For those of you in the U.S., Thanksgiving is tomorrow, at least as I write this (by the time you read this, it is probably today or yesterday for you). Rather than retell the story of organizing for Thanksgiving past, I will post links to my prior Thanksgiving posts at the end of this post.
This year is rather worse than even most recent years. Until this past Monday we were still debating - cook dinner or go to an Asian buffet (they do put out a turkey for carving - and each person carves their own serving).
On Monday we bought our turkey. It is from the same specialty supermarket that we bought from last year and the year before. Due to our letter about our problem last year with the turkey not being fully cooked (the breast was blood raw) after following their directions, they sent us a gift card for about 3 times the price of the turkey. So this year’s turkey (and next year’s and part of the year after’s turkey) was free. Due to the warnings this year about problems with turkeys and salmonella, I was concerned about putting the turkey - even though it is still in its packaging - on the right hand top shelf of our refrigerator, the only one tall enough to hold the turkey - even though it is lying down. So I was going to put it on one of my platters - but then realized that they are pottery and might absorb any leaks and any salmonella in the leaks. I thought and thought where I might have a large enough glass plate to hold it. So it is sitting on a lovely large dessert serving plate that we received as a wedding gift. (Yes, we have used it to serve dessert over the decades.) That left 2 small corners at the front of the shelf to put anything on it. Husband, a few weeks ago, had decided that the caffeinated diet soda he has at lunch made his shoulder/arm feel better. So we have a started bottle of decaf soda and one of caffeinated soda in the fridge. I put the decaf one on the right corner of the shelf. I then went to put the caffeinated one on the left corner of the shelf - I had forgotten that one of the reasons I hate this fridge (even before we bought it, but it was the closest to what I wanted that we could find in the emergency situation of our old one - around 30 years old - dying) is that the light bulb is in the front of it - in the middle of the fridge and one cannot put anything tall there - so the soda bottle could not go there. I managed to balance it - 3/4 of it on the center of the shelf and the front end sticking off. I warned husband - so he would be careful not to knock it off the shelf - and made him repeat to me what I said - so he cannot say I did not tell him. Of course right after this, he stopped drinking soda and switched to ice tea, so I have been drinking the decaf soda to get rid of the extra bottle. It is down enough that the bottle can lay on a lower shelf as there is so little soda left, it does not reach the neck of the bottle while it is lying down.
Yesterday (Tuesday) we went out shopping for the other things we need for the dinner. Of course the stores (we went to 2 different supermarkets and a Walmart) were jammed and out of things. I am annoyed that since we waited this long items - milk, stuffing, eggs and such - that I would normally buy in Walmart as they are cheaper there, had to bought at the supermarket and we probably blew at least $5 on the difference. (I think I have said that I am cheap.) We had to go out again today for items we did not find yesterday - another Walmart and a different supermarket. I never did get the mixed (green) beans I wanted. Somehow everything we picked is what he wanted, the mixed beans were what I wanted - plain green beans it is.
I have not cleared out the dining room yet. Nor have I cleared off the kitchen counters to have room to work. I guess whatever is in the way in the dining room will be pushed to far end - hey, it’s only us, I would like it nicer, but between dealing with his shoulder and the RV winterizing mess (which will be continued next week) I am soooo behind in getting ready. In reading my prior Thanksgiving posts (I found I already repeated myself at least once, and not repeating myself was why I read them) I was reminded that I have to go to the basement, move all the boxes of Christmas decorations in front of the very small closet that has our gas meter, a blanket cut in half for reenactments (in sealed plastic bags and rarely used kitchen stuff and get the platter for carving out and wash it.
I don’t know if you go shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, we do not. Never found anything worth getting. I have to wonder if people buy new TVs every year as that always seems to be the big draw. Then again, as I have mentioned, we do very little gift shopping, as well as little shopping for us. For us if we are shopping something needs replacing or there is something very new (and not expensive) that husband has decided he needs.
Remember that what you buy has to be paid for and you don’t want to be in debt forever for something that is gone in a year or two or less. Also - everything you buy has to be stored - either by you or the person you give it to - think about that when buying items for yourself or as a gift. For example husband decided last week to buy a chair at Ikea. It is a small kitchen table chair and it has a low back and is smaller than our regular chairs. He had noticed the chairs at Wendys where we have lunch are more comfortable for his shoulder and arm - after jokes about maybe since we go there so office we can borrow/rent a chair from them, he decided to look in Ikea after dinner last week. Now, we are the type of people who can shop for a package of hair pins for a week or two, but he sat in several chairs and then announced one was perfect (and “only $39") and we bought it and assembled it that night and he loves it. This left me with the chair he used before (and hopefully will again). It is now in the dining room against the wall (we keep furniture against the wall in the colonial “room at rest” manner) - out of the way until we need it again and looks decorative.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Those of you in the U.S. - have a nice Thanksgiving.
