Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Thanksgiving long weekend has drawn to a close
and today it was back to work, back to Weight Watchers
(Gulp!!) and back to Curves. Why do these long weekends
always seem to fly by faster then you can blink?? It's so sad.

Above is the table set for dinner on Sunday afternoon. We
can't set the table earlier then the day of an event because
the cats would probably have everything on the floor or
flying through the air before we could do anything to stop
them. They chase each other across the table you see.
The little angels.

Dinner was the usual Thanksgiving fare of Turkey,
stuffing (made by my sister in law - it was a new recipe
and very, very tasty), mashed potatoes, cauliflower in a
white sauce, and gravy. Dessert was pumpkin pie with
real whipped cream. Delicious!

Monday night DH and I warmed up the left overs and every
thing tasted as good or better then it did on Sunday night.
Considering all the food that I ate during the weekend, and
yes that includes pumpkin pie with whipped cream two nights
in a row, I am amazed that tonight's weight in at Weight
Watchers went better then I had any right to expect. I lost a
whole pound!! Hey, I'll take it.


Well, nothing new on the stitching front to show you.
I worked on Phoebe's sampler a bit today, but there's
nothing worth showing right now. So, to make your
visit worth while, I'll show off two very old projects
from many, many years ago. Stitched on Aida I'm
afraid, but I still love them none the less. They are
designs by Alma Lynn.


I stitched these in the early 90's, when I first learned to
cross stitch and I eventually had them framed and hung
them in a spare bedroom.


Last week I got a wonderful surprise in the mail. Cathey
of Pumpkin Patch and Co. sent this to me, along with a
beautiful card and a hand written note that had me all
teary eyed and smiles at the same time. Needless to say
I am just over the moon. Thank you Cathey for your
generosity and most especially for your friendship.


Thought you all might like to see what I did last week.
As part of my rejuvenated look I decided that it was time
to get rid of the white strands of hair that were beginning
to take over my head, and get my hair colored for the
first time. Nothing drastic for this first attempt, it's
a rinse instead of a dye, so in about six weeks it'll be
pretty much gone I suppose. It allows me to see
results and decide if I like it or not before committing
myself to a more long term change. And yes, I like it.
I got it trimmed too, but not too much because I'm
growing it out to one longer length.


Finished this book early last week and I strongly
recommend it to everyone. The Help has been
receiving generally good reviews and strong endorsements
from both professional reviewers and from reviewers
in the book blogging world. I'll let a quote from the
author's website give you an idea of what the book is
about.

“Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from

Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother

will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally

find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her,

but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white

child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who

died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl

she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in

Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her

tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position

working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new

boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will

nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will

put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the

lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.”

(description taken from author's website:

http://kathrynstockett.com/book)

First time novelist Kathryn Stockett has written
a compelling and enthralling book from the
point of view of three different characters, two of
whom (Minny and Aibileen) are black women
serving as domestic help during the early 1960's
in small town Jackson, Mississippi. The third voice
in the book belongs to Skeeter, a young, well to do
white woman recently returned home from College.

I loved this book, start to finish, and found it hard
to put it down once it was done and to leave the three
main characters behind. I highly recommend this one.


Thanksgiving is a time for families to get together.
And in our case it's a time for Rupert to get a chance
to snuggle with his favorite grandmother.


And to sprawl at her feet in ecstasy and adoration.

And in general just to hang out and be together.

What a guy !!

Cheers!