Cozy Friday

Hello! And Happy Black Cozy Friday! Rather than shop today, I prefer to stay home and snuggle on the couch with leftovers and Alfred Hitchcock movie marathons. But that is just me, so if you are shopping, I hope you got some good buys and maybe a Christmas coffee or two! Thanksgiving was lovely, filled with family and food. My day began like this...

( Homemade Cranberry Orange Scone by Madison)

And ended like this...

(Homemade Pumpkin pie by Peyton)

How thankful am I??

In between was this...

Thankful for every single minute. 

And for the fridge filled with leftovers.

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends.

I look forward to visiting with you all this weekend!

BillieJo

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Have a lovely Thanksgiving Day, my friends here in the United States. Tomorrow, our family will gather here and spend the entire afternoon creating a delicious meal that we will consume way too quickly. We will gather around the table with pumpkin pie and discuss what we are thankful for. We will look forward to the magical weeks between now and Christmas. We will eventually wipe the counters and turn off the kitchen lights before gathering in the family room and watching a Christmas movie by the tree's light. We will also remember the many Thanksgivings that came before with love and nostalgia because Thanksgiving can do that to you, don't you think? 

Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

When I think of things I am thankful for, I think of you all and the friends I have made here through the years.

BillieJo

This Or That...Thanksgiving Edition

 

Just wondering where you stand on these very important issues...

Do you prefer white meat or dark?

Does your turkey get juicy in a cooking bag or not?

Is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on at your house, or is it football all day?

Do you eat your special meal at lunchtime or later in the day?

Paper plates or the good stuff?

Do you get dressed up for dinner, or is it casual? 

And, for the most important one of all...Pumpkin pie or Apple pie?

My answers are down below!

Happy Wednesday!

For the record, my answers are...

Dark meat. Only and forever.

I always cook my turkey in a Reynolds cooking bag.

We used to watch the parade when the kids were little. Now, not so much.

We eat later in the day. I enjoy relaxing a bit before the cooking begins!

It depends on the year as far as the plates. Lately, we have used our fancy plates. 

We do not look Pinterst-worthy when we eat! We are comfy, though!

Pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Period!

BillieJo

There Was Turkey

 

Good Friday morning, my friends! I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Day! Our day was cozy, quiet, and filled with family, food, and fun. Our turkey dinner was a team effort. To this day, I don't know how my mother did it all those years. Thanksgiving morning, there was a semi-frozen turkey in the kitchen sink, and a few hours later, she served an entire Thanksgiving feast. Fortunately, I have several volunteers who help make the magic happen. I did set the table all by myself, though.

There were hiccups, of course. The pop-up timer had an off day, so the turkey needed extra time in the oven. This, of course, meant the side dishes needed to come out and wait a bit. But in the end, we sat down to a delicious meal and a wonderful evening. There was football, pumpkin pie, trivia games, and lots of laughter. Finally, the dishwasher hummed, the counters gleamed,  and the tree lights glistened. The Christmas season is here!

Mocha and I will be easing into it. How about you?

Happy Weekend, my friends.

Billie Jo

(Almost) Time For Turkey!

 Good morning! Well, tomorrow is the day. The day when many of us will perhaps prepare, season, baste, slice, enjoy, and then package up a turkey. Every year, as our family sits down to enjoy the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes all smothered in glistening gravy, we comment on the fact that we should and could make this meal other times during the year. We prepare some version of it at times, a chicken breast in the crockpot with some Hungry Jack mashed potatoes, a roasted chicken with Stove Top stuffing and doctored-up Heinz gravy, but we save the real thing for this one day in November. Tradition, I suppose. Whatever it is, I am looking forward to it. To all of it. And perhaps even more so, the leftovers!

I hope you all enjoy this Thanksgiving Day the way you like. Your day may not look like the pictures in magazines or the ones posted on Instagram. Maybe you carve the turkey in the kitchen and leave the gravy in a pot on the stove. Perhaps you don't dress in fancy clothes or forget the cranberry sauce that no one ever eats. It's ok. The only image of this day that matters is the one you create and hold in your heart. And who wants to clean a gravy boat anyway?!?

