Diana’s Mom, Clorinda, and a.k.a. Grammie joined us for Thanksgiving week. Part of her mission was to babysit Alicia after she had her wisdom teeth extracted on Tuesday and she did a very good job of that.
On Wednesday we braved the attic to bring down the Christmas stuff – tree, decorations, and garland. I think we scared Grammie going up and down the fold down steps in the garage to the attic – that didn’t stop her making sure she got some pictures.
The ornaments are carefully unpacked and sorted by various categories before being hung on the tree. That’s followed by a couple of days of “tweaking” the arrangement until it’s perfectly balanced (and this commentary is going to get me in trouble quickly – so that’s enough for now).
After dinner on Wednesday night, we unpacked some new ornaments. Here we are with Scot
tish Santa – we’ve named him “Peaty” since his bagpipes are bottles of Scotch whisky and my favorite single malts are the peaty flavored ones from Islay.
Diana and Grammie went to church on Thursday morning and then the Thanksgiving meal 
preparations got into full swing. A fifteen pound turkey was prepped and set to bake in the oven. Diana made some very tasty stuffing with a combination of regular and spicy Italian sausage, corn, and celery. It was a huge hit and I’m still enjoying the leftovers. Sweet potatoes were baked, potatoes mashed, and green beans cooked up. A thoroughly delicious and successful first Thanksgiving meal cooked at home for Diana and me.
The timing worked out perfectly with lunch over for the start of the Cowboys game. Another great win to take the record for the season to 10-1 (another new winning streak record for the franchise).
Grammie headed home on Friday afternoon and then we made an impromptu decision to go and see the Grammy (slightly different spelling) award winning Rebirth Brass Band at the Granada. They must be quite proud of the award because that’s how the name was printed on the tickets. Alicia drove us and seemed to really enjoy the show. We were expecting a hundred or so folks at the show like when we see them at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans. The word was definitely out though as the Granada was close to sold out with a lot of folks looking to enjoy some classic New Orleans brass band music after Thanksgiving. Here’s a video – you can see the crowd really enjoying themselves to the almost chaotic sound of the band.
On Sunday chauffeur Alicia took us to brunch at Smoke in Plano where Diana and I shared our usual pulled pork eggs Benedict and a side of the cheesy hominy grits – as delicious as always.
Then it was over to the Willow Bend mall to select some tags from the Salvation Army angel tree. Diana and I both separately selected young kids whose “need” was a car seat and “want” was a musical toy – a piano specifically for Diana’s. Shopping is so easy with Amazon and we found what we needed within a few minutes of arriving home. The mall was remarkably quiet with no trouble parking or navigating. The challenge will be getting the gifts back there after they arrive.
Off to finish Christmas decorating and then to reflect on a very enjoyable and relaxing week of Thanksgiving.