All of you - think before you shop during the holidays (and in general) before overspending or buying unneeded items which will quickly be unwanted - by yourself or as gifts. One of the movie theater chains we used to go to had a trailer to sell its gift cards for holiday gifts. It has people receiving gifts that were not appropriate and of course those who received their gift cards were happy. I will never forget one sequence - a man receives a sweater as a gift. The sweater is huge - his arms are lost in the sleeves and the sweater covers him to below his knees and he is so sad and upset and shaking his head. You don’t want to be the person who gives a gift like that! (And no, I am not pushing movie gift cards.)
Prior Thanksgiving posts -
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2015/11/thanksgiving-and-other-holidays.html
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2016/11/
http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/11/semi-unorganized-thanksgiving.html
Showing posts with label Black Friday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Friday. Show all posts
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Thursday, November 30, 2017
THANKSGIVING TURNING INTO CHRISTMAS
I hope you all had a pleasant Thanksgiving (if you are here in the U.S.) last week. Did you run out to shop during the day or the night - or did you at least wait until “Black Friday” to shop? Or are you waiting still to start shopping?
We had our Thanksgiving dinner, the two of us. I managed to bang my head - not once but twice - on the corner of the dining room table while putting away a table cover which should have been put away months and months ago - I bent over to put it in a bag and hit my head. I really screamed. Husband came in, “are you okay, and there, there’d” me and then gave me a lecture on making sure it was clear in front of me before bending over. He went back to cooking in the kitchen and I took 2 steps back and bent over again to put away the cover. I hit my head again on the same corner and same spot on my head - just less of the corner and got to listen to the lecture again. Worst of all it was the same spot on my head that I hit last month in our RV.
It was relatively easy to take out the china and items we needed. I had gone through the cabinet where it is all stored last year and donated a lot of items we did not need. Instead of needing to take out stacks and stacks of items, only one or two had to removed. How pleasant. I plan to work on the serving pieces stored in the living room next - I have better uses for the storage space there than bowls and platters we bought or received as gifts and have never used. Hmm, maybe I can finally get husband to hang two handled cups from when we were each a kid that match which are stored in the living room. He had the juice cup, I had the orange juice cup - but they match. They must have been popular cups for children back then.
The turkey had directions on it - basically we were to cook it at 325F, when the little popper popped we should test the breast with a thermometer and make sure it was at least 180F. There were also instructions to tent the turkey with foil and then remove same, and brush will oil a few times. Also on the turkey wrapping was a list of times to cook the turkey - only this said for a turkey cooked at 350F - 25 degrees higher than the instructions said to cook at. We discussed this - for a quite awhile. In the back of my head it seemed to me that I remember the same problem with the turkey from the same place last year, but could not remember what I did. We cooked it at the 325F with the logic that it could always be cooked more, but cooked not be cooked less if it was overcooked. About a half hour longer than the chart said (for cooking at 350F) the popper popped and I checked the turkey breast with a thermometer and it was 180F and rising. We took the turkey out and set it aside on the kitchen table to “set”.
In the interim we finished cooking other food items and had our soup. Husband then went to carve the turkey. The turkey breast looked wonderful as he carved into it - but as he went beyond the breast - the turkey was terribly undercooked. He finished carving the breast - moving it to another platter to do so. He then cut up the rest of the turkey - wings, legs, dark meat - and we placed it all on two oven trays to heat it further. I ended up with the 2 extra trays and 2 extra platters as a result of all this. We are not sure what went wrong - should we have cooked it at 350F instead? But the popper popped and it was the correct temperature on the thermometer. Husband has written a letter to the supermarket’s owner (this is one of those of stores where the owner’s photo is all off and he does the ads himself and is actually involved in his company day to day) asking what happened.
The dishes and all were washed Thanksgiving night. I have put all away. When I put my large platter back in the basement, I took out my “everyday” Christmas dishes and glasses. I washed them and we are using them. I move some of my normal everyday dishes higher in the cabinet - where I can’t normally reach stuff - to make room for these to fit in.
