Oh My Ears & Whiskers! The Turkey Cometh

Not even two weeks until Thanksgiving!

Meaning, a relative of one of these guys is on its way to That Old House.

Wild turkey,wandering aimlessly near our house. Silly bugger - it's November. Flee!

Because eventually, all November roads lead to this:

 This is motivating.

Yes, this wakes up my hostessing DNA and gets all those

holy-monkeys-get-your-act-together genes percolating merrily.

Because we won't just have turkeys here on Thanksgiving.

No turkeys in this group!  :-)

We'll have people.  Aged from 22 months to 88 years.

This year, I do not have a long, elaborate, impossible
To-Be-Done-By-Thanksgiving List.

Nope, this year, it's pretty pared down.
In no particular order, here it is:

Polish the old silver.  The easy way.
(You don't know the easy way?  I'll show you.  Tomorrow.)

Clean.
At least enough so as not to frighten the guests.

Plan the menu (yes, because Thanksgiving foods change

so much year to year), send Howard to shop (he likes this, or so he claims),

and then do the cooking, from cranberry sauce to pies.

Get the Thanksgiving china out of the breakfront.
Actually, that will be Annie's job when she gets home.
(I wish I had her home for days beforehand!  She cooks.)


Speaking of the dining room, I better include
"clearing off the table" on my TBDBT List.
Ha ha! Gotcha!
This was October 2010, when we were rejiggering the kitchen, and 
all the kitchen stuff was all over the freakin' house.  Including here:

We still don't have matching dining room chairs, but that's okay.
No one coming has matching bottoms, either.  :-)

I am tempted to add "sew dining room draperies" to my List this year,
as I have had it on my TBDBT List for years, but I am not including it.
After all, don't the windows look nice, all nekkid?

If the draperies get done, that will be a lovely surprise.  For me.
Do elves ever show up at night and sew curtains?  Please tell me Yes.
 

So, pared down, this year's TBDBT List is:

Clean, shop, cook.
(Yep, that covers a lot of ground.)

Change the chandelier lightbulbs, an annual event.

Find all the table linens, platters, wineglasses,
and the cords to the big coffee urns.
(More of a challenge than you might think.)

Fetch guests coming by plane or train.

Plan table centerpieces.
(I pretty much always forget this.)

Bathe the dogs before Turkey Day itself.
(This reminder is hard-won; don't ask.)

Don't poison anyone.
(So far, a perfect record on this one.)

Yup.  That pretty much covers it.
Mostly, just the basics.  And the fun stuff, like cooking.

What's on your T.B.D.B.T. List?
Cass

And thanks to Karen at The Graphics Fairy for the vintage images.
Her website is amazing, and addictive.  Go see!

I Elect Not To Fret

Today, here in these United States,
it is Election Day. 

E PLURIBUS UNUM.  The phrase suggested 'way back in 1776, for
the Great Seal of the United States.  Latin for "out of many, one," it describes the coming-together
of the 13 former colonies, which had strong regional differences, into a cohesive, purposeful whole.
It's still a part of the Great Seal.  You can read more (lots more!) about the Seal here.

Anywho, I'll vote today.

This isn't a presidential election year, so there isn't the great

excitement of nationwide voting, but that doesn't mean it doesn't count.

Me, getting ready to cast my ballot.

 Now, about that fretting mentioned in the title. . . .

You know my Thanksgiving "to do" list?

The TBDBT?

This year, I'm letting it go.

This year, I'm a bit hobbled with a bum knee, and spending

way too much time with that knee immobile.

Meaning I am doing way too much sitting.  Yes, annoying.

Going to the doc today.
Hoping for a quick fix!

With just 3 weeks till Howard heads out on his annual

Turkey Hunt, and brings home a whopper of a Tom,

those "to-do" items are most likely not going to get "to-done."

Howard does love his knickers.

The important stuff will get done; it always does.

Cooking, cleaning, more cooking . . . . Those things we'll do.

The old silver will be polished.

We'll get out the Thanksgiving dishes.

Cranberry sauce will boil merrily away on the stove.

And I'll make the walnut pie - just one this year.

We don't want a lot of leftovers.

On the great day, Howard will host - in his Turkey Shirt.

And most importantly, That Old House will be full of people.  Well fed people.  :-)

Thanksgiving Day 2009

But as for that TBDBT List,

for yet another Thanksgiving,

the dining room chairs will not have matching seat covers.

And it's a pretty good bet those draperies in there will not be sewn.

Unless Howard has heretofore hidden talents.

 And you know what?  Those things aren't important to anyone but, probably, me.

So I'm letting them go.  I'm allowed.  Kind of amazing.

You can find me here, today, un-laxing,

being all Lazy Lady Liberty on Election Day.

I seem to be in danger of a wardrobe malfunction.

Fellow citizens, please vote.

It is, absolutely, the least we can do to show our

gratitude in this month of Thanksgiving.

Happy Tuesday!  Keep an eye on that Thanksgiving

Countdown Clock on my sidebar.  Yikes! -- Cass

Vintage graphics courtesy of Karen, at The Graphics Fairy.

The TBDBT List, and Too Much of a Good Thing

Now, I am not complaining.

But . . . 
I am getting a little tired of living
in the midst of a roadside flea market. 

This situation is entirely my own fault.

I'm pretty good at finding lovely old bits of furniture and smalls

at auctions, estate sales, thrift shops, and on Craigslist.
Sometimes, too good.

 Oddball, orphaned tables, chairs, chests, rockers, and beds,

along with clocks and china and mirrors and artwork,

are squatting all over the house.  Not even paying rent.

Sofas?  We have three needing new homes!

I'm covered in sadness.

No, I am not.  You catch me fibbing.

I'm covered in thankfulness.

