If you celebrate Christmas, I have questions! I’ll ask the question in bold, then write my answer next to it. You can answer as you like!

Do you put up a tree? Yes. We did real trees for decades and now have a fake tree. We need a new one, but every time I price them, I like my old one just fine.

Do you send out holiday cards? Usually. I’m less motivated each year, mainly because both my RA and neck issues make it a painful process.

Do you watch Christmas movies? Love them, hate them or don’t care? I watch some. Love a few, including Chevy Chase’s Christmas Vacation and Christmas With The Kranks.  A lot of the Hallmark Christmas Movies bore me. Sorry to all of you who love them!

Listen to Christmas Music? Yes but sparingly. The one that made me laugh the hardest is “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” because the first time I heard it, the kids were young and we were all packed in our van on our way to my mom’s house on Christmas Eve. I thought it was hilarious but I have a weird sense of humor. Overall, I don’t know what my favorite song is, I like many of them. By the way, I found out I can’t sing in grade school when I sang “Silver Bells” in a tryout for the choir! They put me in somewhere in the back, then build a sound proof room around me to protect the audience, LOL. I’m only exaggerating a little, I truly can’t sing. I have just enough of an ear to hear how bad I am but can’t figure out how to fix it. It’s pretty funny!

Do you bake cookies or treats? Um…have you met me? LOLOL! Yes. Cookies and cakes. I’ll make a pie if someone requests it, but generally find pies boring. My kids grew up with me baking, and we always had Christmas cookies. We would let them decorate sugar cookies and they had a blast. They loved it.

Do you have a special Christmas Meal? Not really. When I married Wizard, I learned that tamales for Christmas was a real thing. I had no idea, and now we often do that. This year, my daughter-in-law is making a stuffed flank steak with prosciutto and blue cheese (I think — she told me but I can’t find the message) that I’m excited to try! We vary it every year. But we love it when my gourmet daughter-in-law is cooking! As far as food traditions with me personally, the two things I get asked the most to make is deviled eggs or sour cream/cream cheese potatoes — which some of my nieces and nephews call “Aunt Jennifer’s Potatoes.”

Okay that’s enough questions. Feel free to ask your own if you like! Happy Wednesday!

Hi! Man I’m tired on Sunday night as I’m writing this, but it’s been a fun Thanksgiving and weekend! So let’s see if I can do this in short form rather than writing a novel

First Thanksgiving: It was wonderful! So it was Middle son, daughter in law, and us. And then they were camping with friends that consisted of a family of parents, two kids and one set of grandparents. The campsite was truly in the middle of the desert. Not a campground, but a desert on public lands. All they need to camp there is offroad permits for their vehicles, so there’s no pads and hookups. We loved it, the weather was mostly perfect, slightly warm during the sunny hours and cold at night. But the winds kicked up Thanksgiving afternoon. No worries, we moved it into Middle Son’s trailer. This is a huge 5th wheel, and we were able to seat 10 people at a long table setup in the toy hauler section of the fifth wheel (which has it’s own bathroom and TV, as well as couches that can convert into queen bed) and a porch. For 10 people, we had two turkeys, a ham, tons of amazing side dishes and desserts. No one went hungry! And there were leftovers for everyone to enjoy. It was lovely, and we really enjoyed it. Another daughter in law asked me if we’d do it again — we said absolutely. But if we can get all the family together by keeping it at home, then we’d choose that first. So depending on the circumstances, YES we would.

Maggie stuff: Maggie loved camping! Because this is isolated, she was off leash and loving the freedom of camping life! At first she was a bit worried about the bigger dogs here:

That’s Charger on the left, a 160 pound Great Dane who is a sweetheart, and then Middles son’s two dogs, Jett (in the middle, he’s also big but looks smallish next to Charger) and Hazel on the right. They were all great with Maggie. And soon she was fine with them. She especially likes to run with Hazel on walks. She doesn’t play with her in a rough way like the other dogs, but trusts her enough to follow her and likes being with her. Overall she did great. Here I am at night with a roaring fire and two dogs at my feet. Jett stole Maggie’s blanket, but she found another one and made herself comfortable.

