and now for a reality check

A man rings my doorbell.  When I answer he is standing away from the door, as though not to frighten me.  In broken English he asks if I have any work.  A number of years ago a similar man knocked at my door on Christmas Eve with the same question.  That day I had work that needed to be finished in the yard so I gave him work.  He still works for us many years later. So this time  I sadly shake my head and say no, I'm sorry I don't have anything.  He says thank you and walks on to the next house.  I come back into my nice warm house and wonder what I should have done.

the traditional Noche Buena to-do list

Sent the evites for Noche Buena yesterday and now the countdown begins!  With invites out to potentially 80 people we will probably end up with 30+ as actual attendees.    We are currently at 14 and the invites haven't been out there for 24 hours yet.  I'll have to look at past years attendance  I think it has been as many as 50 and as few as 28. Edit:  now approaching or surpassing 40. It all depends on which people are hosting Christmas for their families and which are going out of town for Christmas.  And on which children's friends are home for Christmas.  Alas, my favorite Michael is now living in LA and won't be here.  It's a tradition that I find him on the sofa on Christmas morning and send him home to his parents house.

My menu is always a work in progress so I'll see how it ends up at the end.

Menu
Boneless pork loins - need to buy another one  Now have three ready to cook
Picadillo meat ballsj - made and in freezer  Need to make one more bag of meatballs
Black Beans - in freezer  Will throw in a couple more cans of beans
Rice  Borrow extra rice cooker from Margie
Plantains - maduros and tostones? purchased and ready for re-heating  Receheck supply and cook in advance for reheating

Appetizers
Deviled ham spread  Buy cream cheese and deviled ham
Olive/Cheese balls  Done
Salami/etc  check supply and buy some more cheese
Parmesean cheese sticks - in freezer
and what else?  search through new tapas books - make olive/almond recipe from Trader Joes's cookbook 
chifles
Cream cheese and guava jelly on triscuit

Dessert -  Cookies!  - in freezer

BUY MORE WINE/BEER/ Make punch

• Get tree decorated and place plastic poinsettias around for color and decoration.    -
  Done
• Start the cooking frenzy and freeze, freeze, freeze - In progress
• Trader Joes for wine
• Decide on a non-alcoholic punch for this year.  I hate all those left over sodas that we don't drink.  - Cranberry/Lemonade -
•  Wrap gifts - basically done
•  Clean, Clean, Clean
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Thanksgiving in three parts

Thanksgiving doesn't follow some specific pattern at my house except I always cook.  Occasionally it will be a small group of just us and my dad and a child or two.  Usually it has been a bigger affair, since once you are cooking all that food you may as well have lots of people to eat it so we've had the year when the table was full of children's friends who were all criss-crossing the country during Thanksgiving and happened to be in DC at the time.  That was a giant rauccous group including a stuffed owl doll at the table!  Another noteworthy Thanksgiving was one where one simple invite to a divorced friend ended with me hosting her new boyfriends entire family for Thanksgiving.  (I did not issue her a T-giving invite in subsequent years.)  Often it is  just a random collection of famlly and friends and one of my favorites was when Thanksgiving dinner was the rehearsal dinner for K and G's wedding and we had our entire new family in attendance - all 17 of us plus kids!

This year was entirely different.  Starting with what may end up as a new tradition we had a Friendsgiving at a friend's home on the Saturday before Thankstgiving.. A group of us who are all good friends were invited and she fixed a lovely Thanksgiving meal.   It was a nice small friendly group, not including any family so we minimized the potential for family arguments, door slamming and tears which also seems to go hand in hand with the Thanksgiving tradition.

Then on Thanksgiving Day I made a turkey pot pie from leftover turkey I found in the freezer from last Christmas and we enjoyed a day at the house getting some chores done and an all around quiet and relaxed day.  I LOVED it.


And our final, and family Thanksgiving, will be next weekend when we go to Michigan and join the children at the girls home where they are planning to cook a Thanksgving meal (god help us) and we will spend a whirlwind 36 hours with them, and get to meet the girlfriend!  (I am taking back-up Cuban sandwiches and pastries just in case........)

From "I See You Everywhere" by Julia Glass

"I've tried, I really have, to let go of the world - but I can't.  The world weighs so much and it bears down so hard."

"......we had our full dose of Sunday school - like a course of antibiotics...."

"I have learned, just recently, to give people things to do in a crisis.  Accepting favors is an odd form of mercy."

