Thanksgiving
At home, we are getting ready for the holidays. The fridge upstairs is packed full and ready to go this week. The turkey is sitting there awaiting its fate.. Thursday morning it will be put in the oven and be eaten along with the stuffing and other sides.. At work I’ve been pretty busy getting the store well stocked for Thanksgiving with all of the canned vegetables including the yams. Lots of pumpkin pie filling, flour, and sugar line the end caps and displays.
As for our plans, we’ll be staying home and enjoying our turkey. I work Wednesday to Saturday; therefore, it’s better for me to stay home than to travel. Originally, I was off Wednesday but this change works out better for me as I won’t have to lay down during the day on Thanksgiving and I can get up a little bit earlier to enjoy some of the Lions game. We are expecting a small turnout with just my Somerset family and maybe a few others for dinner. This is the fourth year in a row that I’ll be home and six out of the last seven (one of the years being due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Now that the bed has been moved out of the spare room, that makes room for extra seating on Thursday and for Christmas Eve.
Holiday Viewing
Thursday is our normal night to watch the Holiday Baking Championship. It airs too late for me to watch on Mondays since I usually work. With the holiday on our usual watch night, we plan to push it up to Tuesday night this week. I’m on season two of Gilmore Girls and plan to watch The Bracebridge Dinner episode today. This week I’m going to check out some of the Thanksgiving episodes from the series, including “A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving”. I watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving over the weekend and I plan to check out Garfield’s Thanksgiving sometime this week.
The Bracebridge Dinner is a holiday-themed episode and is one of the best in the series.
Decorating
I’ve been in my Christmas music era since the beginning of November, ramping up my listening as the month goes on. Just a little bit at a time so I don’t get burned out before Thanksgiving. Just this morning as I was on my way to the gym, I listened to the Carpenters’ Christmas album, having began putting it in my rotation a few years ago. A few of their songs are part of the Christmas music playlist on the radio. With Thanksgiving upon us, I am about to enter my Christmas movie era.
Sunday, we got the decorations out of the attic in preparation for the big decorating spree on Black Friday. Last year on Christmas Eve, my cousin posted on her blog about how nice our house looked, saying it was decorated “to the nines”. It’s then we’ll begin to put up the Christmas tree as well. We previewed the upcoming holiday with a small desktop tree in the living room.
I began the Christmas movie season a few years ago with the sequel to A Christmas Story. That may be in the plans for Black Friday. That, or kick it off with Elf. I also want to watch a few of the Christmas-themed Office episodes as well. Yes, it is the Committee to Plan Parties.
Early December
Last year the first week of December saw me take vacation. It was cold, we had a fresh blanket of snow, and I was getting over a cold that I caught between my Hershey trip and Thanksgiving. This year, I’ll work and luckily it’s the calm before the Christmas storm. My likelihood for attending Winter TLI on December 6 are probable to 100%, erring on the side of I’m definitely going. In fact, my registration just went through this morning. With next Friday or Saturday open, I also need to think about when I’m going to do my Christmas shopping.
Market District visit in the cards?
That first weekend sounds like a perfect time to get some Christmas shopping done. Last year I did some at Westmoreland Mall and the next day went to South Hills Village to finish it. I’m hoping to do that again although I have shown interest in that new shopping district down in East Liberty. Recently, Giant Eagle opened a new Market District and a new Barnes and Noble is about to open. I’m impressed that they are doing well in the digital age and still opening stores even in 2025. I’ll check my schedule for that week and see what the best fit will be. Time to make that list and check it twice.
Wrapup–Sunday visit to Cutie’s
Finally, I made the most of my Sunday off with a trip to Cutie’s. I was in the festive mood and recently tried the Peppermint Mocha Latte. Up next on my Christmas coffee agenda was something with Gingerbread. I was surprised at how steady it was for 3:00pm on a Sunday. I saw a group of four enjoying their Gilmore Girls coffee flight. I took my drink outside and enjoyed the seasonal 53 degree day. I took the scenic route home driving down PA 130 through downtown Jeannette. There’ll be some more of those as we go through December, maybe into North Versailles.
The schedule change means that I’ll switch my next visit to Small Business Saturday. I’m thinking about getting the Cutie Tree Latte. This is the one that comes with the Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cake. I have some of those in my fridge. In addition, I have that Little Debbie creamer in mind and may buy a bottle of it before I head home. With plenty of Peppermint Mocha, I may try this closer to Christmas.
Stylish 🍒 