All the talking and the smoke from the fire haven’t been great for my throat, but I didn’t care Also I’m not sure you can tell, but that fire is safe.  It’s a pit, with several layers of rock stacked around it. The fire was completely out when the winds came (they check the weather, and prepare — in the desert like this, conditions can turn dangerous on a dime.) By that evening, the winds were gone.

Maggie was fine at the hotel too. This is what surprised us. Far as we could tell, when we left her in the hotel room to get breakfast downstairs or run to a store, she never barked or cried. And while she was happy when we returned, she didn’t seem overly stressed. She was really interested in the elevator (we were on the third floor), especially when it beeped at each floor,making her do that funny head tilt dogs do. I don’t recall her going on an elevator in the years we’ve had her, but she goes where I go without any hesitation so she was fine. She also went potty outside in the rocks around the hotel without any problems. Other guests evidently were having trouble with that, but Maggie’s used to being outdoors on leash with me, so it probably seemed normal to her. My shy and timid dog has turned into a social butterfly, but she had pretty good manners overall, and I was very proud of her.

And the fun moments — the amazing dinner, spending time with my daughter-in-law while she cooked (I helped clean up, and I brought cookies and sourdough bread), and going in my son’s offroad vehicle with him. He went really fast, but I trust him so it doesn’t bother me. Plus I’m wearing a special helmet with communication system so I could tell him if I was scared, and I know my son upgraded and installed the harness and rollbars. Accidents do happen and those vehicles can roll, and if it happens, there are ways to keep as safe as possible. I listen carefully when they tell me. And son and daughter in law check my work every time I put on the helmet or harness. And while I’m the mom and part of me thinks this is funny, I keep my mouth shut and listen to them, because they reality is they know more than I do about their equipment and safety. But the amazing thing for me was riding along and seeing my middle son living the life he wanted so much from the time he was very small. And he works hard for it. So does my daughter in law. They have earned this dream and I love it for them. I also love that they want to share it with us (and our two other sons).

We left Friday morning, got home early enough to unload and do tons on laundry. Saturday we cleaned house and I prep cooked some things for me. Sunday I had more things to do, then we went out to see Turbo and family. That was so nice. It was a beautiful day and we took the Mustang (it’s all fixed! or we hope so anyway). We visited for a couple house, then came home and I played with a slightly creamy lemon shrimp noodle recipe I had been working on in my head. I used gluten free noodles that exceeded our expectations. Even better, I mentioned to Wizard that I didn’t have any white wine to deglaze the pan and reduce as the base for a lemon sauce and planned to use chicken broth for that. Wizard jumped up and opened a “good” bottle of white. That is not something we normally do. We guard our good wine for special occasions, but Wizard wanted to help me play with this recipe. Man that wine elevated the sauce! Once I cooked that down a bit with the seasoning I had from cooking the shrimp and tomatoes, I added lemon juice, lemon zest, a bit of coconut cream from a can of coconut milk, then added the noodles and finished with parmesan cheese. We loved it! It’s the first gluten and dairy free (aside from the parm, which I can eat as long as it’s aged) that I truly enjoyed! Plus I was making it up as I went along, something I like to do now and again. I’ve had some spectacular fails that way, LOL. And when I have recipes I like, I usually forget to write down what I did so replicating them is dicey

Okay it looks like I did write a novel! If you made it this far, I’d love to hear about your weekend and whatever else you’d like to share! Happy Monday!

TGIF! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I’m sure we did too, but since I’m writing this post early in the week since we’re traveling, I can’t tell you about it :-). But I should be able to answer this Friday evening or Saturday. Here’s my 5:

