Winner of the spa items giveaway, and how Thanksgiving worked out for us

Good morning! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. As promised, the winner of the drawing, this morning. Linda M, the first comment on the spa items giveaway blog post, your number was selected! Send me an email with your mailing address, so I can get this package off to you quickly. (lili.mounce@gmail.com)

Other topics . . .
You remember my plan to have the entire clan help with Thanksgiving, not just cooking, but all of the additional chores attached to a holiday dinner?

It all worked well. We had 7 people for dinner, and everyone had prepared a different dish to go with dinner (even our two guests).

The 5 of us in my family worked extra chores, both before and after dinner. One daughter was the game-master during dinner, and then washed the serving dishes afterwards. The other daughter filled water glasses before and during dinner, then made tea for everyone after dinner. My son set out the butter, cranberry sauce, olives and pickles before dinner, and then cleared the table after dinner. My husband set the table with plates, silverware and napkins, plus ran the dishwasher before dinner and emptied it out, so we would have room for washing all of the dinner plates. After dinner, he wiped down the counters and stovetop. And I put together the centerpiece, set out placemats and decorated the table for dinner, then put away all of the leftovers after dinner. No one person was burdened with more work than any other. And I completely believe this is how our holiday meals should work for the future.

We kept to a work schedule for preparing our dishes, too. I was very happy with the way use of the the kitchen worked out. Some of us prepared our dishes the day before, and others prepared dishes the day of Thanksgiving. My son and his girlfriend cooked together, which doubled as date-time for the two of them. Other than those two, the rest of us preferred to have the kitchen to ourselves, as we cooked.


Of course, no holiday weekend is complete without at least one disaster. Our water heater sprung a leak overnight, Friday into Saturday. At least we got the full-load of dishes through the dishwasher from Thanksgiving, before this happened.

While I just now called it a disaster, really it isn't. Inconvenient and unpleasant, but not a disaster. Our water heater is in the garage, so no damage to the house was done. And I've been putting aside money, every month, to replace the water heater. So, we are covered, financially.

We've muddled along with boiling water on the stove for washing dishes, and very shallow baths. It's all doable, and the situation will be resolved in the next couple of days.

In the meantime, there is an upside. I'm sure we are using much less water than ever. Without a functioning water heater, there is nothing keeping any of us standing under a prolonged, steady stream of water on a cold morning.

Always a silver lining, isn't there?

Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the Thanksgiving week

Mexi-bean soup, made from refried beans, canned tomatoes in liquid, cumin,
vegetable liquid, carrots, olives and topped with fried corn tortilla strips

Friday

• turkey, cream cheese, dried cranberry sandwiches on homemade French bread
• canned corn, heated in the microwave
• carrot sticks and 1000 Island dip
• olives

Saturday

One daughter and I worked at a fund-raiser all day. we were blessed with everything to make a large tossed salad for dinner that night -- lettuce, cucumber, grape tomatoes, baby carrots, croutons and dressing. As we were gone all day, I looked in the freezer for something to go with the salad. I found a large container of soup.

• tossed salad
• soup from the freezer, a homemade tomato-beef soup from last week
• corn tortilla chips
• birthday cupcakes (my son's birthday)

Sunday

We went out for a birthday celebration lunch to celebrate both my son's and his girlfriend's birthdays. When we came back home, we had a scratch-baked cake, and opened gifts. We were all so full that I knew dinner would be a small and simple one. Here's what I made:

• large tossed salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrots, parsley, ranch dressing (all from the fund-raiser that my daughter and I worked on Saturday), plus olives, cheese, turkey, cabbage
• corn tortillas, topped with cheddar, chopped onions, chili powder and olives, then broiled until toasty

Monday

Early week will feature refried beans as the main item. Day #1 of refried beans will be bean, cheese and rice burritos.

• bean, cheese, rice burritos, plus I found one fast-food packet of hot sauce in the fridge, split five ways
• carrots sticks
• leftover cake

Tuesday

Day #2 of refried beans -- turn some of the beans into Mexi-bean soup, by adding some canned tomatoes, liquid from veggies, olives, cumin, carrots sticks leftover from last night, cut into dices and all was simmered on the stove until the carrots were soft.

• Mexi-bean soup, topped with fried corn tortilla strips
• oranges
• leftover cupcakes

Wednesday

Day #3 of refried beans, more bean burritos. Dinner has to be simple tonight as I've been busy cleaning the house. We'll be 7 tomorrow. A friend of my daughters from school will be joining the 6 of us. I hope we've got everything covered.

• bean, cheese and rice burritos
• oranges
• leftover cake

Thursday

The big feast day.

• turkey and gravy
• praline sweet potato casserole
• green bean casserole
• stuffing
• Thanksgiving fried rice, with turkey ham, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and green onion
• pumpkin pie, apple pie
• olives, pickles, cranberry sauce

I know what we're having for dinner tonight, and I bet you can guess!!

For those in the US, I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving with family. And for all of us, I guess the holiday season is upon us, now. Holiday music on the radio. Decorations going up in the neighborhood. Black Friday sales, and a few freebies (free donuts and coffee at Fred Meyer, this morning). 

Have a wonderful weekend, all!