Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving suddenly appeared. Kinda like a cow on the Valley Road waiting to be hit by a mini van driven by.......well that may be another blog, but it did sneak up on me. Again. You would think that I would figure out it does come around this time every year. Of course you also would think I would figure out that  at my age a piece of cake and two cups of coffee is not the best bedtime snack.

What has happened to the Thanksgiving tradition of cooking all morning, eating for 15-20 minutes, sleeping in front of a ball game for a couple hours, then chiseling dried food off of pots and pans and plates for the next few hours? I mean what is more American?

Shopping.

"Black Friday" has moved into what Lisa has started calling  "Brown Thursday".  With stores opening earlier and earlier this is a busy time of year in the credit card world and I worked a full shift on Thanksgiving. This gave Lisa a chance to be home alone to do what she does best - decorate. In this case the Christmas tree. Of course I help with the decorating. By that I mean I carry the boxes upstairs. Then carry them back down because I got the wrong ones. Who needs six totes of tree decorations? Besides us I mean. Lisa has six basic colors that she can decorate the tree with. In alphabetical order they are brown, burgundy, crystal, gold, green, and silver. Then she can mix and match and we can have a different tree every year for the next 30 without buying another ornament. Of course I'm kidding, we will get more ornaments. And since we were both busy we decided to pass on the traditional turkey dinner and instead enjoyed a not so traditional Thanksgiving chicken casserole. Close enough.

On Friday I worked a 10 hour shift and Lisa worked her regular day at Fitkids. So by 5:30 when we could go shopping the sales are done and the stores are empty. Of stuff, not people. There are still wall to wall shoppers wondering around the empty shelves muttering about "doorbusters" and "limited quantities." So for us that means Chinese take-out for our Thanksgiving leftovers and home to watch a movie. Ahhh another successful Black Friday.

Truthfully I am thankful for my health, being blessed with work, having a loving wife to come home to with a beautiful Christmas tree, and a great family. What more can I ask for? I'll save that for my letter to Santa.

Christmas tree #18 of  30

Chicago

Lisa and her friend Sherry flew to Chicago this weekend to visit Whitney. And to go shopping. And to go sightseeing. And mainly to the show Wicked. And see Whitney. Since this will be Lisa's first time flying without me and Sherry said she hasn't flown for years I figured I would grace them with the wisdom of my years.

They were both excited and nervous for the trip so I warped into "knight in shining armor" mode to help them through the ticketing/security/boarding process. When we got to the airport I went directly to the ticketing kiosk and started to explain how to get your own boarding pass. As one who works in customer service I knew that using the machine would be easier. Lisa with great patience, love, and her sweet smile completely ignored me and went directly to the counter and 60 seconds later came back with her ticket. Ok that was easier.
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Next came the security process. I assured them that only shoes, purse, liquids, suitcase need to be inspected- that's it.
Jewelry? Nah no problem. I have never had a problem with my jewelry (wedding ring.)
Shoes, purse, liquids, suitcase just put them on the conveyor belt and breeze through the metal detector. Lisa had a bracelet that took two trips through the metal detector and Sherry had a bracelet and earrings that took three tries. Oops
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Next step was boarding the airplane. I think both Lisa and Sherry were thankful to be through security and on their own finally. That way I can't "help" them to the plane and they end up in Utah.

Sherry and Lisa made it to Chicago in spite of my help

This leaves me, Mr. Bachelor, home alone for the weekend. I plan on watching too much TV and eating too much........which isn't a whole lot different from my normal weekend. Maybe I'll even stay up past 11 - that's living on the wild side.

Weddings

Many, many years ago, when Lisa and I were first married, we were involved in a lot of our friends' weddings. As part of the bridal party, doing the music, or just helping out in miscellaneous ways we would get caught up in the excitement (as in "I'm marring my best friend" complete with doe eyes and sighs), the drama (as in "these flowers are pink I distinctly ordered blush") and the overall build up of the whole scene. Looking back it had to have been exhausting.

We loved watching the first season of Downton Abbey on Netflix. The second season we enjoyed, but weren't quite as invested-still didn't miss an episode. At this point in our lives we have reached the second season of weddings. This is where our friends' kids are now getting married. Similarly, we are not quite as invested but still aren't missing an episode. As in four weddings in the last three months. The last of which was last weekend. The best thing about the second season weddings is that we can just show up, give hugs, eat cake and go home. No fuss, no muss. But at my age it is still exhausting.

Here is my top 10 list of wedding observations:

10) The number of people in the wedding party should never be more than the number of guests        invited to the wedding

9) An open bar doesn't guarantee a great reception, but it certainly helps 

8) Grooms should be like a cathedral train - there to enhance the beauty of the bride, just try not to get in the way

7) Wedding cakes are for pictures; desert bars are for eating

6) The throwing of the wedding bouquet is not a signal for a scrum

5) The best reception dinner is a pasta bar - but then again I'm not wearing a $5000 white dress

4) The length of speeches at the reception should be inversely proportional to the amount of alcohol consumed

3) "Love Stinks" by J Geils Band is not an appropriate song anytime during the evening

2) Candy corn is not an appetizer 

1) All brides are beautiful!

Truthfully, 8 out of the 10 are actual observations and the other two.....let's just say "they are based on reality" from this seasons weddings. I'll let you decide which is which. Feel free to add your own observations, I'm sure this list could be longer.