How lucky, how amazing, to have the problem of abundance.

**********************************
Although speaking of abundance,
Thanksgiving is a terrifying mere 34 days away.

I can't put a big table full of relatives in the dining room

if I still have it full of these interlopers.

 Time to get serious.

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It's time for the annual T.B.D.B.T. List,

or,

the To Be Done By Thanksgiving List.

I have been making one of these monsters for years.  And years.

"Wishes" about sums up the TBDBT.

My list is probably quite similar to the one penned by the hardy

souls who landed at Plymouth Rock back in 16-something-or-other.

1)  Don't thee die.

2)   Make thee friends with the locals.

3)  Invite thy new friends in for a nice cuppa.

4)  (Should be #2-1/2) Build thee a house to invite them into.

*********************************

Okay, so my TBDBT Lists are a little less ambitious than this,

although one year I included "Build A Garage," but crossed it out

before my husband could see it and get his hopes up.

2010 - Howard & Turkey Shirt

2011 - Howard & Turkey Shirt

I am way, way behind this year.

August and September were not my most productive months,

so I have streamlined my list.

Here it is, the slimmed-down 2012

To Be Done By Thanksgiving List.

1.  Send the orphaned furniture on its way, even if that means to a storage unit.

2.  Finish sewing the new draperies for the dining room, with the fabric bought during the TBDBT craze of 2010.  (Not fibbing.)

3.  Install the rest of the matchstick blinds in the Study, which includes trimming 4 of them.  

4.  Call Dave the Plumber and say Yes to a new upstairs bathtub, and also a new powder room faucet.  Ask him if a food disposal is possible in the kitchen.  Or, just outright buy his 4 kids all their Christmas presents, and his wife a nice warm mink.

5.  Touch up paint - kitchen, study, upstairs hall bath.

6.  Relax and realize that Thanksgiving will come, regardless of whether there are new draperies in the dining room, and everyone will be gently stuffed with good food.  Which brings me to my last make-sure-to-do point:

7)  Don't poison anyone.

A beautiful turkey with a cleverly disguised
ICBM strapped to its back.
The Commies will never see this one coming!
(A little joke there for us Cold War kids.)

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Adorable graphics courtesy of Karen, The Graphics Fairy.  Visit her amazing blog here!

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Link Parties!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!

Miss Mustard Seed hosts the Furniture Friday Feature.  It's a must visit -- Click here!

We may or may not head East to the beach house.
I'm thinking That Old House is insisting we stay home,
and tend to her needs.  She's such a boss.  -- Cass

A To-Do List (Mostly) To-Done

I did something dangerous today.
I went back and looked at my To-Do List from before the wedding.
And it wasn't as painful as I feared it might be.
Here's the List, from my June 8th post:

(June 8, 2011 To-Do List)

1. Getting the house painted (underway today, with scraping).

2. Weeding and mulching the front beds and the driveway slope (scheduled for next week).

3. Installing privacy fence outside sunroom patio.

4. Daughter Anne to make Alida's veil and headpiece, and fashion the fascinators for bridesmaids.

5. Mother -- that would be me -- to bake Norwegian wedding cake (efforts to buy a satisfactory

  Kransekake proved unsuccessful) and bake a perfect 4-strand braided loaf of Challah.

(Who wants to come and help bake?  Bring wine.  Lots.)

And . . . also:

6. Send After Party invitations, and order the food for it.

7. Bring truckloads of stuff to Goodwill, and not bring anything home from there.

8. Run up those danged curtains on my new sewing machine, then put the machine away!

9. Check in with photographer, makeup and hair stylists, Pastor, organist, florist, caterer . . .

and last but not least:

10. Anne and Alida to take one last sisters' overnight road trip together.

And except for #8, and 1/2 of #5, it all got done, and more beside.

#8 will get done soon; I am not fond of the nekkid window look in the dining room.

As for #5, I did not make my own loaf of Challah; it was too humid the week

before the wedding.   But I did make the Kransekake,

 which was a much more daunting task!  I've never been frightened by pastry before.

Daughter Anne made her sister's veil, and trimmed it in pearls.

 How lucky for the bride that her sister is a costume designer!

Daddy and one of his girls.

Anne also made 4 of these, called fascinators,

 for the bridesmaids to wear in their hair.  They sparked up the navy dresses.

She was going to add some netting, but decided the only veiling that day should be on the bride herself.

The house got painted, just in the nick of time,

although we couldn't walk on the porch till 2 days after the wedding.

Can you see the broom across the front steps, to block feet?

 Hey, nothing's perfect, y'know?

The driveway slope was weeded and mulched, and looked great until . . .

Torrential rain 2 days before the wedding washed gullies of mulch off the slope

and across the driveway.  Oh well, as I already said, Nothing's perfect.

We got the privacy fence installed, just in time.

Monday morning, following the After Party on Saturday night, and the Open House on Sunday.

But it was done on that same day of torrential rain, so we had no cleanup time.

A little fresh sawdust on the ground never hurt anyone, right?

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The weekend before the wedding, we weeded and weeded and weeded . . .

and then, encouraged by the 4 days of rain beforehand and the steamy hot temperatures,

the weeds came roaring back and soared to new heights just in time to join the wedding festivities.

The weather didn't clear till the morning of the wedding.

By then, we were out of time to weed or clean the driveway, or do much of anything except

bow to the inevitable.  Nothing is perfect, after all, and gardens have weeds sometimes,

and driveways have dirty mulch smeared across them sometimes,

and freshly painted porches have tacky paint sometimes,

and you go with the flow and enjoy the celebration anyway.

Which we did.

And so did they.

Our newlyweds are now in China, on a 3-week honeymoon that began this past weekend.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?  -- Cass