One day left to salvage all my time off, which seems to have devolved to an awful lot of napping on the couch.

I’m planning to see if they have any trees at the farmers market. Going and cutting down a tree by myself just sounds depressing, I have a work event all next weekend, and Rudi’s thinking he’s gone until the middle of December, so finding an urban solution is my best hope. But if I don’t, there are tree lots open during the week.

Of course, my apartment isn’t ready for a tree, so I’ll also need to work on that. If they’ve sold out of trees in the appropriate size by the time I get to the market, that will be my one solace.

I’m a third of the way into one book and two thirds into two others.

Tomorrow is the last day of operation of one of my favorite restaurants, my local popsicle shop (which also serves other things). Their landlord is a jerk and notified them he wasn’t renewing their lease, but when I stopped by Friday for a pumpkin spice chai latte they said they had a lead on a new location. Fingers crossed, but I’d like to get over there for one last lunch order, which I can then take to the park for a bit with a book and soak up some sunlight before the rain moves in Monday.

And I would like to get over to Capitol Hill. The aforementioned work event is going to put a cramp in my local shopping, and since I didn’t time today properly, I didn’t get over there like I’d planned. But there is today.

So that’s today’s plan — farmers market, popsicle stand, park, shopping, and cleaning the apartment. (If the tree thing doesn’t work out, I reserve the right to switch out baking for cleaning.)

As long as I do not nap, it will all work out.

Okay, so apparently I was still in a food coma today (when you eat supper right before midnight, you have to carry it over to Friday), even though I only managed to make four of the ten items on my original Thanksgiving menu.

Above are stuffing, cranberry jelly, and the weird looking mashed potatoes that happen when you forget you only made one person’s worth of potatoes and add four people’s worth of milk to the pot. The shiny nature is because eventually I just wanted to eat, so I added tapioca to dry it out some. I’ll cook another potato and mix it in when I heat up the leftovers.

Not pictured is the corn pudding, which was also a little wetter than I’d hoped it would be, probably because my corn was frozen, rather than fresh. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will dry out a little more when I reheat it in the oven. My cranberry and my stuffing were excellent, so at least I had that going for me.

I’ll be making a couple more of my menu items over the weekend and will let you know how those culinary misadventures go.

Also over the weekend, I’ll get to the things that I was supposed to cross off my list today, including contacting folks about the Virtual Advent Tour. I will definitely send emails today. If any of you want to proactively volunteer to give me a post for the 5th (Saturday) or 7th (Monday), that would be really helpful, since I have a work event all next weekend. But I’ll be in touch either way.

Finally, before I go, let me put in a plug for Small Business Saturday. Local economies are hurting this year in unprecedented ways and small business owners are struggling to keep up with increased safety requirements and decreased foot traffic. If you have the ability to support your local shops, please do. They pay taxes in your town (and, hell, your country), employ local workers at decent wages, and put their dollars back into your community. (Remind me to show you a picture of Jeff Bezos’ guest mansion one of these days. It’s just up the road.) If you don’t have a local bookshop or yarn shop, the internet can help you buy small elsewhere. Many small businesses are offering specials today (including sometimes free shipping), and that gift card or small purchase you make could end up being the sale that keeps someone in business another month. You could be a hero today and get your holiday shopping done!

I lean heavily vegetarian, which means that when I decided going home for Thanksgiving wasn’t going to be an option this year, I decided to forgo the turkey and gravy. Instead, my (coffee) table will be piled high with side dishes, including:

• Stuffing
• Mashed potatoes
• Sweet potato medallions (Mum & I won’t have to squabble over my desire to leave the skin on)
• Squash (possibly stuffed) or maybe pumpkin pasties
• Corn pudding
• Cranberry
• Carrots and peppers
• Broccoli or maybe green beans
• Salad
• Cheese and crackers
• Pie

I’m aiming for 2 servings of everything except the stuffing, the cranberry, and the pie. I’ll be very happy if those linger on for a few more days.