We had the leftover turkey etc for the second set of leftovers tonight. There is at least one dinner’s worth of turkey left - but that is all. It will either be eaten early next week or will be frozen.
We do not go shopping on Thanksgiving. We don’t go out for Black Friday sales either. Okay, one time husband wanted a small laptop that was going on Black Friday sale at a chain electronics store and we went and waited in line for it. He did get the laptop, but then again, it was still on sale at the same price - and in stock - the following week. It was not worth standing in line in the freezing cold. This store was rather well organized. There was a line. Items which were limited had coupons for them handed out to people by employees walking along the line, so the coupons were handed out to people based on where they were in line.
We have many times, including this year, while out on Friday to have lunch (at Wendys of course) and run errands gone past empty looking stores and malls by the time we went out. I had needed to renew a medication at the Walmart pharmacy and figured it would be ready over the weekend, but we were called Friday afternoon that it was ready decided to see how bad the crowds were. It was empty! Items which had been put out late Wednesday sealed up until the sales started, were still plentiful for the most part - husband started rooting through the DVDs. We have been in Walmarts again since then and still sale items are still in their displays - either less people came in than they thought would do so, or they intended for the sale items to be available long beyond last Friday.
When we woke up today I noticed the temperature was 61F - 61! I pointed this out to husband and suggested that today was the day to put up our outdoor Christmas decorations. He agreed. We checked our box at the post office, had lunch at Wendys and came home. We keep our outdoor decorations on a platform in the top of the garage. We used to have everything there for Christmas, but as we have aged and it is not that easy for husband to climb on a ladder and get everything - much is heavy - down, I moved the rest into our basement. He can now stand on his worktable (after clearing it off enough) and get the, only, two boxes of lights and wires, three potted artificial poinsettia, and 3 light up candy canes down. No more balancing on a ladder to hand me things. Much safer. We have some wreaths, swags, and such in our shed, but are not putting them up any longer - maybe again in the future.
We put the poinsettia in the same stands that hold our flowers the rest of the year. Husband made these poinsettia in pots. We bought artificial poinsettia which could go outside in the weather and 3 pots to fit the holders. He then bought a couple of cans of spray insulation - the kind that is a foam and expands to fit what it is in. He filled the pots and we added a poinsettia to each. The foam was topped with fake greens and they look great. 5 minutes and they are out in place.
We put lights on our bushes and a dwarf spruce tree. (The dwarf tree is now over 6 ft tall, I am so glad that I talked him out of a full size one.) Of course two set of lights did not work when tested - one of the ones which goes on the bushes and one that is red and white and goes around the white plastic pillar of our mailbox a bit of a candy cane look. We have in the boxes with the lights two electric boxes which stick into the ground. One is placed on one side of the front of our house and the other is placed on the other side of the front of our house. A long flat outdoor extension cord is plugged into the outdoor outlet and run across the front of the house, over the top of the stairs (under the door mat so no one trips) and the electric box on the side away from the outlet is plugged into it - and then the lights are plugged into the electric box. The electric box on the side of the house near the outlet is plugged into the other outlet in the wall box and the lights on that side of the front of the house plug into it.
After we put out and plugged in the lights that worked, we drove to Walmart to buy replacement. No white and red lights - no red lights on their own. We came back, put up the new light set on the bush that was short a set. Husband then took the red and white set into the garage, plugged it in and started shaking it. One half started working. So we wrapped the lit half of the strand around the mail box pillar and dropped the rest on the ground.
The wreath we bought last year for the front door was in the basement with the rest of the “in the house” decorations. The former one was decorated by husband as a copy of one we saw and liked at Colonial Williamsburg - only we used plastic fruit instead of real fruit so we could keep reusing it. The problem is that it had to hung on the outside of the storm door as it did not fit between the door and storm door - this involved annually rigging strands of fishing line around screws in the storm door and trying to adjust it so we could still see through the peep hole of the door - and remember we both on the short side. The new wreath has lights on it - lit by batteries with a timer so it is on for 6 hours every night at the same on and off time. Went up in less than 20 minutes with a magnetic hook on the door - and it is out of the weather, unlike the old wreath which if got covered snow might break free and fall.
So our house now looks presentable to the world. Husband is still trying to figure out where we could put one of those projector decorations - but the front of our house is just not set up for it.
