by a master carpenter to its original condition. So it's just a stone's throw from our lake house and the food is absolutely delicious.

Back to our old stomping grounds

 I recently took my mother on a six day trip back to her small town Texas roots to visit old friends. We had been eagerly anticipating the most excellent southeast Texas seafood. And now there's a new personal favorite restaurant - Tia Juanita's Fish Camp. By golly, I think I could eat there seven days a week. It's an interesting mix of cajun, seafood and Tex Mex. Thus far my favorite is the seafood enchiladas. But the shrimp pistolette and boudain balls came in a close second and third. Yeah sure, I could feel my arteries getting clogged with every bite I took of the yummy cream sauce drenched enchiladas. It's a good thing there isn't a Tia Juanita's out here in central Texas or I'd be in serious trouble with my ongoing dieting efforts.

En route to the tiny Texas town where my mother and I were reared, we made the obligatory pit stop at Buccee's for a gas, toilet and snack break. I always love snooping around to see the latest beaver offerings. Pit stops at Buccee's have become a Texas roadtrip tradition for us Lone Star state residents.

Mother had a great time visiting old friends she has known since her school days, while I played chauffeur. We stopped by both my granny and pawpaw's graves to put out some new silk flowers.

Mother's old home place is pretty junked up these days and could use some much needed maintenance, but at least it's still standing. The trailer where I grew up was removed a couple decades ago, so now my old home place is just an empty lot. Time marches on and things change, praise God. That saying about never forgetting where you came from is true, because it keeps me thankful for the road I've traveled and humble about the life I'm blessed to lead today.

The fur patrol

Our older daughter came to stay with us to visit for a few days, all possible because she's working remotely through the end of the year. And of course she brought her chorkie, aka devil dog. He can be really sweet and endearing. But then he'll turn around and snarl/snap as if he has no idea who you are. Doggy multiple personalities, it seems. Thankfully, our dogs aren't fazed by his crazy. He falls right back into my terrier pack and makes himself at home on the master bed with them. Living in a downtown highrise is cool, but not so much for dogs. Even a little dog like this one. So I think he enjoys being back here for several days to chase squirrels in our big yard and run around off leash to his little heart's content.

 

Since the daughter hasn't found a new vet for little Cujo, I made an appointment to get him in to see our vet for a couple boosters he needed. Sure enough, he freaked - little man chihuahua syndrome - and had to be placed in doggy lockdown with this tiny little muzzle to hold back all nine pounds of him. While the vet and his tech were safe from chorkie teeth, I had them trim his nails since it's a good way to draw back a nub when we give it a go.

In other exciting family news, I was thrilled to find liquid roux at one of my local Walmarts. I stockpiled six jars of this liquid gold. It is so much better than the dry roux we end up using when we can't find the infinitely better gloppy, greasy liquid roux to make big pots of gumbo in the fall and winter when we want something warm to eat. Now I just need to make a run to our local fancy pants seafood market to buy some of the really good shrimp and freshly picked white crab meat to store in the freezer for a cold, rainy day.