Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. In addition to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and a second turkey dinner on Friday, Mum packed a container filled with leftovers for us to have for supper on Monday. Thanksgiving is one of the only times of the year when the leftovers are just as good as the original meal.

2. Karen and I still exploring meeting spots between her new home and my folks’ place. Last Saturday we chose Sturbridge, where we did much of what we would have done if we were still meeting up in Middletown — eat lunch, buy apples, and drink hot beverages.

3. Friday, Mum and I baked a batch of spritz cookies. She made the dough and shot the dough onto the trays and I decorated them. There was some confusion because she seems to be missing a few of the shape discs, but we eventually settled on poinsettas, ornaments, a few hearts, and a tray of humanoids that could have been angels, elves, or snowmen, depending on your interpretation.

Life is looking up, which makes me think that the doldrums that hit at the beginning of the week were definitely a combination of tiredness and PMS.

Getting some stuff done definitely helps, too. Rudi and I have started cleaning, which really means that the Burrow is much, much messier than it was this morning. Unfortunately, when I say messy, that translates to impossible to move around and every possible surface covered. It will get better; cleaning is one of those things that has to get worse before it improves.

I also finished the knitting of Mystery Gift #1. I still have to weave in ends and block it (it currently puckers a bit), but essentially it’s finished. I’m also nearly done with sleeve #1 of my cardigan and hope to finish it off tomorrow at lunch. I keep pushing back my expected finish date for the cardigan, so I suppose I’m now reasonably hoping for before Christmas.

Thanks for all the well wishes. I definitely appreciated them all!

I know it’s been a few days since I last wrote, but that’s because I was busy having a lovely weekend up in Connecticut. I ate lots of good food; had quality visiting time with the folks, Gramma, and Karen; and came home with pretty new shirts (thanks Mum!), (thin) socks, and shoes.

And, now, in the wake of both a holiday and a smidgen of a vacation, I’m feeling a bit low. Okay, credit that, if you will, to a lack of sleep or to its being that time of the month, or, even, to the fact that I need desperately to completely overhaul my apartment before Sunday afternoon. Nonetheless, I spent this evening curled up on the couch watching tv. Granted, I watch tv every Monday, but this week my knitting sat untouched in my bag in front of me for the whole night, even though I’m a mere 20 rows away from finishing Mystery Project #1. (Yay!)

I’m hoping tomorrow is a more productive day in all aspects. It would be great to get to party-time on Sunday without having our guests have to help us prep the food or carry the tree into the house.

Three Beautiful Thanksgiving Things from today:

1. Mum tried new squash and turnip recipes this year. They were delicious! (In fact, we might need to get the recipes…)

2. Dad lit a fire this morning just before the Macy’s Day Parade and it stayed alit pretty much all day long. It really made things seem quite cozy.

3. After Dad and I got the doughnuts this morning, I changed back into my pjs. I didn’t get dressed again until just before dinnertime.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Please get on the road now.

Rudi has to work a full day, so we won’t be leaving until what would normally be rush hour is upon us. If you leave now, you’ll get to your destination while it’s still light out and, more importantly, will not be on the road when we need to be.

Thank you.

If you’ve been wondering about the radio silence around here recently, we’ve been combating a bug problem in our bedroom. Over the summer we had a grain moth problem in our kitchen. I’d been optimistic recently we’d finally gotten a handle on them, but discovered at the end of last week that the problem had merely migrated to the other side of the wall. So Rudi and I have been washing loads and loads of laundry — all of our linens, as well as a bureau’s worth of clothing. And since we had to tear apart the room to tackle the worms, we figured we might as well do a major top to toe cleaning.

Before we leave for Thanksgiving, we will have a spotless bedroom filled with lots of clean laundry. Too bad the holiday party we’re having in ten days will be held everywhere in our apartment except our bedroom.

Oh well. It’s always the way, right?