10 days until Christmas!

Gary and I went to my parents’ house to help decorate the big tree today.  We have a few more gifts to get this week and then we should be done with shopping, and thank you’s to all of our friends and family that we have received cards from already!  We should be sending out ours this weekend, so friends and family, expect to get yours in the mail next week!

😀

On Thursday, Gary and I attended the Jingle Ball in downtown Raleigh.  Each person attending brought one gift valued at $20 or more and all the gifts were donated to the Salvation Army.  We also met up with our friends Sean, Amanda, Elizabeth, Katharine, Meredith, and a few friends of Katharine showed up.  Food and beverages were provided by Rocky Top Hospitality.

This was our first year attending and it’s a great cause, there were so many toys donated and collected.  I hope we are able to attend next year 🙂

Actually it was in the 60’s today but here on my blog it’s snowing!  A very cool feature wordpress is offering, but expires sometime in January, so just a little something for the holidays.  My blog background is white, so you’ll see it more on darker images and lettering, but hopefully the people at wordpress will have an year round option like falling petals or rain drops (hint, hint) 🙂

This weekend, Gary and I went holiday shopping on Saturday at two malls.  I found my dress for the holiday ball this week, got a new working battery for my watch from the Dakota Watch Company, and saw some cops patting down a few teens at the Sunglass Hut.  Gary got to drool over games at Game Stop, and then we picked up some Lindt Chocolate before heading to our friends house for a wine tasting, where we sampled about 3 white wines, 2 or 3 reds, and a sparkling wine. A portion of the proceeds go to homelessness in Wake County by ‘Wines for Humanity‘ (there were also a lot of yummy things to nibble on that everyone contributed to).  It’s a neat idea if you want to plan a get together with friends and help a cause.

My birthday isn’t for another couple of weeks, but Gary wanted to give it to me early a few days ago and I’m so glad he did!  A co-worker of his  who plays tennis and knows about rackets and such helped him pick out rackets based on grip and size for myself and Gary got one as well as a dual case for the rackets and balls (some of which were pink in support of breast cancer research as well as my racket which for some reason looks more purple in the photo, but it is more pink 🙂 )

I had been mentioning how I wanted to get back into playing, and I thought he would enjoy it as well.  Indeed he has!  Tonight he said that he didn’t know he would truly enjoy it as much as he does!  We have tennis courts right down the street from us, so we have been playing every night so far.

We’re looking forward to playing more and getting better 😉

What is your favourite food tradition at Thanksgiving and what are you Thankful for?

Almost everyone has a certain dish or dishes they look forward to each year for Thanksgiving.  Mine would have to be the sweet potatoes or mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a pie of some sort.

For those of you who are looking for recipes or ideas, check out http://www.foodnetwork.com.  A great resource any time of the year, but they have a page just for thanksgiving recipes:

And don’t forget your vegetarian friends, there are soy turkey alternatives out there (thanks mom and dad) and lots of yummy side dishes 🙂

And I would have to say, I am thankful for everything in my life, my husband, my pets, a caring family, and fabulous friends, most of you, we will hopefully be seeing next month and during all the Christmas Parties we have on the calendar 😀

Added afterwards:
I check out the blog http://www.ecorazzi.com, its in my RSS reader, and they have a post with links from other blogs with Thanksgiving recipes for vegetarians and vegans out there

So I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about the Sarah Palin / Turkey fiasco, and the question came up “what happens to the pardoned turkey?”

Fabulous question, since neither of us knew, and it’s not as dismal as originally thought.

Check out the White House’s page on past pardoned turkeys:

And MSNBC.com has more info about the turkeys that went to disneyworld/disneyland. They were so overweight that they had to go on a ‘conditioning program’

but I was glad to see the turkeys actually are pardoned.  At least one turkey won’t be on someone’s table for over consumption.

Since the last post, Gary and I have been seeing our friends for dinners in the evenings.  I went out with the girlfriends at The Big Easy Cajun downtown, and on Friday, Gary’s parents celebrated my birthday early by taking us to dinner at the state club, and then to see Annie at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts.  A fun show, and all the performers did a good job, even when Annie’s curly hair fell off at one point, and the doggie was well trained and very laid back.

I saw that Broadway Series South Present Chicago the Musical will be here in December, and I’m hoping Gary and I will get a chance to see it!

A Thank You goes out to all military veterans.

Don’t forget to thank vetrans you know, grandparents, friends . . .

Once again, as it does every year, the holidays sneak up and catch you off guard.  I was driving back from a session at the beach, with the radio on and realized – half way through the song, that I was listening to a Christmas tune.  I twittered it, and someone replied that they hear Christmas music when they were in Walmart.

I was also out picking up a few items and saw the gift sets and packaging out and about, ready for the craze.

So, with all this in mind, does anyone have a place they like to shop for gifts?  Suggestions for unique gifts?  Websites you go to to look for something for family or friends?  Do you prefer to give or get a gift or a gift card/money?

more later . . .