You aint nothing but a hound dog

I volunteered to houndsit my sister's basset Bucky for a couple days while they were out of town for Thanksgiving. He quickly made himself at home on my new rug in the family room.

 

 

 

Any time we put him over in the hemmed off area I created in the hallway leading to the garage, he cried like a big baby. He's accustomed to sleeping with my sister, all 60 lbs of him that is constantly shedding little white hairs on everything. And the drool - yuck. Our little dogs can be yappy, but at least they're a manageable size and don't shed.

Needless to say, our dogs were not amused with this slobbering, rather oafish intruder to their doggy domain. With the hound on the loose in our house, they tended to spend a lot of time snuggled up on holiday throws atop the beds where Bucky couldn't jump up and join them. The older daughter's chorkie was the most vocal with his dislike as you can see in the video below, even when we put chorkie in his kennel so he'd leave Bucky alone.

Thanksgiving 2021

This year my sister-in-law hosted Thanksgiving. She is an excellent cook, and everything was delicious. 

The highlight on the groaning Thanksgiving table was the pork crown roast my sister-in-law made especially for mother. It really was a culinary work of art. The girls and I whipped up some basics like broccoli rice casserole, chocolate pecan pie, pumpkin pie (Aunt Mary's recipe, which is the best I've ever had), and a chocolate sheet cake since we were traveling for the day.

We were especially grateful this Thanksgiving to spend another year celebrating with mother. I've already started working on my Christmas Eve and Day menus for next month. There's nothing better than enjoying good food while spending time with family and friends during the holiday season!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

I'm really enjoying Thanksgiving week. The coed is home and we've been busy doing things like eating Tex Mex at her favorite restaurant, as well as baking homemade sugar cookies for her to decorate with friends. 

We decked the halls at mother's house, too. I also made a front door wreath for my sweet mobile groomer Lily and she was so happy to get it. I had her pick the colors/theme and she chose a snowflake scheme with blue and silver. All she has to do is fluff it and add the snowflake ornament in the center before hanging it.

I was at Target over the weekend, and was surprised when I ran across a breathalyzer. Who knew they made these for the general public to purchase? Honestly, it's a rather good idea for folks who plan to enjoy a bottle cup of cheer this holiday season. Though for $14.99, you wonder how accurate it is.

I enjoyed reading several Thanksgiving books this month with the two girls I tutor on Tuesday mornings. Volunteering in one of our local schools is so rewarding for me, because I genuinely miss being in the classroom. After teaching 5th graders for years, it has been interesting to work with the younger kids who need help. We read, write and work on building their vocabularies. I'm in zero rush to be a grandmother, but I must admit I look forward to sharing my love of reading with the next generation. 

I pray your Thanksgiving is shared with precious family and friends. May you recall all of the blessings God has bestowed on you in 2021, both big and small. There is ALWAYS something to be thankful for.

Bow chicka wow wow

Last month I was searching eBay for good deals on used Santa figurines, as well as Santa and Mrs. Claus S&P shakers. When what to my wondering eyes should appear...

While scanning the usual G-rated Santas, I stumbled across what seems to be a XXX version - seen above. You'll notice the description includes the words Sing & SWING. Lord have mercy! What in the 50 shades of Santa Claus is this? As much as I adore finding unique interpretations of St Nick, this one kinda made my skin crawl. For the love of candy canes and reindeer, put some clothes on. And those expressions on their faces. GAH!

I didn't check out what the "sound activated" music included. Maybe Rick James, Marvin Gaye or Barry White? Whoever dreamed up this rather creepy sexualized version of Santa and his favorite ho-ho-ho Mrs. Claus appearing a la natural in the bath oughta be taken out behind the elves' workshop and beaten with a wooden toy.

It's never too early for Christmas decor

Yes, I know it's the week before Thanksgiving. I just couldn't wait one more day to unpack my Santas and get busy decorating for Christmas. I started collecting Santas back in 1992, and I've collected hundreds of different versions of him in the past 29 years. 

 

 

Our old cairn boy Ollie was following me around while I was busy decorating and got in the pic above. That set of nesting Santas on the little side table was purchased in Budapest when were were on a Rhine River cruise back in the summer of 2012.

 

 

I've got at least 30 different sets of Santa and Mrs. Claus salt and pepper shakers that serve as the centerpiece on my big dining table. I love how they all have unique personalities, with their different colors, clothes, poses and expressions.

This year I got ambitious and emptied everything off the shelves in the family room to see if I could fill them up with all things Santa from my many bins of decor. Thanks to a few more things I found at a precious little Christmas shop in Ruidoso over the summer, plus a couple used Santas I bought for a song on eBay, the shelves are looking incredibly festive now.