Notice that because fixed place for the Christmas decorations in the garage and plastic boxes to hold the lights, wires, and plug in boxes for them, as well as an assigned spot in the basement to hold the Christmas decorations, it was easy and quick to find everything and put it out. The empty boxes in the garage were stacked on each other with the bags that the lights were kept in stored inside, relatively out of the way so that when we go to take down the lights - they will be easy to find again and then they will be put back up in garage along with poinsettia and the candy canes so that next week we will find them again.
Sometime next week I will put away my few Thanksgiving decorations in the house and then I will start putting out the Christmas ones. This year the holidays seem to be going okay.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
As you take out your holiday decorations and other items try to leave the packing in a way that it will be easy to find and put everything away after the holiday. If it is all a mess - try to figure out while you unpack items how you can better store them away at the end of the season to make them either to access next year, while not being in your way all year.
We had our Thanksgiving dinner, the two of us. I managed to bang my head - not once but twice - on the corner of the dining room table while putting away a table cover which should have been put away months and months ago - I bent over to put it in a bag and hit my head. I really screamed. Husband came in, “are you okay, and there, there’d” me and then gave me a lecture on making sure it was clear in front of me before bending over. He went back to cooking in the kitchen and I took 2 steps back and bent over again to put away the cover. I hit my head again on the same corner and same spot on my head - just less of the corner and got to listen to the lecture again. Worst of all it was the same spot on my head that I hit last month in our RV.
It was relatively easy to take out the china and items we needed. I had gone through the cabinet where it is all stored last year and donated a lot of items we did not need. Instead of needing to take out stacks and stacks of items, only one or two had to removed. How pleasant. I plan to work on the serving pieces stored in the living room next - I have better uses for the storage space there than bowls and platters we bought or received as gifts and have never used. Hmm, maybe I can finally get husband to hang two handled cups from when we were each a kid that match which are stored in the living room. He had the juice cup, I had the orange juice cup - but they match. They must have been popular cups for children back then.
The turkey had directions on it - basically we were to cook it at 325F, when the little popper popped we should test the breast with a thermometer and make sure it was at least 180F. There were also instructions to tent the turkey with foil and then remove same, and brush will oil a few times. Also on the turkey wrapping was a list of times to cook the turkey - only this said for a turkey cooked at 350F - 25 degrees higher than the instructions said to cook at. We discussed this - for a quite awhile. In the back of my head it seemed to me that I remember the same problem with the turkey from the same place last year, but could not remember what I did. We cooked it at the 325F with the logic that it could always be cooked more, but cooked not be cooked less if it was overcooked. About a half hour longer than the chart said (for cooking at 350F) the popper popped and I checked the turkey breast with a thermometer and it was 180F and rising. We took the turkey out and set it aside on the kitchen table to “set”.
In the interim we finished cooking other food items and had our soup. Husband then went to carve the turkey. The turkey breast looked wonderful as he carved into it - but as he went beyond the breast - the turkey was terribly undercooked. He finished carving the breast - moving it to another platter to do so. He then cut up the rest of the turkey - wings, legs, dark meat - and we placed it all on two oven trays to heat it further. I ended up with the 2 extra trays and 2 extra platters as a result of all this. We are not sure what went wrong - should we have cooked it at 350F instead? But the popper popped and it was the correct temperature on the thermometer. Husband has written a letter to the supermarket’s owner (this is one of those of stores where the owner’s photo is all off and he does the ads himself and is actually involved in his company day to day) asking what happened.
The dishes and all were washed Thanksgiving night. I have put all away. When I put my large platter back in the basement, I took out my “everyday” Christmas dishes and glasses. I washed them and we are using them. I move some of my normal everyday dishes higher in the cabinet - where I can’t normally reach stuff - to make room for these to fit in.
We had the leftover turkey etc for the second set of leftovers tonight. There is at least one dinner’s worth of turkey left - but that is all. It will either be eaten early next week or will be frozen.
We do not go shopping on Thanksgiving. We don’t go out for Black Friday sales either. Okay, one time husband wanted a small laptop that was going on Black Friday sale at a chain electronics store and we went and waited in line for it. He did get the laptop, but then again, it was still on sale at the same price - and in stock - the following week. It was not worth standing in line in the freezing cold. This store was rather well organized. There was a line. Items which were limited had coupons for them handed out to people by employees walking along the line, so the coupons were handed out to people based on where they were in line.
