Another day

So I was going to write about our trip to buy our Christmas tree yesterday but have decided the pain is all too fresh. As opposed to the tree whose freshness is debatable. But I’m planning to lift it up in daily prayer in the hopes it will make it to the 25th of December.

However, there is still some Christmas joy afoot today. And not just because I was able to use the word “afoot” in a sentence. Yesterday as I was visiting various blogs I noticed that the Nester had a little favorite things going on. Kind of like Oprah but without the free cars or the Blackeyed Peas performing in a snowglobe on the stage.

And I thought it might be fun to share a few of my favorite things right now. And the best part is most of them are budget friendly. You may also want to go check out all the Favorite Things over at the Nesters. TONS, I tell you, TONS of great ideas. It makes me want to host my very own Favorite Things party.

1. ruffled infinity scarf

I love this ruffled infinity scarf. I have a red one kind of like it that I bought last year and it’s the perfect thing to thrown on when there’s a chill in the air. Or even when there’s not a chill in the air. It just looks good.

2. monogrammed return address rubber stamp

I don’t currently own a monogrammed rubber stamp. Because I really don’t send letters anymore. And every year around Christmas I wish I had one and think that I should order one and then I procrastinate and I don’t think about it again until the next year and then it seems too late to bother with it.

Welcome to my brain.

But I really, really like them and Etsy has about 872 million different style options.

3. red letter words canvas

I love every single thing at Red Letter Words. Seriously, if given free reign I might be tempted to just line my walls with all the words. But for now I am just really tempted to order this one to put on my mantel during Christmas.

4. love came down advent calendar

This is a great Advent calendar. Perfect for remembering the whole reason we celebrate Christmas and helping you find your joy and peace after shopping for a tree.

5. hummingbird farms lavender lotion

This is my favorite lotion in the world. IN THE WORLD. In fact our entire family is addicted to it. We ran out last week and I am embarrassed to tell you that one of us heated up the last bottle in the toaster oven trying to get out the last little bit of lotion.

True story.

And it smells like real lavender because it’s made with real lavender. You think you’ve smelled lavender stuff before, but I bet you’re wrong. It’s so much better than all the lavender-scented things out there. They’re all just posers.

Now I’ve gone on and on about it and you’re probably thinking SETTLE IT DOWN, NANCY, IT’S JUST LOTION.

Oh but it’s so much better than that.

6. mrs. meyers kitchen basics set

Speaking of smells I love. It’s hard for me to pick just one Mrs. Meyers fragrance or product because I adore them all. In the summer I like the lemon. In the fall I like geranium. And around Christmas I like the pine but it’s hard to find.

Just know you can’t go wrong. Mrs. Meyers won’t let you down.

7. merry christmas y’all jumbo mug

You know what I love more than a large coffee mug? A large coffee mug that is extra cute. That’s why I’m such a fan of the Glory Haus mugs. And picture frames. And everything else.

But we’re talking about coffee mugs right now. I need a big mug to get the right proportions for my hot choffee in the morning and these totally work. And how cute are they?

8. laptop case

This would make any laptop so happy.

9. baker’s edge brownie pan

Have I ever mentioned that I just like the edges of brownies? I mean I’ll eat the whole pan but the edges are the best. I’ve even been known to cut strange configurations in a pan of brownies in my quest to just eat the edges.

Don’t judge me. P doesn’t even like brownies which I think may be unconstitutional.

Needless to say, my love of the edges is why I believe this pan is perfection.

10. frye jackie button boots

Yeah, so these are a little extravagant. And I’m pretty sure Santa isn’t going to think I was good enough to deserve them this year. But OH MY WORD I adore them and didn’t feel like I would be authentic to list my favorite things and not include them.

That little bit of a heel? DIVINE. The beautiful cognac color? SWOON.

And so that’s my list of favorite things. I’d love to hear about some of yours if you feel like sharing with the group.