1. Packing is a pain, and I never know what I’m going to need or want. Also I never wake up young, slim and beautiful with an amazing wardrobe in my closet, which is always a bit disappointing. To compensate, I overpacked and probably still took all the wrong things. In the end, none of it will matter and we’ll have fun. I’m excited to see how Maggie does too. It’ll be a whole new experience for her.
2. I bought some very inexpensive outdoor/hiking boots. I’m not sure my wonky ankle can handle the boots because I have a permanently swollen joint that can get prickly when anything presses on it wrong. When that joint gets mad, it’s painful and looks uglier than usual. So these are my test pair. If I can break them in around my ankle and use them more than two or three times a year, then I’ll consider investing into a better pair. But I’m excited to try! I won’t use them for daily walking, but for going on offroad trails where I need more protection and stability than running shoes.
3. I made taquitos in my air fryer last night, and Wizard loved them. They are still a multi-step pain to make, but much less greasy in the air fryer and I enjoy making them. I like my air fryer. It’s fun and useful at times, but I still believe it’s not an essential tool like I consider my crock pot to be.
4. And talking about cooking reminds me, we had a guy out to finally align a few cabinets in the kitchen ( more than a year after we moved in!). To do that, he was opening the cabinets and drawers. When he came to my spice drawer, he looked up. “So you’re a chef.” That cracked me up. I’m so not even close. I’m an average cook on my best day, and I’m not being modest. I know I can bake — see not modest there! But I have more time to try things now, and I enjoy being in the kitchen. That spice drawer really brings me joy, and I was jazzed that someone noticed it.
5. The Mustang is at the dealer. Wizard has suspected something was off with the fuel tanks (the Mustang has two fuel tanks), and his suspicion was confirmed when he ran out of gas not even a block from the gas station. He called Triple A because our policy with them includes bringing us gas if we run out. The driver was at that very gas station filling up, and could actually see Wizard. Talk about weird and funny coincidence! The problem with the Mustang has been diagnosed and will be fixed. But dang, I didn’t realize how protective the two of us are about that car. Both of us are uneasy when it’s not in our sight or secured in our garage. That will get better with time, of course. But we’re kind of laughing at ourselves over it.

So that’s my five and now I really want to hear yours! I will answer Friday evening or Saturday. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I want to wish everyone celebrating in the U.S. A VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you are enjoying the day with people (and critters!) you love.  As always, I’m thankful for all my friends out there. Although I’m not writing at the moment, I am also deeply thankful and grateful for all the readers I’ve had over the years. Readers made my job fun, and at times, gave it meaning. Whenever a reader told me one of my books touched their heart, or helped them through a tough time, it meant the world to me.

We’re off to our Thanksgiving adventure, which I’ll share with you all next Monday if anything interesting happens. I’m also hoping to get a Friday Five post up, although mine five will be a shortened week version as I will need to write it on Tuesday

Enjoy the holiday and stay safe!

The weekend was good and we got a lot done, although I overdid it a bit. That’s all fine though, things got done, including baking a heck of a lot of cookies and freezing some, making two loaves of sourdough bread, unpacking some of the office boxes and doing some arranging, cleaning bathrooms and washing floors.

But the biggest win was figuring out a way to give Maggie her pills. She normally pretty good about taking medication, but she hates the one she needs to assist her bladder control. Plus they are huge. To make a really long story short, I cut the pills in half, and grind each half into powder, then mix it with her canned dog food to make meatballs. So now at her breakfast and dinner, instead of mixing canned dog food into her dry kibble, I give her dry kibble and one specially made meatball. She loves it and eats it first then happily eats her kibble. I guess the medicine can’t touch her kibble? I don’t know. I tried cheese, peanut butter, pill pockets, mixing it with all her food, and nope. But this works so it’s a win!

We’re really looking forward to our Campsgiving (Thanksgiving at a campsite). We’ll be at the campsite during the day and staying in a hotel at night Totally my style. Okay it’s just a Best Western, but it gives us a little downtime and that is something we like. We are just happy the kids want us around. Oh and there’s a huge Great Dane there named Charger. I’ll try to get a picture this time. I’m pretty sure Maggie will be fine him as he’s very chill.

My one gripe right now is that the gray is showing in my hair, and I haven’t had time to go take care of that. I think I need to learn to color my own hair, it just grows too fast. But I’m leery of what disaster I might create!

Oh and youngest son stopped by this weekend. He wants his dad to paint a model car for him, which I thought was pretty cool. Wizard has really developed some skills in building and painting models over the last few years. In fact, he’s been teaching me to use my airbrush when I get the opportunity. But getting back to youngest, he brought up going back to Cambria again. So we discussed it — no plans, it was really just chatter. But we love that he wants to do it again!

