Tuesday I finished my quilt. It was a big project, 65x90", and I was not sure if I could manage it all with my sewing machine, but I got it done! I can show it to you after Christmas.
Then I moved my sewing station out of the dining room and back upstairs, and put all the furniture back in place. I needed my dining room table, opened full out, to manage my project.
Next, I dusted all of my pottery collection and packed it up and got it stored away. I need the shelves, because, in case you haven't heard, Santa Claus is coming to town, and my Santa collection is coming out of the attic.
Wednesday we will clean house thoroughly. And then we'll be ready to start decorating.
Of course the Sounder Elf and the Sounder and Seahawks flowers are still on the mantel. Football season is far from over, and the Sounders play Thursday evening for the Western Conference Championship, and the chance to move on to the final, the MLS Cup, on Dec. 9th. Go Sounders!
Finally, I got out my Christmas cookie recipes and made my shopping list of ingredients. Next week I'll start baking!
We had a lovely Thanksgiving afternoon around the dinner table, my son, sister-in-law, cousins and friend, and Tom and I. The BBQ smoked turkey was perfect and all of the rest of the food was yummy too. Of course I took no photos of the food or the guests. I was busy.
We did not shop on Black Friday. We did go to breakfast with our teacher group. When we got home Amazon had delivered our shopping to our door. Then we went for a walk.
Over the weekend we walked, watched college football and Seahawks football and picked up the kids at the airport. While they were gone the roofing company that we hired to replace their roof finally got a the break in the weather they needed, and got Jill's roof replaced. Yay! We used the last of my inheritance to pay for it, but I think my mother would approve.
Sunday I finally got back to working on my quilt project. I had been stewing about it, since the project got much bigger than I had planned on, but today I was able, with Tom's helping hands, to get it sandwiched and machine quilted - just stitch in the ditch, nothing fancy - and ready for the application of the binding. I can't show you or tell you what it is until after Christmas, because it is a secret. But I am much relieved that it is all working out.
On Thanksgiving we give thanks for the help that Native Americans gave to the first European settlers. Today the president attempted to thank the Navajo Code Talkers for their lifesaving work during WWII. But he couldn't manage to pull it off without flinging an insult, what amounted to a racial slur. Trump is such a jerk. For him I am not thankful.
There are lots of good smells in the kitchen today.
I'm just about done cooking for now. The stuffing ingredients are waiting to cool out and then they will be combined and stuffed into the refrigerator to await stuffing the turkey tomorrow morning.
Jake's favorite, berry pie, is cooling on the counter, along with the cranberry sauce. Someone else is bringing the pumpkin pie.
The centerpiece for the table is done, created out of grocery store mums and clippings from shrubs in the yard.
The table is set and ready for our guests. There will be seven of us: our son Jake, Tom's sister Jan, my cousins Dan and Kris and Kris's guy, Charlie, will be joining us. Jill and the kids are with their other family in Colorado.
This has been a year of changes for some of us, some good things have come our way, and we all have plenty to be grateful for.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.
I'm sitting in my recliner watching the SeaHawks on Monday Night Football. We're behind, but it's just the beginning of the second half, and anything can happen.
Please excuse the blurry photo. I needed something, so I took a pic of my coffee table with my phone while I was sitting here. That way I didn't have to get out of my recliner.
It finally stopped raining in the early afternoon. Before then I was very frustrated, because I really wanted to get outside and finish the yard clean up after the big wind storm of a week ago. Instead we got the laundry done, and then we went to Safeway and got all the Thanksgiving dinner shopping done. I even got a free turkey! I had purchased my Thanksgiving turkey for $.35 a pound by spending $50 before we left for Rockaway last week. This time I spent over $130 so now I have my free Christmas turkey.
With the rain still pouring down, I then got a start on my Christmas shopping on line. We have an Amazon credit card and we have built up lots of points so I am buying as much as I can with points, no cash exchanged, and free shipping with Prime.
I enjoyed a long lunch, with coffee and chocolate and the newspaper, my usual routine. And then the rain stopped! Tom and I were able to get out and in a couple of hours we had the lawn and patio cleaned up. Yay!
Finally, while I caught up on blog reading, Tom went to Best Buy to pick up our desktop computer CPU, which has been with the Geek Squad for the last ten days, getting the malware removed. Then they had trouble reinstalling drivers and programs, so it took a long time to get it back. Tom is now getting it hooked up, and later I will have to find and open programs and remove about 500 emails. I will be glad to have it back. It's the computer I use to store and process all of my photos.
It's now Atlanta 31, Seattle 20. Can we pull out a victory? We'll see.
It has been a good day anyway.
We returned home from Rockaway Beach this evening after a productive stay at the cabin and a trip to the valley to celebrate the life of my aunt.
With lots to do here at home in the coming days, I am going to post a bunch of photos I have just edited, with a bit of commentary, and cover the whole four days.
We went to the cabin to complete some projects that we had agreed on at our cabin meeting in October. It was a good thing that they were indoor projects, since we had to weather a series of storms, including gale force winds and heavy rain squalls. And yet, it seemed to settle down just in time for me to capture three lovely sunsets on the beach.
We spent the first day getting to the cabin, with stops to pick up project materials along the way. Wednesday morning we went shopping for the rest of what we needed, and in the afternoon, after a very stormy night and morning, I was able to get out on the beach while Tom began to get going on construction.
The sun shone in and around the next storm clouds and lit up the rain around the edges.
Is the pot of gold in our cabin?
Nope. But maybe there are two pots somewhere.
When a second toilet room was added last summer, we needed to add a hand washing sink nearby, but it had to be small. We found one, ordered it, and then had to engineer how to install it here.
Here's how that turned out.
The first sun set.
We had to make another trip to the builders supply store the next morning, so we stopped at the Tillamook Bay jetty for a few minutes. There was an eagle sitting on the jetty, something we had never seen before.
While the sink was a longer project, waiting for the Verathane to dry, Tom got other projects done quickly: installing a new wall heater and adding grab bars in the bathrooms. While he worked on those I found places to clean and sort.
Thursday's sunset was again wonderful.
Since we had to pass right by it and it was open on our way to the builder's supply in Tillamook, we just had to stop at the Bayfront Bakery in Garibaldi - both times.
Friday, with most of the work done, we took more time to play, spending time in antique stores in Wheeler.
As you can see, it was a lovely day.
After lunch at the cabin, we got ice cream in Rockaway Beach.
Friday's sunset was less dramatic without storm clouds, but still lovely.
Saturday we cleaned up, packed up, and drove over the coast range and into the Willamette Valley, where in the early afternoon we arrived at the little country church where my mother's family, my Hofstetter ancestors, were prominent pioneers in Clarkes, in the eastern foothills of the valley. This is also the church my Aunt Alma attended later in her life, coming home to her roots. It was here that we gathered to commemorate her life.
There was Mount Hood peeking up over the eastern horizon, gleaming in a fresh coat of snow.
We had a wonderful celebration of her life,
and a wonderful gathering of family and friends. Here I am with my siblings and Hofstetter cousins. Of this generation, only two were not here. Since we are spread from Montana to Oregon and Washington to California, that is a rare happening. My mother and my aunt would have loved it.