Have a blessed Thanksgiving Day, my friends. Enjoy and relax, for the holiday season has begun! And before you know it, these busy, exciting, festive days will be over and stored as memories in our hearts.

(Pinterest)

Before I go, on a sadder note, I want to share that I found late last night that the blogger friend I asked about on Friday, Linda, from Ramblings of a Retired Lady, passed on Sunday. I will miss her and pray for the family she loved so very much. 

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends.

I am thankful for you!

Billie Jo

Thanksgiving Thoughts

 

Hello, my friends. Happy Friday! Well, we are less than two weeks until Thanksgiving. Although we will transform our house into a cozy Christmas home next week, I decorated our little dining room for turkey day with the tablecloth and a few pieces I have that I like to set out so that Thanksgiving gets the recognition it deserves. 

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? Do you host, or do you travel to a loved one's to eat too much turkey and pumpkin pie? We will have Thanksgiving at our house along with all the kids. We eat later in the day so that Peyton, Chris, Rhett, and Kyrstin can enjoy the day with their families. And because I like watching the parade before I start in the kitchen!

I have gradually purchased everything we need for that day: The turkey, cooking bag, broth, poultry seasonings, and the canned goods we use, like green beans, yams, and pumpkin. I will wait until the week of to get the perishables like celery, onions, potatoes, and the stuffing bread. Madison and Nicolas will make the mashed potatoes and the sweet potato casserole, Peyton will bake the pies, and the rest of the meal comes together like magic. Ok. Not really. But after all these years, we have a pretty good system, and somehow it happens. 

It never looks like the images on Pinterest or on TV. We don't get all dressed up. The turkey isn't sitting on the table waiting for Steve to carve it with a shiny, sharp knife. It is carved and set on the counter, along with the side dishes. We keep the gravy in a pot on the stove and the butter in the tub on the table. After we eat, everything is organized into aluminum pans and put in the fridge. The dishes are washed, the counters wiped, and we all flop in front of the TV for a Christmas movie, usually Christmas with the Kranks. And then there is the pie. Thanksgiving to me is a cold slice of my Grandma Mil's pumpkin pie with whipped cream on top. Peyton has perfected the recipe, passed from my Gram to my mom to me, and now to her. 

Our tree will be up and our house decorated, but our Christmas season will not begin until the last piece of pumpkin pie is eaten on that Thanksgiving night. I am always thankful for that cozy day with the people I love. And for leftovers in my fridge.

Happy Weekend!

Billie Jo

Thanksgiving Days

In this upside down and inside out year, as we cling to some semblance of normalcy, we can look to Thanksgiving and Christmas for comfort and safety. Although different this year, the holidays, as we choose to spend them, will hopefully remind us that throughout history, families still ate turkey and decorated trees and played festive music in good times and bad. 

Tomorrow our little family will cook turkey and gravy (me), stuffing (Steve), sweet potato casserole (Madison), green bean casserole (Peyton), and mashed potatoes (Nicolas). We will also enjoy Peyton's pumpkin pie and, as a special treat, a blackberry pie celebrating Madison's 24th birthday! 

After cleanup, we will gather together and watch the Steelers on tv. I will most certainly think of my dear dad, who I miss terribly always, but especially this time of year, and will talk with my wonderful, amazing, loving mother who for so many years took a frozen bird from the refrigerator and somehow magically and effortlessly transformed it into the most delicious Thanksgiving meal ever.

Have a blessed, cozy, yummy Thanksgiving, my friends.

Celebrate your way.

Hello!

It's almost...

There is so much to do!

Have you put your turkey in the fridge to thaw?

Bought your stuffing bread?

Checked your pantry for green beans, corn, poultry seasoning, and pumpkin?

Washed your good china?

Ironed your tablecloth?

Just kidding!
Me either!

This is my current state.

I am thinking about those things.

And as my dear mother says, "It will all get done. And if it doesn't, so what?!"

Just relax and enjoy.

Especially this year.

And remember...