We have many times, including this year, while out on Friday to have lunch (at Wendys of course) and run errands gone past empty looking stores and malls by the time we went out. I had needed to renew a medication at the Walmart pharmacy and figured it would be ready over the weekend, but we were called Friday afternoon that it was ready decided to see how bad the crowds were. It was empty! Items which had been put out late Wednesday sealed up until the sales started, were still plentiful for the most part - husband started rooting through the DVDs. We have been in Walmarts again since then and still sale items are still in their displays - either less people came in than they thought would do so, or they intended for the sale items to be available long beyond last Friday.
When we woke up today I noticed the temperature was 61F - 61! I pointed this out to husband and suggested that today was the day to put up our outdoor Christmas decorations. He agreed. We checked our box at the post office, had lunch at Wendys and came home. We keep our outdoor decorations on a platform in the top of the garage. We used to have everything there for Christmas, but as we have aged and it is not that easy for husband to climb on a ladder and get everything - much is heavy - down, I moved the rest into our basement. He can now stand on his worktable (after clearing it off enough) and get the, only, two boxes of lights and wires, three potted artificial poinsettia, and 3 light up candy canes down. No more balancing on a ladder to hand me things. Much safer. We have some wreaths, swags, and such in our shed, but are not putting them up any longer - maybe again in the future.
We put the poinsettia in the same stands that hold our flowers the rest of the year. Husband made these poinsettia in pots. We bought artificial poinsettia which could go outside in the weather and 3 pots to fit the holders. He then bought a couple of cans of spray insulation - the kind that is a foam and expands to fit what it is in. He filled the pots and we added a poinsettia to each. The foam was topped with fake greens and they look great. 5 minutes and they are out in place.
We put lights on our bushes and a dwarf spruce tree. (The dwarf tree is now over 6 ft tall, I am so glad that I talked him out of a full size one.) Of course two set of lights did not work when tested - one of the ones which goes on the bushes and one that is red and white and goes around the white plastic pillar of our mailbox a bit of a candy cane look. We have in the boxes with the lights two electric boxes which stick into the ground. One is placed on one side of the front of our house and the other is placed on the other side of the front of our house. A long flat outdoor extension cord is plugged into the outdoor outlet and run across the front of the house, over the top of the stairs (under the door mat so no one trips) and the electric box on the side away from the outlet is plugged into it - and then the lights are plugged into the electric box. The electric box on the side of the house near the outlet is plugged into the other outlet in the wall box and the lights on that side of the front of the house plug into it.
After we put out and plugged in the lights that worked, we drove to Walmart to buy replacement. No white and red lights - no red lights on their own. We came back, put up the new light set on the bush that was short a set. Husband then took the red and white set into the garage, plugged it in and started shaking it. One half started working. So we wrapped the lit half of the strand around the mail box pillar and dropped the rest on the ground.
The wreath we bought last year for the front door was in the basement with the rest of the “in the house” decorations. The former one was decorated by husband as a copy of one we saw and liked at Colonial Williamsburg - only we used plastic fruit instead of real fruit so we could keep reusing it. The problem is that it had to hung on the outside of the storm door as it did not fit between the door and storm door - this involved annually rigging strands of fishing line around screws in the storm door and trying to adjust it so we could still see through the peep hole of the door - and remember we both on the short side. The new wreath has lights on it - lit by batteries with a timer so it is on for 6 hours every night at the same on and off time. Went up in less than 20 minutes with a magnetic hook on the door - and it is out of the weather, unlike the old wreath which if got covered snow might break free and fall.
So our house now looks presentable to the world. Husband is still trying to figure out where we could put one of those projector decorations - but the front of our house is just not set up for it.
Notice that because fixed place for the Christmas decorations in the garage and plastic boxes to hold the lights, wires, and plug in boxes for them, as well as an assigned spot in the basement to hold the Christmas decorations, it was easy and quick to find everything and put it out. The empty boxes in the garage were stacked on each other with the bags that the lights were kept in stored inside, relatively out of the way so that when we go to take down the lights - they will be easy to find again and then they will be put back up in garage along with poinsettia and the candy canes so that next week we will find them again.
Sometime next week I will put away my few Thanksgiving decorations in the house and then I will start putting out the Christmas ones. This year the holidays seem to be going okay.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
As you take out your holiday decorations and other items try to leave the packing in a way that it will be easy to find and put everything away after the holiday. If it is all a mess - try to figure out while you unpack items how you can better store them away at the end of the season to make them either to access next year, while not being in your way all year.
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