gloomy Thursday

It's so cloudy and gloomy outside today. There's a tiny drizzle of rain falling. Yuck! I'm ready for a cold harsh winter with icy frozen nights and blustery snowy days. Maybe it isn't such a great idea to live in Tennessee if you want those kinds of winter seasons. Oh well ... a girl can dream, right?

In other news, the Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful. Our trip to SC was great. We had fun keeping Grandma Margaret company. I got to tromp around the sandy mud and share some memories with Kirk on the farm where he spent most of his childhood. We even got to experience traditional "South Carolina-style" barbecue buffet. I must admit that I was not overly impressed. Kirk and his grandmother love it. I tried almost everything (inluding the ever-mysterious "BBQ hash") but just couldn't really see what the big attraction was. I think I'd prefer to stick with "Memphis-style" barbecue. The restaurant we visited did make really good sweet tea and banana pudding, though, so the trip wasn't a total loss.

My birthday was really nice too. As we were cruising up I-75, Kirk got a call from his job telling him that he didn't have to come in to work that afternoon after all, so he was able to take me shopping and out for a nice steak dinner instead !! I felt really special. He bought me a nice professional-quality hair straightening iron. I've never had one of those before, so I've been having fun experimenting with it all week.

Well, tomorrow is my most favorite day of the week: FRIDAY. Here's to another fabulous (and hopefully arctic) weekend !

giving major thanks

I just received the glorious news that the office is allowing us to leave tomorrow at noon and take the rest of the week off with pay. Now that's something to be THANKful for !!! I'm so glad. That will give me some extra time to do laundry, pack, and prepare some food for our trip to South Carolina.

My contributions to the Thanksgiving feast on Thursday will include a made-from-scratch chocolate cake, broccoli-cheese casserole, and a combination of cream-style white corn and yellow sweet whole kernel corn. Wow ... my mouth is watering already. I'm really craving some seriously delicious roasted turkey, traditional southern-style cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, and sweet potato casserole .... oh and I musn't forget the pumpkin pie and coffee too! I don't know if that's exactly what Grandma Margaret's menu will consist of, but it's what I'm imagining right now. mmmm

Ya know, it's really a shame that we Americans choose to celebrate by eating this meal only once or twice a year. I mean, come on, this is feel-good-comfort-food at its finest!

I'm also looking forward to catching some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Even just hearing it on the TV in the background while we're busily cooking in the kitchen stirs a tradiational excitement in me.

So, with that said, Happy Thanksgiving to one and all !

I'm really excited that it's Friday. The holidays are upon us, and it is absolutely my most favorite time of the year. Kirk & I are finally recovered from our head colds that we shared with each other the last couple weeks. That was no fun at all.

We're getting very anxious for our Thanksgiving trip to South Carolina next week. We'll be visiting his maternal grandmother who lives on their old family farm in a tiny town called Denmark. I was able to travel with him down there this time last year, and it was a great trip. We're going to help prepare a yummy Turkey Day dinner with his Grandma and just go exploring on the property. We can't wait.

I've been listening to Christmas music all day yesterday and today. I know it's a "bit" early for it, but I just get into the spirit of things this time of year, and can't help myself. AOL radio has a great Oldies Holiday station that I've found. Good stuff! Next stop: decorating the apartment. I hope Kirk's ready for that, because I sure am.