GETTING READY FOR FAMILY & FEASTING

Aunt Ginny delegated Thanksgiving dishes to the nieces-in-law this year. Mine are sweet potato/apple/walnut casserole, with brown sugar, cinnamon and butter (a whole stick!), creamed potatoes, LeSeur peas for one of the nieces, cranberry sauce. I just told Paul I was through with preparation, but there are creamed potatoes to make in the morning. Surely that won't be difficult. Maybe I can manage that without burning them. I've burned my dish this week: pinto beans. Either I am losing it or I am just not used to my new stove. I prefer the latter. At least I know what kind of beans I burned. I do have to bake the sweet potatoes so the apples will cook. Deviled eggs are done. Why do chunks of white come off when you peel them? Most of the time I have good luck with that; I even resorted to reheating them and then peeling them. That seemed to help. I made the date/peanut butter goodies yesterday. (I took them to church the other night and Paul overheard someone say they were prunes, so they passed over them.) I may make a loaf of homemade bread in the morning in my breadmaker. It depends on how my neck is. I'm wearing a Thermacare on it today. Damp, cool weather.

I ordered some beeswax candles for Christmas, votives, one small pillar and two tapers. I was inspired by a magazine picture of crystal vases as a centerpiece and thought the candles would look nice in them.  They're practically odorless and long-burning. Not cheap, but I won't use them all at once.

We have to find the boxes of Christmas stuff - tree and what ornaments Amy had. I think mine are in the attic; I think I threw a lot away - some of the old red balls, not the homemade ones. I want to have the flamingo strand of lights on it like last year. The ones someone left on the curb in front of Amy's...

Amy had a tire mishap this morning on the interstate - one of her tires blew out! She's okay, but had to buy a new tire. T-DOT helped her out. Thanks, T-DOT! (Tennessee Department of Transportation)  She plans to come home tonight to prevent such hurry and trying to get here by 1:00 tomorrow. I don't have a thing cooked except one sweet potato that wouldn't fit in the casserole dish. Maybe I should go put on another pot of beans...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Be safe, have fun, enjoy family, football, food and naps!