post Thanksgiving post...

I had planned to put up a Thanksgiving post before we left... but alas, it didn't happen. So... this will be a post-Thanksgiving post.

 

Thanksgiving dinner

Our family get-together at my daughter's house was minus the boys and their families. Oldest son and his family celebrated Thanksgiving in Hawaii due to distance and youngest son and his celebrated at home due to an unexpected turn of events in his wife's family. 

But still, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner (with lots and lots of leftovers due to the shortage of expected mouths).  But between us, we put a pretty good dent in the Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn bread, cranberry sauce, etc... not to mention desserts. 

Our daughter graduated with an Interior Design degree and worked as  a designer for a few years after college.  But after moving from Dallas, she started working as a Closer for Title companies and has continued to do this. However... she is obviously a designer at heart as she is constantly changing things in her home. It is always a work in progress... painting and repainting, redoing the decor, etc. 

From Thursday's Thanksgiving decor with pumpkins and Fall leaves, etc. we moved on to Christmas decor by Friday night.

Thursday's Thanksgiving pumpkins

Christmas is infiltrating the room by Friday evening

By Friday evening, we had 4 woodland Christmas trees... 2 owl trees, one a dove tree, and one with the possibility of being an acorn and squirrel tree...

But the weather was beautiful... and one can't stay inside when the outdoors beacons.

pond in back of house

daughter and I in hammock by pond

front porch 

scenery in front of porch with dog, chickens, and horse
(hazy - have to look closely)

Later we watched grand daughter working one of the horses...

 

Willow

Then there's  Willow (who is getting up in age) as well as Coco - cat in picture below that is our Tux and Julie's sibling.

some chickens following us around

Coco

All in all, it was a very nice visit and even though the boys and their families weren't there with us, we did call, text, and send pictures to share. So thanks to the marvel of technology, we did get to visit virtually.


Needless to say, Tux, Julie, and Ghost were not happy to be left home alone for those few days, and although they were well taken care of by our neighbor, they were very happy to have us return. To make up for it, we went out and bought their Christmas tree Sunday afternoon. Our cats love having a real tree in the house and spend a good bit of the Christmas season under it, climbing it, etc. 
 
Hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving too! Now that we're back home, I will catch up on reading the blogs I missed... 

Sunday before Thanksgiving...

I've been seeing a lot of Black Friday ads lately. Don't know why they're starting so early in the holiday season, but not surprised. I hardly every participate in any of the shopping hype... but since we are going to our daughter's place in the hill country of Texas sometime soon and since she has horses, chickens, dogs, cats, etc. I thought I could use some boots.

Nothing fancy... my wellingtons would do if they hadn't already fallen apart. But I found these on a Penney's Black Friday site and with the sale they would be reduced from $80 to $35. Now that's a pretty good bargain. So I ordered them. Here's a picture:

I haven't had boots since my Animal Science days at LSUBR. (except for my wellies). But these look like they will fit my current need: rounded toe, low heel, and not too high up on my leg.... should protect against copperheads as well as other things one may step on while walking around acreage.

And I don't own that many shoes... not a shoe person. I own tennis shoes (white Reeboks) and some fur lined boots for winter. I do have some shoes left over from my work days, but never wear them anymore... probably need to pass them on.

At the moment I'm cooking a pot roast for our Sunday dinner. I've over-stuffed it with garlic, seasoned it with salt, pepper, parsley, and bay leaves, and cooking it along with carrots, onions, and potatoes. Later this evening  I'll make a gravy and serve all of it over brown rice. 

Oh, I don't know if you remember, but we have had a tiny little possum come by almost daily for several months now. Well, he is rounding out and looking really cute these days. I took this picture this morning as he drank out of the large red feral cats' bowl.

he's filling out nicely

older pic (when he was smaller)

Also we bought our inside cats (Tux, Julie, and Ghost) one of those canvas cubes... it's sort of an add-on type structure (like they have for gerbils). You can get another cube and add a long tube between them. Right now we just bought the cube and the 3 of them have been taking turns in it. Tux can be a bit of a bully when he wants to be. He will sit there and stare at either of the girls until they leave. 

Julie in cube

They will tire of it eventually and then the outside cats will inherit it. This is usually what happens with things we buy for them. But at least the purchases get double use.

Better close this for today. Tonight is the Durrells in Corfu and Poldark on PBS!

a quick trip home...

Cousins at Mr. Ed's in New Orleans

Just spent a week down in New Orleans visiting family and friends.  I had a wonderful time with my cousins (we are the older generation now).

