Holidays in the age of COVID…

This weekend I cleaned up the mess of glitter/sequins in the dining room/sewing table. I don’t call it a room because it blends in with the living room. It’s a little hard to even separate the two. Especially when you have fabric that is loaded with glitter. After I cut out four pieces of my dress last week, the glitter exploded and there is glitter everywhere — in the dining room (of course), living room (obviously), kitchen, family room, upstairs bedrooms (plural), and even into my car and the garage and driveway. That stuff travels. I’m not crazy about it, but figure even after I shake it, I’m sure I’ll have a mess for months to come. Although I could possible douse it with Spray Starch and maybe it would stick onto the fabric instead of lofting itself all over the County and State. By the way, I work in Salem (40 miles away) and I think I saw some glitter on the carpet in my classroom.

We are having a smallish gathering for Thanksgiving. Mike’s Mom and her Sam are coming over, although that was in doubt as well. Sam has been having some medical issues, so Pauline wasn’t sure she wanted to come over if there were others here. And that is an interesting dilemma. When you begin to think about it, we live in a bubble. Here is something I saw recently:

It all makes you think about how to navigate tough times with family. My daughter and I were supposed to go to Southern California for Thanksgiving week, but those plans got changed by a “freeze,” so she is spending the day with a friend and Mike and I are cooking dinner here at the house. We bought the fixins’ for a good, old-fashioned Thanksgiving. I will brine a turkey (I love brined turkeys) and we plan to have mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, apple pie, pumpkin pie, dressing, etc. I am hoping for leftover turkey for sandwiches and pumpkin pie for breakfast on Black Friday (as I peruse the sales in my jammies). I’m mainly looking forward to a 4-day, no 5-day weekend since I’m taking Wednesday off too. I mean, after all, I planned to be off the whole week.

Then, there’s this — a little fun to begin the week:

I used to watch this and thought it was the sweetest proposal! That is the “romantic” in me coming through, since sometimes I consider myself a bit cynical. Anyway, the song came on in a commercial as I was writing this and I decided to include it.

On another note, I have been teaching a culinary class and since we are doing virtual learning, my classes have included cooking videos. We have made six, including the one today that was Apple Pie. I just ate a piece and let me tell you, it was pretty good! Mike liked it! Even though he is not much of a vegetable eater, he rarely criticizes anything I make, including vegetables. He definitely doesn’t complain about apple pie! This video will drop in a few days (maybe Tuesday).

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am hoping everyone gets through these tough times and look ever forward to better times ahead. Please try that. I need to as well.