What to do the day after Thanksgiving

The Friday after Thanksgiving was the girls and my last full day in California.  All we knew for sure is that we wanted to spend it with family.  And that is what we did.

Shopping

Kim and Kathy went shopping at Piecemakers Country Store and Quilt Shop.  I had a great time picking out Christmas fabric and Christmas presents that all were 25% off.  The best part was that I had Kathy as my own personal shopping consultant.  We also enjoyed a home cooked lunch at their shop.

Surfing

Kathy and I had to hurry back from shopping to be in time for the afternoon surfing lessons.  Andy had bought these as a Christmas gift for the girls.  (Yes, he did offer it to me also but I decided to pass.)  Jonna and I were the official photographers of this event.  Sela, a past recipient of surfing lessons, demonstrated, and Eli came along to play in the water.

Gingerbread Village Assembly

I was unaware that Jonna has a tradition of assembling gingerbread houses every Christmas season.  This has never been a tradition for me so I need to clarify here that Jonna is the expert.  She gave us our assignments on Friday night and we all got to work.  Jonna used a glue gun but the rest of us tried to use only frosting.  Most of us were using the glue gun before the project was done even though one of us insisted this was cheating.  

Thanksgiving 2017

My Thanksgiving Day started with the 38th Annual Torrance California Turkey Trot.  We think there were about 4000 people there based on the highest race numbers we saw.  Andy and I walked while Laura and Emily ran.






Afterwards, Andy headed back to his house to make the green beans for our Thanksgiving dinner and the girls and I headed back to Nana and Papa's house so Emily could to finish up the final preparations on the turkey and stuffing.  Everything else had been handled on the Tuesday and Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving.  Laura created the decorations.  I worked on the sides and Emily handled the mashed potatoes and prepped for the turkey and stuffing.

Meanwhile, Jonna was busy setting up her house to handle a meal for fifteen people.  She set the tables, created place cards with Sela, set up the hors d'oeurves and otherwise decorated her home.

Emily and I were to first to arrive at Andy's as we needed to cook the turkey and stuffing in Jonna's double ovens.  Andy graciously opened some wine for us and we tested out my tomato jam appetizer while we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive.

Besides Jonna's parents and her niece and her husband, the rest of the guests were from the Spilsbury side of the family.  Per Nana's request, we managed to get in a Spilsbury group photo before the evening ended.  As you can see by the photo, it was a really special day.  

Visiting California

I just returned home from Southern California.  I was there for about five days before Laura and Emily joined me.  I was able to keep myself plenty busy before they got there.

At first, I thought I would just enjoy being pampered at the hotel.
Their Bistro served Starbucks White Chocolate Mocha and this oatmeal dish every morning.
This was much better than at home where I have to make my own oatmeal
and it never looks this pretty.  I actually took this picture to show Mike in
hopes of conning him into making it this way for me at home.  He said no.  

Then I felt I should get out more so I went shopping.
I was actually looking for the entrance to Joann's fabric store when I discovered
a See's candy store.  See's makes my favorite candy- orange and dark chocolate wafers - for a short time every fall.
I was shocked to find they still had some available for sale.  I was very happy.  

After eating all that candy and Starbucks coffee and oatmeal, I decided I
needed to exercise.  The first night I walked around the hotel but the next morning
I discovered Wilson Park.  Wilson Park has everything- a walking track, tennis courts,  horseshoe throwing,
roller hockey rink, a baseball field, a tree house and on two mornings a week a farmers market.
The best part about walking around the park besides the weather was all the people watching I
could do.  Over the week besides watching other walkers and their dogs I saw tai chi and kendo sword classes, Mommy and Me exercise classes, and tennis games.    

However, I was actually in Southern California to visit my family.
My brother invited me to walk near his house on Saturday morning and then
join his family for breakfast.  Of course, I went because I wanted to spend quality
time with him and his family but hanging around at the beach was an additional point
in his favor.  

My visit was not all fun and games.  I actually came to organize a Thanksgiving dinner for the Spilsbury, Peterson and Jerome families.  Eli volunteered to help make the butter cookies for Thanksgiving Day dessert.  I gratefully accepted his help because I knew he had been making these cookies with Aunt Kathy for years.  Turns out Kathy never even gave him the rolling pin.  So I include this picture to show Kathy that he is now an expert at this part of making butter cookies.  While Eli and I worked on the cookies, Sela was busy making jewelry.  Here she is polishing the stones she needed.

Eli and I made a lot of butter cookies.  I did not tell him I had doubled the recipe until we were about half way through.  My philosophy is that you can never have too many butter cookies.

To make it up to him, I made Taffy Butter bars as a snack but I messed up the recipe which is pretty hard to do.  The Spilsbury's kept telling me they still tasted fine but I think they were just being nice.

I enjoyed all this time with my California family but we were all still looking forward to Laura's and Emily's arrival right before Thanksgiving.  That is when things got even busier.

Nancy's Chicago Pizza - Unofficial Restaurant Review

Hello! It is Guest Blogger, Laura. I'm here to talk about farm life while Mom was in California. Except I guess I'm not really talking about farm life as none of what I'm about to write about takes place on the farm.

I decided to visit Dad for the weekend. I thought he might be a little bored since Mom was out of town. On Saturday, we decided to drive to Litchfield to eat at Nancy's Chicago Pizza. And since it was Grandma's birthday and she likes pizza, we decided she should come with us. 

Waiting for our food. It was a decent wait, but we were expecting it. After all, we were waiting on DEEP-dish pizzas. 

Grandma enjoying her first piece of deep dish Chicago style pizza. We all started eating using knives and forks but quickly decided it was easier to use our hands. 

Finishing the meal with Vanilla Bean Cheesecake. Like the pizza, these pieces of cheesecake were large and deep.