This is one of those times when I LITERALLY have not one thing to write about. Or maybe I do have something to write about but I’ve forgotten it. Either way, I’ve sat here next to P for the last hour and griped and moaned about how I have nothing to write about (as opposed to the riveting expose I wrote on the You Curl curling iron yesterday) and he’s looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and gone back to watching the Outdoor Channel as if that’s the most important thing.

The problem is I spent all day at home doing laundry and trying to create an air of organization before I haul out all the Christmas decorations and my living room becomes a study in chaos. Although I did try out the sock bun curl technique that was mentioned in the comments on my hair yesterday, so there’s that. I wasn’t thrilled with the results but the YouTube tutorials specifically say to leave it overnight and I only kept it up for about four hours.

However, I put Caroline’s hair up in a sock bun for the night so I’ll report on that tomorrow.

(I know you won’t be able to sleep until you know how it turns out.)

(The suspense is killing me.)

It would be such a score if it actually looks good because she is in the midst of a hair crisis and doesn’t even realize it. She’s so thrilled with her long hair, but it’s very fine and I prefer it in a ponytail or braids. She prefers to go to sleep with it wet and then wake up and wear it down to school. Which makes me cringe because it is full of crimps and random indentions and OH THE STATIC CLING. The other day it was cold outside and I asked her if I could blow her hair dry and she said, “Oh, I’ll just wear a hat until it dries.”

Because everyone knows that’s the secret to good hair.

But I really didn’t mean to talk about hair. Again.

Here are a few other interesting things that you might care about:

1. Burger King announced yesterday that they are making their french fries thicker. I don’t really know what that means and I really don’t care because I can’t remember the last time I ate at a Burger King, but I found it fascinating that someone actually did the research and determined their fries need to be thicker.

2. Beyonce announced her baby is due in December. I’m not sure why this interested me but it did and I might as well own it.

3. A sweet reader named Whitney emailed me to let me know that she’s selling Stella and Dot Jewelry and is donating all of her commissions (25% of sales) to Compassion International, specifically to their Clean Water, Unsponsored Children and Disaster Relief funds. It might be a great place to do some Christmas shopping and help Compassion at the same time. You can check out their jewelry here.

4. On that note my friend AJ’s organization, Arise Africa, has a Christmas catalog this year where you can give friends and family the gift of knowing they bought school supplies or meals or classroom textbooks for kids in Zambia. You can check it out here.

I don’t know that there’s a better gift than that.

5. Lastly, I am sad (and embarrassed to admit) that I’m almost finished with Army Wives on Netflix. Yet I feel that there are still plenty of good T.V. times to be had, especially considering that we are early on in the hunting season and I will have a lot of time to watch whatever I want on T.V.

Any suggestions for a great T.V. series? I already watch or have watched Friday Night Lights (obviously), Mad Men, Gilmore Girls, Grey’s Anatomy (though I quit watching about two seasons ago), 30 Rock, The Office and Veronica Mars.

I’m sure there are others but those are the high points. Or the low points depending on your perspective.

Y’all have a lovely Wednesday.

It is so cold in my living room right now that I’m finding it hard to concentrate because my nose is so chilled. I have on flannel pajama pants, a sweatshirt and am wrapped in a blanket, but, alas, there is nothing I can do for my nose.

And, sure, I could turn on the heat except I hate the way the heat makes me feel. Once the heat comes on I immediately feel claustrophobic, like I’m trapped under a pile of blankets that smell like burned tires.

By the way, I’m not complaining about being cold because I vowed this summer when it was 193 degrees outside that I would never, EVER, complain about the cold. It’s just an observation. My nose is cold. And yet I’m thankful for the cold, seasonal weather, especially considering that I spent much of Thanksgiving week sweating profusely as I insisted on wearing sweaters even though it was 85 degrees outside.

Anyway, how was your Thanksgiving?

Ours was lovely. As it turns out we are all big fans of the turducken. Who knew that all that layered poultry could be so delicious? Of course I never knew if I was eating turkey or chicken or duck or some combination therein, but it was delicious nonetheless. There’s nothing wrong with a little mystery.