That was my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF!! Let’s get right to sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. Because we’re crazy, we moved a couple things around in the office, and ordered a second bookcase We have really done this the hard way. In our defense, we bought it in pieces to see how much storage we would need, and how things would fit. All that said, we really love the office so it’s all good. But it is funny how much time and thought we are putting into it. Once the second bookcase comes today…we should actually put something in them. But then I think about moving stuff out when we do floors next year and get really tired.
2. I got a Covid booster shot. I’d put it off because we were so busy and I couldn’t afford a sick day. I finally got the shot, and the only reaction I had was a mildly sore arm. I mean that’s good news, but all that procrastination was for nothing, LOL.
3. I have five containers of homemade cookie dough in my refrigerator — which is double batches of 3 kinds of cookies: Chocolate chip, macadamia white chocolate chip,  and lemon. I’m using different recipes for the first two because I have some kind of baking dysfunction that makes me keep trying different recipes. The lemon cookies I have made before and I wrote “good” on the recipe so maybe it is — we’ll see. Also after I made all that dough yesterday, I was rethinking my life choices. I mean one batch of each would have been fine, but my brain said: Double the batches and freeze them! It’s the holidays! Frankly my brain needs less coffee and more wine. Heck I don’t even know if I can get a lot of cookies into my new freezer, but I guess we’ll find out! Today I’ll be baking cookies for roughly a 100 hours. Good times.
4. I bought a couple inexpensive Christmas decorations including one that reminded me of Maggie. I’ll post a picture below. Maybe this weekend we’ll get our tree and other decorations out. It not, we’ll do it the weekend after Thanksgiving. I’m not buying all the stuff I wanted to get for the front yard this year, but I did get a pretty wreath and a Santa for the front porch for great prices, so I’m happy. Here’s the one that looks like Maggie:
5. This weekend, I’d love to run out to Middle Son’s to see their new kitchen, but it might not be feasible. We also need to plan out our Thanksgiving with Middle and his wife, which we’re really looking forward to. I don’t know if I’ll be able to see Turbo, as he and his family are still playing virus roulette. I really feel for them dealing with this! Oh! And I have a toy I need to take over to Youngest’s to give his dog, Phoebe. I didn’t buy Maggie a toy, just Phoebe, LOL! But Maggie doesn’t really care about toys, so she probably forgives me.

That’s my five. Now I’d love to hear yours! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

So I went to the ENT, and I was in and out so fast. Amazing, considering it took months to get the appointment. I guess being so busy and all, he doesn’t have time to read files, listen to patients about symptoms, current medications or what my two gastroenterologists have found. But lets move on…the Very Good News is that he did the scope through the back of my nose to view the vocal chords and didn’t find any tumors or polyps. That was worth the visit.

And if you’re interested, they spray stuff in the nose to numb everything up. So I could feel the thin tube with the tiny camera at the end moving but it didn’t hurt or cause me distress. I have a strong gag reflex too, and that wasn’t triggered. It was just slightly weird in a kind of fascinating way. He had me make a few noises to watch my vocal chords move. Overall, it was very quick, and I’d do that procedure again with any hesitation.

The super fast diagnosis is that I have acid reflux causing this pain and spots in my throat. I know that’s a real thing, but my regular doctor had ruled it out due to the fact I’ve been on meds for acid reflux for a year now. But this specialist said my doctor is wrong. It’s very possible, my regular doctor is not an ENT, and that’s why he sent me there in the first place. The ENT gave me a prescription to take at night. Now this part is funny–I currently take a generic Prilosec in the morning (and he wants me to continue with that). The prescription is for the exact same active ingredient and the same milligrams in my generic Prilosec. So basically, he doubled my current over-the-counter meds but I guess he made me feel better by making it a prescription???? Or it’s possible I’m missing something on the prescription label that makes it different or stronger.

But whatever, if it works, then Yay! Problem solved! I’ll know in a few weeks.

How’s your Wednesday going?