The little white tree in the Den. This isn’t capturing the lights all that well, but they’re tiny and lovely. I do like this new tradition; setting up this little tree before Thanksgiving so we can get a little taste of Christmas before we officially decorate.

Our neighbors across the street sometimes have outdoor Christmas lights up and sometimes don’t. It varies from year to year. But this year, they got them up early – maybe two weeks ago? I suspect they, like most of us, really need some Christmas this year.

We had a lovely day yesterday. And boy, was dinner fabulous! The biscuits were the “best ever” according to Don, and we had the usual vegetarian “turkey” roast, mashed potatoes and veggie gravy, along with steamed carrots, and jellied cranberry slices. And pumpkin pie to top it all off, by which point I was incredibly overstuffed. Then we watched “Stranger Things.” Perfect.

Today, after having this task on my Things to Do list for four days in a row, I am finally going to put up our outdoor Christmas lights.

Tomorrow, or today, I’m not sure, I’ll start to decorate the dollhouses.

I hope you had a lovely day yesterday and I trust you’re going to take it easy today.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

I was out and about yesterday looking for vintage ornaments, a couple to replace the ones I broke last year when we were decorating the tree, and some smaller ornaments for something that I’ll tell you about soon. Then I did some grocery shopping for Thanksgiving.

While I was scouring our local antique store for ornaments, I saw this:

A large 10″ vase in the Snowberry pattern. Roseville, of course. Just out of curiosity, I picked it up to see the price. $29.00. What???  That is a great price. I noticed the tag said As Is, but try as I might I couldn’t find anything wrong. Finally, I found a chip under the top rim. But that can be remedied by turning that side to the back. I wasn’t in the market for any more Roseville, but it was such a good deal. Except for the chip, it’s in perfect condition.

After I brought it home, I worried it was too tall for the shelves in the den china cabinet, but it fits. When it’s a sunnier day, I’ll take a picture of it on the shelf.

Don just went to the store to pick up our pumpkin pies. Yes, we got two.

Once that’s done, we’re locking down here at the cottage. No more errands. Tomorrow, a vegetarian Thanksgiving, with Gardein’s delicious “Turkey” Roast. Frankly, it tastes better than any turkey I’ve ever had. After taking a year or so off, I’ll be making Cloud Biscuits (Grandma’s recipe.)

I’m sure many of you are busy today prepping for tomorrow’s celebration.

We express our gratitude every day. Tomorrow, I’m going to give thanks for an end to this regime and a return to goodness, integrity and honesty. Why not? If we can see it, it will be.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

It’s Ruby’s first Christmas here, so I had to take the obligatory picture in front of the little tree in the den.

There will be 3 more photos coming, as I adopted 4 girls last year – Audrey, the other Little Keiko girl, Gilly – Ruby’s sister, and Myoshi, my Blythe from Japan.

It was a lovely weekend. We have a tradition here in our family. When it’s the day of your birthday, the following week is also  your birthday. I’m on Day 4 of my birthday week and I intend to make the most of it. This year, Thanksgiving falls during my birthday week, so I’ll ge some pumpkin pie in addition to the delicious piece of chocolate cake I had on the actual day.

We’ve had some really cold temps lately and I suspect more of the porch plants have expired – especially the impatiens. Since today is sunny and a bit warmer, I’m going to dispose of some of the plants and store the pots in the shed. So far, the hanging plants are still ‘hanging’ in there, as well as the lobelia. The calibrachoa is almost ready to give up. It’s also time to bring in the cushions from the glider and the chair, and….drape our Christmas lights on the porch railing!

The doll’s cubbies are decorated. I located the deer in a little box here in the den, right before I spent an entire morning pulling things out of the crammed-full closet in the office because I couldn’t find two of the dollhouse Christmas trees. Turns out, I’d put them in a plastic bin to protect them, but I have no recollection of doing that. Yikes. Hopefully, I’ll remember that next year, but these days, it’s a bit of a crap shoot.

Don has to have a shot in his eye today. Poor guy!

I just picked up the newest Thursday Murder Club mystery from the library – “The Impossible Fortune.” This will most definitely get my reading mojo going again. I started it last night. By the way, I didn’t like the movie version of the first book. Not at all. The actors are wonderful of course, but they killed off one of the characters who has not been killed off in the books, and they eliminated all of Joyce’s journal/diary entries, which are absolutely funny and charming. They’re my favorite part of the books and they also advance the plot. I had to keep telling Don that the books were much better than the movie indicates, because he was not impressed.

Okay, my friends. This 73 year old is going to tackle some chores.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.