Thankful For

A cozy house to keep me warm ~ A blessed family to share it with ~ Cupboards filled with food to eat ~ Clean water to drink and cook and bathe with ~ Medicine for when we feel sick ~ A clean, safe, cozy place for my dear mom to live ~ A phone to use to call her every day ~ Puppies who love and snuggle ~ Friends who love me and my family too ~ Books on my bedside table ~ Coffee in my mug ~ Wonderful young men who love my girls ~ Freedom to worship at the churches we choose ~ And priests who offer Mass there ~ This country ~ And all the people who came before ensuring the life we live today.

A snuggly Mocha.

Just because.

Have a cozy, yummy, lovely Thanksgiving, my friends.

We will be relaxing, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, eating turkey and stuffing, and sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie. I hope you have a wonderful day, however you and your people spend it. 

Thankful for you!

Weekend Plans

I decided to bring back my "Weekend Plans" posts on Fridays, despite the fact that we usually have little to no plans on the weekends. Go figure. Anyway, this weekend ushers in the magical month of December, and I am happy about that. Sure a little voice in the back of my head reminds me of the gifts that need purchased and wrapped and all that, but now I am able to shush that voice with a cup of coffee and a warm Christmas throw. Thanks middle age. You are awesome!

This weekend Steve and Rhett will continue their hunt for the elusive big buck while the rest of us relax at home with Christmas music playing in the background. Saturday we have mass, and then Madison and Nicolas are attending a Holiday Ball and I plan on a perfectly cozy night of ironing in my Christmas jammies. 

Sunday is supposed to be warm here, so I have plans for the guys to decorate the outside of the house with some reindeer and ribbon. We never used to decorate outside, as our old house sat so far off the road that no one could see it. This house lends itself to some tasteful outside decor. Says the woman who has no intention of actually doing any of the decorating. Sunday night we will watch our Steelers and hope the right team shows up to play. You never know with those guys. I am thinking of making a pot of soup for dinner on Sunday too.

So that is that. And now a quick look at what we have been up to here in our cozy little home.

Thankful

Thankful for family vacations together~memories made~coming home~being home~families and loved ones~food in the fridge~water and heat and clothing~a church~ a priest~our faith~friends who are really family~health~physical and mental~puppies~coffee~and friends made in this wonderful world of Blogging.

Have a wonderful, cozy Thanksgiving Day, my friends!

We will be watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, cooking a turkey with all the fixings, sharing our first Thanksgiving in this house, eating pumpkin pie, and putting up our tree.

What are your plans?

Whatever they are, wherever you'll be, enjoy every moment with your people.

Thanksgiving And A Birthday

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving, my friends. Our day was lovely and yummy and relaxing. And then yesterday Madison had a birthday. Our firstborn turned twenty-one! We celebrated her with two of her favorites...turkey soup and blackberry pie.

We actually combined Thanksgiving with some Christmas this year, because Madison and Nicolas will be in Denmark for Christmas. It was a wonderful day...

We celebrated my girl turning 21 on Sunday with turkey soup, turkey sandwiches, and per Madison's request...a pie bar! Peyton made blackberry, peach crumb, and pumpkin pies for the special day.

Just like that, I have an adult daughter. 

It feels as if it were yesterday I first held her in my arms. It was dark and snowy outside that hospital room, but inside, I felt nothing but happiness, coziness, thankfulness and absolute joy as I finally realized my dream of being "Mommy".

On that November evening so many years ago, Steve and I became parents. And every single day since...with three more blessings here on Earth and one precious soul in Heaven...we rejoice in the gift of our vocation. And although our days now are quite different from those early ones filled with diapers, bottles, schedules, rocking chairs, lullabies, sticky pink medicine, giggles and Baby Magic, we are enjoying them just as much. 

So many wonderful blessings can be found in children who grow to become adults. Our lives are different, and while I sometimes long for those simple days of Sesame Street and chocolate milk, I am so enjoying the days of today...the days of Lifetime Movies and coffee and tea.

Happy Birthday, Madison.

Thank you for making me a Mommy.

Thank you for the privilege of raising you.

And thanks for all the makeup and hair help.

I love you, my firstborn.

Always.