I've started telling the girls about some of my favorite sentimental Santas. Like the two their dad bought me that hold a special place in my heart. Or the handcarved Santa purchased in St Petersburg when we were there on a family vacation in the summer of 2017. These are the ones I want them to keep instead of hauling off to Goodwill when I die. I like to hope that they'd put them out every Christmas and think of me. It's a sweet thought that makes me happy!

 

Political t's & riding in style

When I took my mother back to southeast Texas to visit her old school chums, I had lunch with one of my travel buddies and we went to a monthly trade day. It's a bit of a hodgepodge, antiques being sold next to homemade pickles and costume jewelry, with hand carved wooden toys and personalized hair bows just down the row. I was happy to find some of those handy soup bowl cozies in fun patterns to give as stocking stuffers. 

I also ran across a couple new Santas and blue milk glass to add to my collections. There were several places selling cute holiday themed t-shirts. Then I ran across the shirts below. Please excuse the salty language. Would anybody really wear something like this in public? I can't say I was surprised to spy these not-so-nice shirts with the president and politics splashed across them. In my opinion, it's elder abuse with a mentally diminished Joe Biden as our 46th president. President Biden obviously has some very real cognitive issues that are on display for the world to see any time he's put in front of a camera or makes a public appearance. And yet I feel sorry for him because dementia is a terrible disease that robs folks of the memories they cherish and turns family members into strangers. We should all be praying that in 2024 Biden will be replaced by a new president who is sharp as a tack, can navigate the subtleties of bipartisan politics and will begin the process of helping heal our divided nation. Narcissistic blowhards need not run... y'all know who I'm talking about here, ha-ha!

Yesterday when I was out and about, this car pulled up next to mine at a stop light. Lounging out of the back window was what appeared to be a Bernese Mountain dog. That's a whole lotta dog for a smaller SUV. He was just chilling, checking out all of the happenings around him. What a fuzzy cuddlebug!

A firm foundation

This week in Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) we wrapped up our study of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Wow, such a powerful sermon full of truths from Jesus that are equally relevant in our modern world. A section near the end of the sermon reminded me of one of my favorite old Baptist hymns. In Matthew 7:24-25 Jesus tells us, "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." 

The storms of life will shake us all - sudden troubles, inner turmoil or outside pressures. Because we live in a fallen world, life is far from perfect or fair. And yet we can persevere with courage and grace through God our Father and Jesus His Son as a firm foundation. We can attempt to build our lives on sand that shifts and will ultimately fail us. Or we can turn to God's words in the Bible, trusting in Him and the salvation He offers through the gift of Jesus on the cross. I pray our world turns to Jesus as their rock and redeemer so we can all stand resilient in the storms of life.

Back where I come from

Last week I drove my mother five hours, back to her old hometown for a visit with friends. This has become a regular fall event for us and I made the commitment that she wouldn't miss it. With mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer eighteen months ago, it was important to keep our mother-daughter tradition going. This year a longtime friend was in Texas for a visit and she joined us for the roadtrip back to southeast Texas since she was flying out of Houston back to her home in Holland. We opted to stop at Tia Juanita's in Winnie for late lunch and we weren't disappointed.

This restaurant very successfully fuses Tex-Mex and Cajun in the most delicious way. We started off with a sampling of several appetizers, including boudain balls, hush puppies with Mexican butter and a pistolette. Basically a pistolette is a flat piece of dough resembling a kolache with crawfish etouffe baked inside it. My entree was the seafood enchiladas. I could eat buckets of the pepper jack cream sauce they pour over the crab and shrimp stuffed enchiladas. Every bite was incredibly tasty.

We continued the seafood palooza on Friday at Pine Tree Lodge with a group of mother's friends. Afterwards, everybody returned to our lovely Victorian VRBO for some cake from my mother's favorite bakery, Champagne's over in mid-county.

On Saturday, I took mother to Floyd's for one more seafood meal. She met an old friend and her husband for lunch. I was just about shrimped out by then, so I switched over to the crab au gratin with a side of grilled asparagus.

Since the Beaumont hotels tend to be a bit run down and kinda scary, I found a sweet little 3/2 Victorian house located amidst a pine tree farm not too far from everything on our gastronomic hit list. It was super clean, well stocked and had lots of room for mother's friends to visit.

 

 

Typical of this annual trip, we made a run by the cemeteries to put seasonal flowers on my grandmother and grandfather's graves. This year I got fancy pants and added a pretty cardinal ornament.

Mother had lost track of her old friend Joanne a few years ago. Thanks to a mutual friend of theirs, mother was able to locate her. Receiving hospice in a memory care facility now, it was a bittersweet visit. Joanne's daughter Rana met us there, and it was great to see her, too. 

Aging isn't for the faint-hearted. But praise God that He sees us through, providing the comfort and peace no matter what old age hands us. We rest secure in the knowledge that Jesus is our salvation. When we close our eyes for the final time here in our temporary earthly bodies, we are headed for our eternal home with God the Father and Jesus His Son.