Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[naturelovergirl]

@TonopahI am so sorry to read about your brother… losing your sibling is so very hard, as I know all too well.

Keeping you and your family in my thoughts.

[techteach]

Tomorrow will be busy with the turkey to brine, dishes to be pulled and labeled for their purpose, and due to a future rotator cuff surgery for myself, there will be a shuffle of furniture in anticipation of sleeping in a recliner when we return from our Ta, and the tree in a new position for the grand boys. Sending out good wishes to all of you, my CC friends, for a happy holidays. Everyone be safe and find happiness in those you share time with.

[Camgirl]

Tonopah, I'm so very sorry to hear of your very sad news. I'm thinking of you and all your family.

[Host Hattie]

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate!

 

 

 

 

 

[techteach]

Who’s got the turkey in the oven? It’s 1:00pm on the east coast. That could mean dinner at 5:00 if it’s a big bird.

[Host Hattie]

😂 I've never had a turkey in my oven ! Enjoy

[techteach]

4 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

😂 I've never had a turkey in my oven ! Enjoy

My son ranted yesterday about turkey, I invited him to bring something else to eat today. But, for me, the turkey is just there to compliment the mashed potatoes, enhance the gravy, allow cranberry sauce to be used, and support the dressing. Happy Thanks Giving Host Hattie!

[Bigmike911]

7 hours ago, techteach said:

Who’s got the turkey in the oven? It’s 1:00pm on the east coast. That could mean dinner at 5:00 if it’s a big bird.

I had a 15+ lb Willibird from Petaluma in my oven this morning. He was done about 2 pm Central to join the chestnut cornbread dressing, wild rice with mushrooms, Asparagus with lemon butter sauce, the traditional green bean casserole, The starter was cream of curried carrot leek soup and the finish was a pecan pie (Pecan nut pie) to our English friends. Two bottles of Veuve Clicquot to go with. 

 

It's all over but the cleaning up, which I am currently taking a brief break from. 

[techteach]

21 pound turkey. Dinner at 5:00. Porcini, pork, apple and cranberry dressing. Lots of traditional. Magnum of 2011 Drouhin Louise Pinot Noir, Magnum of Schramsberg California Sparkling, 1977 Grahams Vintage Port. Dishwasher is running. More to be done in the morning. Soup to be made tomorrow. So wonderful to spend Thanksgiving with everyone. Good to hear from you @Bigmike911. 

[Tonopah]

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. I so appreciate it. 

[Tonopah]

My life is returning to normal. I finally unpacked and the washer is running non-stop. I wrote my James. A. Michener-length cruise review. Not sure if/when it will be posted. I am exhausted after the whirlwind week but am looking forward to finally settling down.

 

Hope you all are doing well

[Host Hattie]

I'm looking forward to reading your review, let us know when it's published. I try to stay away from the review section as a general rule! 

 

[techteach]

@Tonopah I’m glad your life is starting to return to normal. I thought of you on Thanksgiving and the difficult times you are having. I am excited to read your novel review.

[Bigmike911]

It is 2nd December, Thanksgiving plus 8. Two weeks ago, the leaves were beginning to turn to their fall colors. but in the span of a few days here in South East Texas, we watched the leaves turn, and in the case of a Maple tree drop all leaves in one day. I don't recall it ever being quit so fast to go from green to gone.

 

We continue to get cold fronts from Canada which brings the over night temps to the high 30s (f) and as the fronts go through they collide with the warm very moist Gulf air and we get rain. It's free water and I will take all I can get as we had a long, hot, dry spell this past summer. After the fronts go though, the daily high's go back to the 80s though the humidity we live with in the summer is very low, so it's pleasant.

 

The Christmas season is upon us, but I have not started much decorating yet. My cleaning ladies missed their last visit, because of the wedding of one of their daughters, so I will wait until their next heavy cleaning next Wednesday to begin to decorate. I did put up the Advent Calendar, a box with the facade of Fortnum and Mason, with 24 little doors that can be opened to find a treat. 

 

The treats are chocolate coins of the world and Italian foil wrapped Santa Claus with an occasional gum drop. The lighted Christmas Wreath is on the front door, So here we go. 

