Holiday plans

I'm off for the week.  It's that time of the year where I have to burn up some vacation or lose it.  Several low key projects planned.  Clean the house, fix a faucet, put up the tree, hang lights, reading, etc.  Maybe I'll get caught up on my netflix movies or binge watch the House of Cards.  Not really planning to do any Black Friday shopping but I may get sucked in for a deal or two.   

SIL is doing better.  She actually got enough of her appetite back to go out to dinner Saturday.  We weren't sure about going out for turkey dinner so I volunteered to throw a small dinner together for just the three of us tomorrow (nothing too extravagant).  My folks and my brother are planning to head to College Station for the game.  Game is tomorrow night at 1830 so they plan to do Turkey dinner on the parking lot in the afternoon.  A bunch of friends and family will be up there.  I passed on the trip to help momma take care of SIL.  Junior and his bride are heading south to Big Bend State Park for a camping trip with a group from the Sierra Club.  They'll be spending Thanksgiving out hiking and camping under the stars away from civilization.  Much as we would like to have them down for some turkey, we are sort of jealous - we used to do those sorts of adventures back in our younger days.     

Getting ready for tomorrow.  Bought a small turkey, going to pick up some sides today, will start prepping some dishes tonight.  Normally, momma does most of the heavy lifting during Thanksgiving prep, but she's kinda got her hands full right now so I need to take up the slack.  I may not be Julia Childs and it may not be as good as momma can make, but I can burn some meat and buy pies like a champion. 

I am restarting an old tradition of mine.  Back before junior was born, I used to run a lot more.  My job on t-day was to get the bird in the oven early so that it would be ready after lunch.  I used to do the annual Turkey Trot in Dallas as some sort of counterbalance to eating all that turkey and dressing.  Normally I would stuff the bird and put it in the oven before I left for the run and it was going well by the time I got back home.  Since this year will be fairly low key, I decided to sign up for the local Turkey Trot again.  Not expecting to break any course records, I plan to use this as a tune up run for the half in January.  That's just my excuse for an extra slice of pecan pie...   

Remember, with all of the holiday hoopla and activities, don't let the stress of the holidays drag you down.