Thanksgiving Rundown

On Monday---since our garage door openers weren't working* (see story at bottom)---I walked through Butch's workroom in the garage and saw 2 large mirrors sitting in there. I asked him about them---I thought I had more mirrors than the ones we put up, but told myself that I confused the number of mirrors with the vintage frames I'd been collecting too. He said that he told me these were in the garage. He never told me---or at least don't you think he'd have mentioned them again when I had him hanging the first ones? Anyway, my mirror wall is growing and I love it.

While Butch was in the "hanging mood" (apparently all of the picture frames didn't put him over the edge), I got him to move a few things around upstairs so I could hang the Zimmermann family portrait. I must admit, having him around has made me a bit lazy. It's true that getting up on a step stool makes me dizzy, but still that would never stop me from doing what I want to do. Since he's around, it's just easier to get him to do things! He's such a good sport---he's gotten so much more patience with retirement. When I told him how much fun our recent trip to Sandy's was---specifically, the car ride---he acted a bit offended. I told him that he used to just complain about how far and how long the ride was. Now he just goes with the flow. But, I digress....

Thanksgiving for us starts on Tuesday. I went to lunch with Connie and Nancy and to a movie---"The Next Three Days"---worth seeing.

When I got home, Butch told me that Steph had called and wanted to have people over to play pool. He agreed. All I could think of was "oh no, now I can't get in my pajamas!" The plan was that all of the girls (Steph, Jordan, Morgan and Mindy) were planning on spending the night so we could watch the Macy's Day parade and have bloody Mary's together. All of that was going to start later after everyone got here from their evenings out. Now the evening was going to start earlier than I thought. Steph's friends started to arrive around 7---and plopped down in the family room to chat. Her friend, Nick was in from California. One thing lead to another and we wound up in a poker game with all the 30-somethings and Mindy. Again, I'll never turn down any of the kids if they think we're fun enough to spend time with!!! Still not exactly the relaxing evening I'd looked forward to.

We played Texas Hold 'Em and it was like taking candy from a baby. Let's just say Steph's friends poker skills haven't quite developed yet. Butch and I just kept snickering all night as we took them to the cleaners! He took first while I took third (I was in second for a long time, but started to get tired and just wanted to end it).

Thanksgiving turned out to be a beautiful day. Nicky, Steph's friend from 2nd grade and now her boyfriend, made us the best bloody Mary's---his specialty. We've already signed him up for Christmas. We snapped a few photos before going to the club for Thanksgiving dinner. I put a turkey in the oven for sandwiches later.

After lunch, the girls had volunteered to help me polish mom's silver. Carson joined in the fun. It wasn't that bad, but it sure looks nice when it's all shined up. I plan to honor mom by using it throughout the holidays.

Steph had to program all of the cars for our garage door openers. * (Story below).

We played a new game that we learned at the Lapps' last week. It is so much fun---Hed Banz. It's sort of like Indian poker where each person gets one card. Everyone can see it but him. He then asks yes or no questions to figure out who he is. Butch didn't want to play as he was watching football, but he kept adding his 2 cents---that's misleading, no, that's not a mammal, etc. We'll be playing more of this game at Christmas as even the youngest kids can play.

The rest of the day consisted of naps and tv. More on the rest of the weekend later...

*Garage Door Opener Story:

We have been juggling all of the cars in our family (including Mindy's and Steph's) for weeks now. Each one needed something---tires rotated, oil change, body work, etc. We like to rotate them in and out---pick one up, drop the next off. We had finished everything with Mindy's car. I suggested to Butch that we should program her car for our garage door opener. Of course, that's a two person job. Training children is easier than training a garage door opener!

Butch was on the ladder in the garage. I'm in Mindy's car---holding 2 buttons at the same time until it's says "cleared", then holding the same two buttons while it says "training". This sounds easy, but you try holding in two buttons for 3-5 minutes each time. Your fingers start to cramp up and your arm gets tired. It looks to me like the easiest job is sitting on the ladder and pressing one button once and release! Each time (and we tried it about 6 times), we kept getting the message "did not train".

Next Butch says we need to do it with the garage door openers. He tells me to hold the garage door opener 4 inches from the two buttons, press everything at the same time and hold them for 2 seconds, then release. I do it and he says, "did you hold them for 2 seconds?"

"Yes," I say. He says, "well, that didn't seem like 2 seconds. You went "ba ba" when it should have been "boomp boomp." (I swear to God---he said this) I didn't say it, but I thought, "well, I'm used to "one mississippi, two mississippi." We continued on like this for another 10 minutes or so until he gave up. To make a very long story short---ALL of the previously programmed cars and garage door openers no longer worked. The photo above shows Butch's note to Steph along with the garage door openers and instruction booklet. I don't think she even looked at any of it. I always knew she'd be good for something!!!