[techteach]

@Bigmike911 So good to hear from you! I’m glad you’re getting the rain you need. We had our first snow this week, and I’m looking at a skiff on the sidewalk this morning. Seattle doesn’t work well with snow due to the steep hills. I need to go to the drug store today and I’m not looking forward to it. I decorated last weekend so the grand boys could enjoy. The tree has fewer breakable decorations this year and I had to whip out a dozen crocheted snow flakes which he moves from branch to branch. I have beautiful garland that had to remain in the box. The tree looked bare, so I cut up all of our homemade covid Christmas masks from the last 2 years, cut them into strips, and enlisted the 9 year old to help me create a truly memorable garland for the tree. One week from today we will be landing in London and then boarding QM2 on the 15th. Fortnum and Mason is on our list for next Saturday. Hampers will be shipped to family this Christmas. I’m excited to see London decorated for the season.

[Host Hattie]

The temperature has dropped here and we've had quite a lot of fog. The pub is fully dressed for Christmas but it's a bit early for us!

 

[naturelovergirl]

Lovely to hear about everyone's holiday decorations!

 

Wow, @techteach about your garland! How creative!

 

We decorated our house for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving.

We love gazing at the beautiful memories of our life together with our tree ornaments and our home decorations. We will keep everything up through Epiphany (January 6).

[ronpes]

Still a tad early for us as well but will put up our tree next weekend.

[Bigmike911]

4 hours ago, ronpes said:

Still a tad early for us as well but will put up our tree next weekend.

When I was a kid, Christmas didn't really start until about mid December, but the start date has moved up every year. Maybe our collective need for a season of joy and fellowship. 

 

I was a teen when my Mother decided to give the tree a more natural theme, so we gathered small pine cones from the forest behind our house and spray painted them green, red, silver and gold, so much for natural.

 

Then as I got older the ornaments got fancier and my mother and her friends started having ornament parties where they gave each other elaborate blown glass orbs. I have continued that tradition, I give good long term friends Halcyon Day's Annual Christmas Baubles. I added to my own collection with a number of the Halcyon Day's Jubilee baubles this year. So this Christmas will have a strong historic feel. 

[alc13]

Christmas preparations are mostly still on the horizon for us.  Now that we are in Maine, where we have a large piece of property, we go out a week or two ahead of the big day and find a nice small tree to cut and bring back into the house.  This is not honestly not my favorite holiday, but the sight of a decorated tree with twinkly lights in a warm house is so welcoming, and makes me happy.

[techteach]

We’ve always celebrated Advent with the wreath and readings. I still have the nightly prayer of thanks I received in Sunday school as a little girl. We love sitting by the tree, with a fire, John Rutter carols, and a good book in the evening. The longer it is up the better. Although, no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.

[D&N]

This evening we tested our projection Christmas Tree, newly mounted on ceiling, and the vertically mounted television version. Along with a mix of traditional and electronic table candles. 2 of the real candle holders sit in sparkly LED mountings.

I installed some new shelving with LED ribbon cove lighting to display Christmas Cards. We've got 6 already from folk in UK who are concerned about postal strikes.

We left all our cards with my sister in London last weekend as the postage from there is much cheaper than sending from France. They were posted yesterday. I'll post a photo version of our bespoke card here soon.

I've more shelving and lighting to install in next few weeks and decorations to put up, partly for ourselves and partly for visitors we are hoping to host from 27th for the New Year period. As long as our President doesn't find some reason to stop Brits travelling here again!

 

Carmel is still eating well and has actually put on some more weight. She's still not happy about her daily medications but once those few minutes are past she's happy to cuddle into us, her personal heater, or picking a sun spot on the glass protected balcony.

[Tonopah]

Mr. Tonopah is very much in the Spirit this year. 

 

 

[techteach]

Yeah Mr. Tonopah! @D&N I’m having trouble visualizing the tree. Upload a picture please?

[Tonopah]

15 hours ago, techteach said:

Yeah Mr. Tonopah! @D&N I’m having trouble visualizing the tree. Upload a picture please?

Our tree topper is a paper towel tube wrapped in shiny paper with paper angel wings. Made by our son in primary school circa 1987?

Edited December 4, 2022 by Tonopah