I basically ate my way through the week. Fantastic food! The two things I miss most about my home-town: family and the food. Let's see - while I was there, I had a fried catfish po-boy,  a roast beef po-boy, red beans and rice, blackened catfish with angel hair pasta and garlic cream sauce, cafe au'lait, beignets, and brought home Angelo Brocato's authentic sesame seed cookies! DH and I love these cookies!

Italian seed cookies

One of my cousins picked me up at the airport and three of us went out to lunch together the next day at a local restaurant that is very New Orleans... in a little neighborhood right off Canal St. and Carrollton Ave. The name of the restaurant is Katie's.... and the food was fantastic. This is where I had my fried catfish po-boy. 

Katie's

From there we went down the street a bit to Angelo Brocato's Italian Bakery (which is also an icon - think that's the right word) in New Orleans. There we had delicious fresh cafe au'lait. I had an Italian sesame seed cookie with mine while my cousins had spumoni ice-cream. Perfect! 

Cousins Darnell and Barbara

The blackened catfish with angel hair pasta was at New Orleans Food and Spirits on the old Hammond Hwy close to the Lakefront. We've been there before and it's always good. Good gumbo too. And the roast beef po-boy and red beans was at Mr. Ed's - another local neighborhood find.... (which I will definitely return to). It was in Bucktown.

S-I-L and Cousin at New Orleans Food and Spirits on Old Hammond Hwy

DH loves real authentic roast beef po-boys. I'd never had one. I always go for oyster po-boy or fried catfish po-boys. So I thought I'd try one. It was great!! Messy, but great! Wonderful juicy tender roast beef with gravy and crispy delicious french bread. I will get it again. And of course I had to have red beans and rice. However, it's not easy to find red beans and rice in New Orleans unless it's a Monday. Tradition again. But if you google it, it will tell you where it's served only on Monday, and where you can get it on other days.

My college room-mate (at LSUBR 1964) and I spend Friday together... reminiscing... first at Angelo Brocata's for cafe au'lait, then off to City Park to walk. I love City Park... with it's old oak trees, moss, and lagoons. We walked and talked.

City park

Then we went to sit by the lakefront... (lake Ponchatrain)

my friend and the seagulls on the lakefront

We lived very close to the lakefront when I was growing up, so I miss the water... and love to drive or stop by whenever I'm in town.

So that was my week... family, food, and reminiscing!  Now I'm home again in Texas thinking that Thanksgiving and Christmas are both just around the corner. Am I ready? No... but I will be.

The cats were glad to see me. DH says that Tux walked around the house the first few days crying and looking for me. But I'm back 

and he's fine. 

sad Tux

I will also mention that when I fly, I only take an carry-on bag that goes on top and a large quilted bag that fits under the seat. I've always done this as I don't like to check bags. Anyway, what I've noticed lately (now that I'm getting 'up in age') is that picking up that carry-on bag and hoisting it over my head to the overhead luggage compartment is getting a little difficult. If there's a man around, I can always ask for help... but this trip... no one was around but the flight attendant and she was not young herself... and informed me that she had a bad shoulder. I was able to do it, but I know as time moves on, this might not be the case. Oh well, just one of those moments that give one pause...

Have a wonderful week and as always, thanks for visiting!


 

an after Halloween post...

Feral cats out front on Halloween

This will be a short post as I will be 'out of pocket' until next weekend. Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! We had about 2 dozen kids come by for candy... not a lot, but better than last year. The weatherman predicted colder weather and rain... but we had none of it by our house. 

We removed the cat bed (and wind buffer) before the kids came, but the cats weren't too affected by the Halloween activity. They would move off as the kids ran for the door, then return in between trick or treating (we told the cats that they should go around to the backyard to stay safe, but they didn't seem too worried).

Oh, I did make some 'tea cakes' for Halloween that looked a bit like bats. But since I couldn't force myself to make cookies black, I called them my exotic white snow bats!

... Snowbats on left without powdered sugar. 

... Snowbats on right with powdered sugar

 


I also missed 2 Saturdays at the Studio due to a stomach bug, so I'm a bit behind on getting things glazed. But I did try spray glazing this past Saturday. It seemed to work well. My plan is to spray glaze some mugs one color, and then use a detail sprayer and very lightly spray glaze around the rim in another color. We'll see how that turns out. Since Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and the Studio will be closed that weekend, there aren't many workable classes left. It may be that I'll have to finish up next semester... which is fine with me.

Well, have a good week... Happy Veterans Day! and as always thanks for visiting!