MIA

 Wow! I didn't realize just how long I was missing in action. As I have said before, between the hurricanes and my travels, autumn has seemed to just disappear. And, for whatever reason, I don't keep a very good track of the date any more so I truly didn't realize that Thanksgiving was so late this year. When that happens, I'm already a bit behind the 8-ball with Christmas decor. In any case, let me show you just a glimpse of what I have been up to the last few weeks.

I spent a good bit of time with daughter #3 and her family as we celebrated grandson #2's 17th birthday and I visited with grandson #1 and a buddy of his who visited with the family for the first few days of their break from classes-more about this at the end.

And then we were on to Thanksgiving. I think I mentioned that most of the females in our family went to NYC a number of years back and saw "Wicked" on Broadway so grand daughter #3 thought it would be fun if we could all gather on Thanksgiving Eve and go see the new movie together as a kind of commemoration of that trip. We all made it and took up almost the whole row! And, I think the consensus was that we loved it and have already made a date for "Wicked-Part2" same time next year.

We had a full house that night and then were off to daughter #3's house for Thanksgiving dinner the next day. We had a wonderful day visiting with everyone and catching up on all of the news-it's amazing how many wonderful things happen between our visits-job changes and promotions, new pets, new living arrangements and LSAT scores just in...and grand daughter #4 knocked the roof off of that test. She had spent the night with me before heading to Gainesville to take it and when she returned, she wasn't feeling all that optimistic although I knew she had been diligent in studying and so that diligence paid off. Now we'll see where she decides to attend law school.

And, as usual, we had way more food than we needed but it's nice when there are enough leftovers that everyone can take something home with them. Most of the gang was at my house again so some Christmas movies were on the docket after we got home that night-which, was already past my bedtime-lol-as my grand children got a poker game going and they didn't want to stop. Of course that gave us some time to head out on the golf cart and see some of the beautiful lights that are already up...definitely a busy day!

Of course, since getting all of us in one place at the same time is almost impossible these days, pictures are really important to me. We don't diddle around too much because the kids don't want to stay still any more now than they did when they were young but I think they are willing to humor me-up to a point.

So another Thanksgiving is in the books and I am on to Christmas. I've been at it for four days and am still not really close to being able to get some pictures. I'm hoping to head out on Friday to get some of the finishing touch things that I need. Then, my brother and sister-in-law are coming for the weekend. My brother is running a race at the World Equestrian Center which is all "Winter"Wonderlanded" up so it will be a fun evening!

Fingers crossed I can start sharing by Monday-again, that late Thanksgiving really messed me up this year.

Now, before I go, let me leave you with a little chuckle. I think I told you my grandson almost always picks between two restaurants for his birthday dinner. Well, that changed this year and we headed to a restaurant that we used to go to a lot that sold and just had its new opening. We ate up on the outside deck which overlooks part of the city. They have live music and it has a very "happy" kind of vibe so it was fun.

We started with a selfie...

...but, that didn't meet someone's approval so my daughter asked the server to take a picture of the table-which she happily did. I didn't look at it because my eyes aren't as young as they used to be but when my grand daughter did her first words were "Dad!". I'm guessing my son-in-law was ready to leave-we had been there quite awhile-and this is what we had.

If you look closely, he put a piece of black napkin over his tooth. I guess he wanted to add some levity to the evening. Of course, I really didn't want to have to explain that if I posted it to Facebook so I got busy with my little editing program. It really didn't have the correct colors that I needed but I think I did OK-haha!

So that brings you up-to-date with me. I'm off to try to get some lights on the tree and then I have ALL of the Thanksgiving and autumn stuff to put away. And to top it off, I bought myself a Christmas present...I don't do that often any more because I really don't need anything but when something "speaks" to me, I sometimes give in...and this did.

I haven't even put the corbels on it yet because I'm not positive where it will go but, I am thinking I will take down the mirror that is over this blanket chest and hang it there. I seem to have a problem with mirrors-there are four in my living room and picture taking is almost impossible. Besides, I thought this would just look cute.

It isn't going to be difficult to hand but hanging it level will be difficult because I have already figured out that measuring down from the crown molding might not give me a level hang. And so, as much as it pains me to wait, I think I will until my brother and sister-in-law are here and I have some extra hands and we can actually use a level on it. It also has to go evenly between two sconces and we all know that I am a kind of "measure once-hammer nails many times" kind of gal. Lol

I will be back as soon as I have something new to share. Stay safe and stay tuned.