We unanimously decided that we would definitely be going back to Nancy's Chicago Pizza. Dad decided it wasn't quite as good as the pizza place he went to last time he was in Chicago, but he was sad that we hadn't ordered a second pizza for him to take home for later. 

Changes

#1

Frank and Lois hired a local landscape company to redo the flower beds in their front yard.  The crew ended up working harder at taking out the decades old bushes and flowers than at installing the new plants.  To make maintenance easier they added edging bricks all around the beds and filled them with easy to care for flowering bushes and rock.  This was the same company that landscaped the gazebo for the wedding.

#2

The leaves are about finished changing color and now they are dropping to the ground.  These pictures were taken from our back balcony.  In the first picture below you can see the farm field through the trees for the first time since spring.  

#3

I've changed my walking path.  I know walk further on Snow Cemetery than I previously.  Here is a picture of a stream I crossed near the dairy farmers property.  

Finally the last of the tomatoes 

or Thanksgiving Guinea Pigs

Before the first frost I picked the last remaining tomatoes and uprooted the plants so there could not be anymore.  I collected over six pounds of green tomatoes.

I actually waited a week or two before I got around to finding a way to use this many tomatoes.  There were two reasons for this.  One was because they were all green and hard and I had to put them in paper bags and wait for them to ripen.  The second reason was that I lacked motivation.  I just really did not want to make and freeze anymore salsa, pasta sauce or chopped tomatoes.  Then Mike and I joined the girls at Roosters Best Breakfast in Missouri restaurant and I was introduced to Tomato Jam.

At Roosters, both Suzanne and I had one of the customer favorites- a goat cheese and tomato jam savory crepe.  It included spinach and mushrooms but the best part was the tomato jam.  It was both sweet and spicy and made the dish.  I went home and started searching for recipes.

Many of the recipes suggested canning the results.  I have never done this before but I really need another method to store all this produce Mike and I keep growing.  Right now my freezer is so full of frozen produce I cannot get anything else in there.  So after several trips to the store I collected all the ingredients I needed for my recipe and all the equipment I needed to can my jam.

I was finally ready to start and I unwraped the blue enamel canning pot with canning rack and read the instructions.  Practically the first thing it said was that this pot could not be used as a water bath for canning jars on a glass cooktop.  I have a glass cooktop.  Using this pot could cause the cooktop to crack and, they added, the cooktop would not be able to maintain a consistent temperature for boiling the jars as it had a concave bottom.  After much deliberation I decided to make the tomato jam anyway and just eat it fast.  

Hence, the other title for todays blog.  I am going to pack some of these jars of tomato jam and take them to California for Thanksgiving.  After all I am going to need to use them up quickly and there are 17 lucky people coming over for dinner who will get a chance to try this new recipe.  I think I will pour the tomato jam over cream cheese and serve it with crackers as an appetizer.  Who knows?  Maybe it will surpass the turkey as the best dish.  

Shortening Mike's To Do List

Mike has been tackling his ever growing to do list.  Here is what he has accomplished

Taking the dogs on daily walks through the timber.
I do not care what Suzanne says.
Gracie already looks skinnier.  

Pulling the water mat out of the pond.
Don't think anyone is going swimming any time soon.  

Taking Hunter fishing.

Removing a huge log from a very low pond.  

A really huge log.

Dismantling said huge log so it can be moved to even higher ground.
All our kayakers and stand up paddle boarders should be very happy.
They will be able to get around the pond much easier now or
they will once the pond fills up with water again.     

Fall Continued...

Still enjoying watching for the colors of fall.  I see them on the Public Library's Fall Tree and at sunset on my daily walks.  After our last cold spell, our show of color on the local trees got even more vibrant.  And they make a great backdrop for our gazebo.  

Laura's Birthday

Laura's birthday was Friday but Mike, Blackie and I did not see her until Saturday.  I do not think she missed us though.  She attended a Harry Potter Trivia Night on Friday with nine or her friends and one sister, Suzanne.

Laura was really pleased to have Suzanne come share her birthday with her but she was even more pleased that Suzanne's visit coincided with a Harry Potter Trivia Night since Suzanne is great at all things Harry Potter.  The team came in fifth out of forty-three so it was good that Suzanne came.

Laura and her Harry Potter Trivia team dressed up as the Weasley family.  

Mike and I caught up with the two girls Saturday morning.  Suzanne was only going to be in town for the weekend so Mike decided that we should bring some of the dogs to her as she would not be able to make it to the pond to see them.  We squeezed Frankie, Blackie and Gracie into my car but had to draw the line at Buddy, the Golden Retriever.  Mabel already had plans for the day (she was at doggie day care with Grandpa and Grandma) so we did not bring her either.

Suzanne and Laura, with photo shy Blackie and Frankie

We dropped off the dogs at Laura's apartment and picked up our two girls and Michelle and Taylor.  Michelle and Taylor were former college roommates of Laura's.  Taylor now lives and works in St. Louis and Michelle had come to visit for the weekend.  Mike and I enjoyed catching up on what was going on with all the girls.  We took them to brunch and then wandered through the mall.

While Suzanne was visiting us Heath had gone camping and taken their dog Finn along.  Cell phone reception was a bit spotty so Suzanne was concerned about how they were doing.  One of her concerns was that Finn would run off because he loves to run and play but is not known for returning when called.  

Apparently, the trip went fine because Heath and Finn returned home safely.  Here is a picture of Finn enjoying himself camping.  I do not think Suzanne every really had anything to worry about.  He looks pretty relaxed to me.  

Anyway, I cannot speak for Laura but Mike and I and the three dogs really enjoyed her birthday weekend.  It was really great to have Suzanne come visit too.