Inspired by Cinderellen

cinderellen's corner: My Stuff, Prole Style

I was inspired by Cinderellen's post to create my own list of necessities:

Necessary Extravagance:   A good haircut
Favorite Place in the World:  The beach
Jeans:  Gloria Vanderbilt from BJ's
T Shirt: Actually a heavy weight long sleeve polo from the Eddie Bauer circa 1999
Jewelry: fun Gumball necklace from cheap beach store
Obsessed with shoes by:  any shoe in a AA or AAA width at any price
Sheets:  Would love to have good sheets, am too cheap to pay the big bucks
Lipstick:  Rimmel
Moisturizer:  from the drug store sale flyer
Where do you go for facials:  I put my face over the dishwasher during the drying cycle
Toothpaste:  Crest

more perspective

I posted about my good friend whose life is hell due to the incapacity of her husband caused by medical errors.  Although they will be financially able to afford his care, they will be forever in a state of hell.  That put my petty concerns into perspective really fast.

Now, I have had three friends in the last couple of weeks who are all dealing with various stages of medical problems - all of which have long term consequences for them and remind all of us of our mortality.  One friend, who was actually just diagnosed a few weeks ago, is undergoing treatment that I'm afraid my actually kill him.  Although no one wants to say the words "palliative care" I think they are important to keep in mind.  Treatment that provides no anticipation of any future quality of life may not be the best choice.

Another friend is having problems with medication balances which are rendering her virtually a prisoner in her home since she has no idea when she will just collapse!    A scary thing to find your body is just unable to hold you up anymore and finding your self on the floor.

And another just sent an email that says "Need to reschedule because we have an appointment at Hopkins that day that we can't change...."  OK, that is actually code for "we are seeking a second or third opinion, or we have something so complicated that we are heading to Hopkins."  Although Johns Hopkins is just about an hour away from us no one uses it as our first line medical care.  So, that email tells me a lot in a few words.

Knock wood, we are all in good health, including my 92 year old father, so even when I complain I really know that I have nothing to complain about.  Life is good.  My job now is to be a good friend to all these good friends since I know they would do the same for me.

catching up, getting ready

After a lovely "work week" at the beach where I sat around watching people to install new windows and a new door at my condo I returned home to get things around the house here caught up. 

My father' birthday dinner - Thanksgiving Birthday Dinner - went flawlessly thanks to the catering company that provided all the food!  This was both easy and surprisingly economical.  Food for 6 guests (and plenty of leftovers) all cooked to perfection and ready for my pickup came to $140.  I don't think that I would have spent much less on the food had I prepared it myself.  Turkey breasts at this time of year are not cheap, if you can even find one as was my problem when I tried to do this myself a few years ago.  And we had food for everyone to take home.  And the price included a spectacular birthday cake that was truly the best cake I've ever eaten (one trick was she added a touch of almond extract to the yellow cake, but she wouldn't tell me the secret to the perfect fudge icing).   Everyone had a good time, my father was happy and I didn't stress over getting the dinner on the table so success all around.

Next we have had some maintenance work done on our house - recent installation of a new heating and air conditioning, then exterior painting and repair of roof and siding.  I feel like I've done little but watch people work.  The house now looks good and should stay in good repair for a number of years.

Now I'm working at getting the inside of the house in order for us to be gone for almost 4 weeks.  Its not like leaving for the weekend.  And I'm deciding on clothes, changing my mind, pulling out different items, repeat.  Actually I'm good with the clothes now (until I change my mind again) but I do have a definite shoe issue.  I really dislike shoes, I have few shoes that actually fit me, and I can't stand wearing athletic shoes at all, which everyone seems to insist are necessary for walking distances.  My feet just get claustrophobic and want to be let loose!  So I have had a new cycle of purchase, return, repeat.  I had a huge box for Zappos.com (which I love because I can try on the shoes at all different times of day, kinds of sock/stockings, with pants, dresses, etc.  and then return the ones I don't like) from which I selected 1 pair which I'm still debating on keeping.  (Another Zappos.com perk is you have a whole year to decide if you like them.) 

We are at two weeks and counting before our departure for Spain and I'm into making the last of the lists of things to get done.  Rental car is next up but I had to recover from buying the train tickets which should have been easy but like most things in Spain, was not.  I tried the website in English and in Spanish to see what I was missing and it was just hit or miss if the transaction would go through.  Finally, after two days of trying,  I got all the tickets purchased and printed.   The rental car issues were things that could be discussed in English with insurance and credit card companies so I think I have a handle on the rules and insurance coverage and just need to deal with the second driver charges (I'm thinking that Charlie can do all the driving and I'll save that money!)

Busy weekend ahead - Happy Hour with friends on Friday, Bar Mitzvah for grandson of dear friends on Saturday, movies with other friends on Saturday night, Sunday brunch for my father.   Now off to make another list ......

• Let all credit card and bank know we are in Europe so they don't close down our accounts
• Get zinc tabs and meletonin from health food store
• Copies of all documents scanned on put onto phone/cloud
• Stop mail/Stop paper
• Arrangements for airport transportation
• Hair cut/eyebrows/makeup purchase - sounds like a day at the mall
• ............