Jay and I spent Thusday night (Thanksgiving) in the kitchen after I got off work, then picked up where we left off on Friday morning. We prepared our traditional Thanksgiving feast, and both of my children, Lauren and Adam, were here, plus Dylan and his dad (Keith, Lauren's fiance) and a friend of Lauren's were here to share with us. Everyone ate as much as they wanted, and we have plenty of leftovers, so we won't have to cook again for a while. Lauren has her engagement ring, and is going to be married soon. She's not chosen a wedding, so will likely go to a Justice of the Peace. We'll see.

The menu was fully traditional, using my grandmother's recipes, plus some of my own. We had turkey and stuffing (a triple recipe of stuffing, part of which went into the turkey and the majority of which was baked in a separate disposable foil pan), mashed potaotes, candied yams, asparagus, green bean casserole, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, black olives, dinner rolls, devilled eggs, sour cream and garlic chip dip, and desserts (lemon merengue pie, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, toll house cookies, banana bread). It truly was worth every minute of the time we spent putting it together. Jay and I also enjoy leftovers, and will be putting some into the freezer most likely.

We took a lesson from my grandmother (she never owned a dishwasher in her life) and cleaned up as we went along, so we've run the dishwasher numerous times during the preparation and clean up. We only had two loads of dishes left for this morning, which isn't bad at all. One of those loads will be the roasting pan, which is big enough to fill the dishwasher by itself.

We decided to sleep in this morning. At some point today or tomorrow, we will begin planning Christmas decorating. We just need to keep in mind that Dylan is almost two, and into everything...

No, not the kind computer users get nervous about. I'm talking about the real deal: Toll House Cookies, made from scratch. I've just made a batch, and they are all ready for company on Thanksgiving. I'm going to freeze them until the day before our feast. I'm giving a dozen as part of a holiday gift exchange at the office in the first week of December, but they will easily store in the freezer for up to eight weeks. I used the recipe from the back of the bag of chocolate morsels, but if you don't have one, you can see the recipe at the Nestle's site.

Next up: homemade banana bread. It will also go into the freezer, and all I have left to bake (for now) is a cake and two pies.

This is one of my all time favorite times of the year. Unlike some people I know, I love cooking for holidays, and the more elaborate the menu, the better I like it. It's the ultimate in creativity.

It was a bittersweet day. Yesterday, November 4, was our seventh wedding anniversary. I had to work my normal 8 hour shift during the day, but did not have to work late. I was working, and got thinking about the wedding. That led to thinking about the videotape of the wedding that we have. And that led to tears. My late grandmother stood in for Jay's mother (who couldn't be here from West Virginia) to light the candle for Jay that his mother would have lit. My mother lit the other one for me. Thinking about my grandmother made me cry, because November 4 is also the third anniversary of her funeral. Fortunately, the tears didn't last too long, so I was able to keep working.

Since money is really tight, I didn't expect material presents. Jay had some plans I didn't know about, though. He sent me an e card of a kitten (his nickname for me) holding a rose, and wrote, "I'm hoping for seven more (decades, that is." Also we got cute e cards from his mom and sister.

We planned to go out for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. While I was in the shower, Jay went to call another restaurant to ask some questons, and seemed to take a while doing so, but I didn't think much of it. When we were ready to leave, we found that a neighbor had left his vehicle blocking the end of the ramp to the parking lot, so Jay finally went in search of someone to move the vehicle, and we were on our way. When we arrived at the restaurant, we had to wait for someone to move a van so we could park. Finally, we made it into the restaurant. I'm looking forward to a nice dinner for two...and Lauren, Dylan and Keith (Lauren's fiance and Dylan's dad) walked in! They had dinner with us, which was great fun. Dylan enjoyed fingerpainting with the cheese dip, and even ate a few chips and some of my dinner as well. And, Dylan really can sign "please" and "thank you". He wore his halloween costume into the restaurant, since we hadn't seen it yet, but it was quickly removed because it was too warrm.

At the end of the meal, all of the waiters came to our table with dessert, and announced to everyone that it was our anniversary, which was a surprise that Jay arranged. They even used chocolate syrup to spell "Happy Anniversary" on the rim of the dessert plate.

The part I appreciate most is Jay's thoughtfulness in doing these things. He told Lauren I had been a little sad because of my grandmother, and seeing her and Dylan and Keith would help me feel better, which it certainly did. None of the things he thought of past dinner, which we'd already planned for anyway, cost anything, which only made them more meaningful. I truly did feel loved, cherished and valued.

Then, after dinner, it was home to spend some quiet romantic time; we even had champagne. I don't think I could have asked for a better anniversary, on balance.

Welcome to November. Already we're beginning to plan for Thanksgiving. Menus to plan, shopping to do, baking...it's one of my favorite times of the year. This year as we've done for the last couple of years, we will have our holiday dinner not on Thanksgiving itself, but the day after. I have to work on Thanksgiving Day, but I have an earlier shift than usual, so when I get home, there will be time to do last minute prep for the next day. I am so looking forward to having family here. Lauren, her fiance Keith, and Dylan will be here, and Adam may get to come if he has time off. My parents will be invited also. Jay's family is in West Virginia, but they will be here in spirit, I'm sure. I'm thinking of doing extra baking, for Christmas gifts. By the end of the month, we'll be planning our Chistmas decorating. The girls (Duchess and Darla) have been really good about not wrecking the decorations; a well placed spray bottle helps curb their tendency to poke their noses into everything and wreak havoc in the process.

I finally did get one pesky post completed for another blog. I'd been struggling with it for two weeks. Most of my posts are much easier to write than that. I will likely be reformatting my hard drive before the end of the month.