I also made cornbread dressing, broccoli rice casserole, sweet potatoes, corn casserole, cranberries, roasted Brussels sprouts, pecan pie, and chocolate ice box pudding. And I would do all those things all over again with the exception of the corn casserole. I wasn’t a big fan. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy the corn casserole, it just seemed like one carb too many at the Thanksgiving table. A superfluous carb if you will. But I’m glad I tried it because I don’t ever want to get caught in a Thanksgiving rut.

(I don’t know what that means. Like cooking a turkey and making dressing once a year constitutes a rut?)

As it turned out I made way too much food for our Thanksgiving crowd of five people, but the good news is I may not need to cook again until sometime around mid-December. Sure, we may get tired of constant meals of cornbread dressing and various duck/turkey/chicken parts but think of all the trips to the grocery store I can avoid. I might even have time to learn a new hobby or constantly stalk the Anthropologie site in search of new sale items.

So the Thanksgiving meal was delicious. And then we went to watch the A&M game with some friends.

The day went downhill at that point.

I would say more but the language wouldn’t be appropriate and I try to keep it family friendly around here. Poor Caroline burst into tears after the game was over and I tried to console her by letting her know that disappointment is part of being an Aggie. It’s our heritage. It makes us stronger, more resilient in the hard times or bad coaching life can bring. I also may have tried to teach her a valuable lesson about how you can’t base your happiness on a bunch of twenty-year-old boys. It doesn’t work when you’re twenty and it doesn’t work when you’re forty.

But I think by the time I got to that point in my lecture on life lessons she was already over it and had moved on to her repeated request for a puppy for Christmas. She never misses an opportunity to ask for a puppy. In fact, we even met some friends for lunch before we left Houston on Tuesday and as soon as we got in the car after lunch, she asked, “Was I good enough to get a puppy?”

It’s turned out to be such an effective motivational tool that it’s going to be hard not to hold out on the puppy thing until she’s about nineteen. Is her room dirty? Well, that doesn’t really demonstrate that she’s ready for the responsibility of a puppy. Did she forget to brush her teeth? You can’t forget to feed a puppy. Did she stay out too late and talk back to her mother? NO PUPPY. The leverage is exhilarating.

And someday she’ll read this and the jig will be up.

In reality I love the idea of getting her a puppy for Christmas and the whole LOOK AT THE PUPPY SANTA LEFT UNDER THE TREE thing, but Scout and Bruiser are old and set in their ways (Join the club. It’s an epidemic at our house.) and I’m not sure if they would welcome an energetic youngster to the mix. Poor Scout is already on the verge of some type of nervous breakdown half the time. A puppy might push him right over the edge.

(I don’t know how this veered off into my internal debate about the puppy thing. I apologize for dragging you into it.)

So on Friday we all woke up with a touch of disappointing football game loss hangover. P and Caroline packed up and headed to the ranch for the weekend. I sat on the couch and debated getting out and joining in the Black Friday craziness, but resisted the urge until about 5:00 that evening when I ventured to Pottery Barn and the lure of 20% off Christmas ornaments.

But then I got overwhelmed at all the choices and the pillows and the coffee tables from the days of yore and the 30% off all throws and ended up leaving empty-handed. I drove straight to the pedicure place and treated myself to a holiday pedicure. My toes are now a sparkly red color called “Meep Meep” that’s part of the OPI Muppets collection.

(The details. Oh my word. ALL THE DETAILS.)

(Then I filled up my car with gas at Chevron. And debated going into Gap. And even made a u-turn and then changed my mind again. But then I regretted it later because they were having a big sale.)

(Then I came home and put on my plaid flannel pajama pants and gray sweatshirt. And watched six episodes of Army Wives.)

(I AM SO SORRY. I CAN’T STOP.)

The rest of the weekend was spent in a totally constructive manner. I alternated between watching episodes of Army Wives, Real Housewives of Atlanta, and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Which may explain why I dreamed last night that Claudia Joy Holden died and I was embarrassed because I showed up at her funeral in a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader uniform and a man in a top hat drove me away in a horse drawn carriage.