Wow. That’s a lot of cooking I need to do over the next 40 hours. I guess I’d better get moving early tomorrow.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share what we’re thankful for this year:

1. Our family: I think Rudi and I surprised ourselves by how well we adapted to being in close quarters all the time. My parents and I talk multiple times a week. And my brother and his partner and I have seen more of each other this year via video chat than we have in years.
2. Corey: My dear lump of a cat, with his two speeds — barreling and asleep. He’s been very snuggly this year and very chatty, and our lives would be so much less without him.
3. Our health: We and our immediate families have remained relatively healthy through this year, as have our extended families. 2020 continues to hammer home that this is not something to be taken for granted.
4. Our friends: Whether the ones here in D.C. who would respond to the Bat Signal if I raised it, or the ones further afield who text and call and video chat and email, this year would be so much harder without them.
5. Security: I have an apartment I can afford. I have a job that pays enough to cover my bills and that values my health and safety enough to let me do it from home. I have a family that valued budgeting and saving and that passed that economical mindset on to give us a cushion.
6. Flexibility: Rudi has been without full-time employment for a while, and never have we been so grateful for that as when he needed to uproot things and spend a couple months out with his mom.
7. D.C.’s small businesses: I’m not going to lie: We’re seeing a lot of empty storefronts around here, and more venues are closing every week. But so far, all of our bookstores have survived. Many of our restaurants and bakeries and the farmers at our markets. The mom and pop grocery stores where you can find flour and toilet paper and cleaning supplies when the chain stores’ shelves are empty. Buying local has been important in past years, but this year local has shown us that they are here for us and that our support is tangible.
8. My garden: It’s been an oasis this year, particularly back in the spring when everything was just hard in the city. I planted less variety this year, but harvested a lot, from pounds of tomatoes to, for the first time ever, footlong cucumbers and stripey summer squash.
9. Our local libraries: They haven’t reopened for browsing since March, but they will let you request holds and come pick them up. And that has allowed us to read books and watch films in a somewhat normal fashion. And anything that feels even semi-normal is something to be embraced.
10. Voters: This year has been hard, but I do not even want to imagine what the next four months would look like if the voters of the U.S. hadn’t declared that they were ready for adults to take back over the federal government. Are these adults perfect? Nope. Will I disagree with many of their methods and policies? Undoubtedly. But I believe that they have our best interests at heart over self-interest? Absolutely.

How about you? What are you thankful for?

Oh, and, hey, while you’re here: The Virtual Advent Tour starts a week from today. Wouldn’t you like to take part?

If you’re looking for inexpensive flowers, Trader Joe’s is a really great source. These are from the past two Sundays. The blue pitcher was scrounged out of a freebie pile (one of the best things about city living…).

My office generously gave us all next week off from work, which means I get my first prolonged stretch of time mostly for myself this year. Sure, would I have preferred to spend that time in Connecticut with my family and my BFF? Definitely. Would a good back-up plan have been to spend it here in D.C. with Rudi and my local pals doing a Friendsgiving? Absolutely. Is this 2020, when the lessons of making the best of things and making do and making new traditions is hammered home again and again? Yes, yes it.

So, I will do that. What will my time off include?

• Lots of reading. I picked up this pile at the local library this evening and have two more books waiting at other branches for me. The mid-Atlantic has adopted a pathetic fallacy for its Thanksgiving week forecast, so I believe I should have plenty of time to cross a bunch of these (and some others) off my TBR list.
• Knitting. I just have the toe decreases left on my second sock, so those will definitely be wearable on Thanksgiving. Once that’s done, do I pick up projects I put down partially knit or start something new?
• Cooking and baking. My Thanksgiving meal is still evolving, but I’m narrowing in on it. I’m also thinking that I’m just going to bake every day and maybe see if local friends or my upstairs neighbors are interested in braving my germs. (All fair if they aren’t. This isn’t a normal year.) At the very least, I’ve got a couple pies (or maybe mini pies?) on my to-make list and want to give some thought to Christmas cookies. And I still have dozens of tomatoes I need to do something with.
• Prepping the apartment for Christmas. This is sort of a catch-all item that includes cleaning up my living room so there’s room for a tree, putting new batteries in the fairy lights, and
• Making some progress on my Christmas to-do list. I’ve been working off and on on this year’s Christmas mix and should start working through a playlist. I bought stamps for Christmas cards (also already in hand) this week. The local bookstore is having their quarterly sale and the downtown holiday market has come up with a socially distanced shopping plan. Rudi and I need to talk through virtual tree-trimming parties.
• Biking and spending time outside. I haven’t been great at finding that midday break from work to get outdoors, so I’m definitely going to take advantage of unfettered access to daylight (even if it’s behind clouds) this week. I also still have potatoes in the ground in the garden that I should dig up.
• Having at least one more Netflix date with Rudi.
• Writing postcards to Georgian voters!
• Holding a bunch of video chats with friends and family. We have several in the planning stage, but no set times, so I will need to marshal folks into order in the next couple days.
• Catching up on sleep.

Yes, that does look a lot like my normal weekends these days, but that’s probably okay. If I can make it to next weekend feeling less exhausted and burnt out and on edge (or maybe just one of three, since this is 2020), I’ll feel like the time has been spent well.

How’s your weekend looking?