16 - It's All About The Gravy, Baby!!

I need to lose 5 pounds this week, so I don't have to lose ten pounds next week. 
Hashtag FML

YESSSS!!!

Day 16 - Something you are excited about.

It's November, so DUH!!

Turkey Day!!

I love Thanksgiving, it is my favorite holiday ever.  Especially as there is no 'Thanksgiving Candy' or 'Thanksgiving Gifts' I am required to buy for my entitled little brat of a child.  Winning!

Any holiday that is all about food wins in my book, but Thanksgiving is the mack daddy of them all.  Or maybe it's the daddy mack?  I don't even care, Thanksgiving is the gravy on the mashed potatoes of my life.

This Thanksgiving is going to be super fun.  We are doing it at my sister's house, and the day(s) will go something like this -- all interspersed with baby snuggles from my favorite tiny humans:

Arrive Wednesday evening, bake pies, assemble sides that can be assembled ahead of time, and prep turkey.

Thursday am, Starbucks and smoothies for breakfast, turkey in the oven.

The rest of the morning/early afternoon will be spent cooking side dishes, decorating, and watching all 10 of the Thanksgiving episodes of FRIENDS in order.

Borrow sister's maternity pants (she had a baby on August 31), and set table.

Eat mammoth feast, using copious amounts of gravy, until I am dazed and too full to stand up and walk away from the table.
PIES!!
Clear away feast, making packets of leftovers for other family members, but setting the majority of the stuff away for Thanksgiving Soup (also preparing and hiding 3 full plates for me to plow through after everyone goes to sleep and I watch a Christmas movie).

Bribe entitled child to help me shuffle and roll to the couch.

Watch Festive Holiday Programming until everyone goes to sleep.

Consume 3 plates of food while watching, and fall asleep with the smell of turkey gravy and shame wafting off of me.

I use this meme a lot, but it's MEEEEEEE!

Friday am, up early, Starbucks and Thornton's Treeland, where we will spend roughly eleven years slogging through the mud, wrangling babies and dealing with my irritated (no wifi @ Thornton's), entitled child, while my picky sister and her equally discerning 11 year old daughter debate the merits and flaws of ALLLLL 645 trees on the farm.  Find tree, toss it in the truck and hit the Hockinson Cafe for breakfast, return to sister's house.  Spend 2 hours crawling around on the floor adjusting and re-adjusting the screws in the tree-holder while my brother-in-law pushes the top  back and forth until my picky sister is satisfied that it is 100% perfect - probably while fending off my bossy niece who doesn't talk a lot, but has to be involved in every activity in her house will probably be crawling around under the tree with me yelling "No" and trying to shove toys up my nose.

Make and consume Thanksgiving Soup, pack up my Thanksgiving AND Thanksgiving Soup leftovers, snuggle babies goodbye, go home (stopping to buy a jar of turkey gravy en route), and collapse.

Yes, yes I do!

Probably sounds hectic and crazy, but it's our Thanksgiving tradition, and I am so grateful for it.

And for gravy.

And this guy.

Yum!  Muffins!

Day 10 - Short Term Goals For The Month

Ahem.


Sorry, everyone.  I could be very lofty and inspirational and list shit like meditation, weight loss, good habits, blah, blah, blah.


Nope.


Nope, nope, allllllllllllllllllllllll the nope's.




It is Thanksgiving Month, which is LEGIT my jam.




Soooooo, my 'short -term goals' are as follows:




1. Gravy.
2. Paulette's Country Kitchen Pies.
3. What Do I Replace 'The Ref' With?
4. Flocked, natural tree vs. fake tree?






1. Here's the deal - I make an AMAZING homemade Turkey Gravy, thanks to Martha Stewart.  When I was 18, I realized my mother in law was using gravy out of a jar for Thanksgiving Dinner.  Granted, she was running 2 businesses, raising a teenage son, coddling an adult son, and dealing with an unanticipated granddaughter that she loved SO much, everyone thought it was HER child and not mine.
But gravy from a jar??
NOPE.
I watched the Martha Stewart show, learned how to make the best gravy EVAH, and have made it every year since then. 
Problem is, I frequently underestimate my post-Thanksgiving gravy needs.  There is always a RIVER of gravy on Turkey Day, but it falls short on Leftover Day, and 2nd Leftover Day, and Make Thanksgiving Soup Out of Leftovers Day.


This year, I am determined to make enough gravy to go the distance, without sacrificing flavor or texture.

Yesssssssssssssssssss!!!

Not saving the world by any means, but SUPER important to me.


2. My FABULOUS sister-in-law bought pies for a Thanksgiving dinner.  Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cheese Pie, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Silk Pie.  She got them from Paulette's Country Kitchen, which is the ONLY place to eat breakfast in 'town' (Nevada City or Grass Valley).  THOSE PIES.  Haven't stopped thinking about them since 2013.
I was soooooooo looking forward to having them at Thanksgiving this year when I went 'home for the holiday', but my trip home got derailed by a thermonuclear blast, which has made all of my plans for the next 3 months moot (or "moo, like a cow's opinion"!).  Ordering them and having them shipped at this late date is not an option, so I am going to attempt to recreate them up here, and will report the results to all of you.


3. Ummmmmm, for YEARS, "The Ref" has kicked off my holiday season, as it is one of my favorite holiday movies ever.  THIS YEAR, I don't know if I can watch it...in fact, I know I can't.  Kevin Spacey, who has been one of my favorite actors FOREVER is a filthy fucking pervert and a sexual predator and I can't watch a movie that has been a staple of mine, and my sister's, holidays for years.  It sucks.

This WAS a holiday staple....   :(

4. I am letting Lexi pick our Christmas décor this year, and she wants a flocked/white tree.


GROSS!


I loathe white trees, I loathe flocked trees (isn't it just a cancer-causing chemical shit storm??), I hate that look.


HOWEVER, Lex wants a white tree with lime, turquoise, fuchsia, silver, and purple, and that's what she is getting.


Much to my dismay.


These goals may not be earth-shaking, world-changing, or even beneficial to anyone but myself, but the prompt dictated the post, and you are allllll stuck with my selfishness.


But how is longing for more gravy a bad thing??

Yeah, yeah!