That dream will absolutely make sense if you’ve watched all those shows. Otherwise you’ve never been more confused.

It probably didn’t help that I gave into the temptation to eat leftover broccoli rice casserole at 10:45 p.m.

And now Thanksgiving break is over and it’s back to the real world. A world where I haven’t even thought about my Christmas cards and am slightly panicking about it. A world where I’ll eventually have to get out Christmas decorations and put them up. A world where I’ll need to get those rotten pumpkins off my front porch.

The good news is I don’t have to factor cooking dinner into the real world equation, thanks to all the leftovers. The turducken is the gift that keeps on giving.

At least until the salmonella sets in.

I have big plans to spend the next two days in the kitchen cooking all manner of carbohydrates in various forms to serve to my family on Thanksgiving. Thankfully Mimi and Bops are providing a turkducken for the main course so I will not be forced to deal with poultry of any kind. Sticking my hand inside a dead bird doesn’t even show up on my list of life goals.

Largely because birds of all kinds and I are on very shaky territory these days.

But I’ve never had a turducken so I may feel compelled to try a bite if I’m feeling adventurous and can erase the thought of that pot of chicken parts I had to serve while in Ecuador.

And the bought turducken goes completely against the turkey recipe Caroline provided to her third grade class. Most of the other children wrote recipes that read, “Go to HEB. Buy a turkey. Put salt and pepper on it.”

Caroline’s recipe read, “First, you go to the ranch and shoot the turkey. Then you get the meat off the turkey and cut the head off.”

I’m raising Bear Grylls.

In all seriousness, I hope you all have the best Thanksgiving and eat delicious food and have time to reflect on all your blessings.

So, from my turducken to yours, HAPPY THANKSGIVING Y’ALL.

Yep.

6:45 a.m. yesterday morning. That’s what time Caroline woke me up by shaking me and saying, “I’m supposed to go running with Bops and he forgot to wake me up!”

And I looked at the clock and growled, “IT’S ONLY 6:45. GO BACK TO SLEEP.”

She didn’t listen to me.

Instead she jumped out of bed, put on her running clothes and ran downstairs to make sure Bops still planned to take her for a jog around Memorial Park. Honestly, the exercise first thing in the morning gene must have skipped a generation.

Because I rolled back over and tried to go back to sleep. I’m not sure I ever did, but it makes me feel better to say I was successful.

So, yes, we’re in Houston. Mimi and Bops bought a little place in Houston over the summer and we decided to come visit them for a few days. They still have a house in San Antonio, this is just like a vacation home. And, no, I don’t know why it’s not on a lake like most vacation homes. They missed the big city with all its restaurants and shopping and I have to say after spending most of yesterday walking around The Galleria and eating incredible Italian food for dinner that they may have a point.

But we’re headed home in the morning because it will be time for me to begin all the slicing and the dicing and the chopping for Thanksgiving dinner. I’m also sad to report that it’s inevitable that I’m going to have to make one more trip to HEB.

Here are just a few quick notes of interest:

1. Beth is sharing some Thanksgiving cooking tips over on the LPM blog and giving readers a chance to leave comments with tips over their own. It’s totally worth checking out right here. I’ve already learned that Williams-Sonoma makes the best base for turkey gravy and that’s the kind of information that can change your life.

Or at least your mashed potatoes.

2. The Aggies and the Longhorns are meeting on Kyle Field for the last time this Thursday night at 7:00. And I want the Aggies to win so bad that I even dreamed about it last night. I also looked online and debated buying a way too expensive ticket at the last minute and hauling down to College Station to see it in person.

I’m sick that the rivalry is ending for now. What are we going to do in Texas next Thanksgiving?

For now I am consoling myself with one of my favorite renditions ever of the Aggie War Hymn by my friend Shaun Groves.

Beat the hell outta t.u.

3. Several of you asked for the recipe for my broccoli rice casserole. I also have a recipe for dressing and a recipe for cranberry sauce that doesn’t come from a can. You can find all those recipes and EVEN MORE on this page that lists every recipe I’ve ever posted.

Apparently I used to cook more than I do now. When was the last time I posted a recipe?

I guess no one needs to know that you take the pizza out of the wrapper and place in oven.

4. I think I may have mentioned this years ago, but I have a family goal. I want us to become a family that plays games. Like card games or Trivial Pursuit or something. Do y’all have any favorite games that will provide hours of fun for the entire family until someone decides to be a sore loser and throws their cards across the table? (Bops, I’m looking at you.) Please fill me in.

5. That’s it for today but I hated to end with just four things.

Have a lovely day.

I feel like I need to apologize in advance because I’m going to talk about being tired. Honestly, I just googled “sleeping sickness” to make sure I don’t have it.

As it turns out it’s generally only contracted in Africa after being bitten by a tsetse fly. And tsetse flies don’t live in South America. I know this is true because the google told me so.

But maybe I’ve become a narcoleptic at some point in the last week because all I think about is when I can sleep again. And I’ve really gotten a decent amount of sleep, but I think I’m working off a major Ecuadorian sleep deficit.

I’m also enjoying the luxury of flushing toilet paper down the toilet and brushing my teeth using water right out of the tap. It really is the little things.

Anyway, there isn’t much going on here right now. I got home late Saturday night and spent the next twenty-four hours with Caroline sitting as close to me as she could possibly get. Not that I was complaining. I was overjoyed to see my people.

And at some point I realized I had to tackle a giant pile of laundry, including the jungle attire I brought home in a garbage bag inside my suitcase because it smelled so bad that I was afraid it might contaminate all my other clothes. Thankfully P had done his own laundry before I got home, but Caroline’s clothes hamper was overflowing.

Of course after I started sorting her dirty clothes into whites and colors I realized it was largely due to the fact that she just threw everything into her hamper whether she’d actually worn it or not, including several shirts still on the hanger, a down puffy vest and three stuffed animals. And so we’ve since had many discussions about what actually constitutes a dirty clothing and navigated the skill of hanging clothes ON HANGERS instead of just shoving them into a hamper for your narcoleptic mother to deal with.

But I’m happy to report that all our clothing was clean for at least six minutes. It was a tremendous accomplishment although short lived.

I also made a marathon trip to HEB to buy milk, eggs, every other item of food you can possibly imagine, chocolate and wine. The wine and chocolate were to help me recover from all the laundry.

And now I’ll spend the rest of this week going to a Thanksgiving lunch at Caroline’s school because I never miss an opportunity to eat instant mashed potatoes. Then there’s a fun run fundraiser at her school on Friday and I volunteered to count laps as the kids run. And then I will officially give thanks that next week is Thanksgiving and I’m done with fundraisers and packing lunches and braiding hair at seven o’ clock in the morning for an entire week.

Of course there is the small detail of Thanksgiving lunch. I’m hosting the entire thing at my house which I’ve never done before. And I’m trying to plan the menu. All P cares about is dressing and chocolate ice box pudding for dessert. All I care about it is dressing and broccoli rice casserole. But I feel like there should be more. Obviously a turkey. Even though I personally believe the turkey is just a vehicle to get the dressing in your mouth. I guarantee the Native Americans ate turkey because it’s all they managed to shoot that morning and I don’t know why we insist on perpetuating the tradition of serving tasteless, dry bird. Why couldn’t they have killed a nice cow so we could all gather around and eat steak instead?

What do y’all have for Thanksgiving? Are there any dishes I need to try? Last year I made roasted Brussels sprouts with pomegranate molasses and I felt that the molasses was a mistake. Which was sad considering I went to eight different stores to find it. I’d love to hear what’s on your MUST HAVE Thanksgiving list.

Unless it involves green bean casserole with french-fried onions on the top. There was a year in my childhood when I got into a can of those french-fried onions and didn’t know that a little goes a long way. It was unfortunate.

I still bear the french-fried scars.

Now excuse me while I go to bed. After all, it’s 9:45 and Mamaw needs her rest.