Time Well Spent

So, after many weeks of almost non-stop stress I'm finally on vacation.

I kicked off my time off by seeing Twilight (as mentioned in my last post). On Sunday I got together with my crafting group for whats now known as The Feast. A couple of months ago we decided to get together for a potluck Thanksgiving tasting. We each decided on a dish to bring and agreed to make a dozen recipe cards on how to make our dish. We then made a cute recipe book with all of our collected recipes. It was a lot of fun and one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I've ever enjoyed. Here is a list of the 12 dishes we enjoyed:

Blue Cheese Pecan Bites
Butternut Squash Soup
Sausage Soup
Turkey
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Cornbread Stuffing
Cranberry-Orange Chutney
Creamed Corn
Cranberry Salad
Praline Yams (OMG!)
Bread Pudding
Pumpkin Trifle

It was all so good! The company was excellent as well. We did this a couple of years ago for a cookie exchange/recipe book making and it too was a big hit.

Looking towards the rest of my week off, I'm particularly excited that we are expecting rain over the next couple of days. Being home on a rainy day is one of my very favorite days but very rare. How will I spend my time on a perfect rainy day? Well, I've (re-)started reading The Witching Hour. It's a fun, spooky book that I seem to get about 150 pages into then set down and lose interest in. I'm not sure why that is because I like those first 150 pages. I guess it's just that short attention span of mine.

As for fun viewing, I picked up a great DVD set at Target for $14. It's a Rodgers & Hammerstein set that includes The Sound of Music, The King and I and Oklahoma! Wheeeeeee! I also have my Mary Tyler Moore, Northern Exposure, The Bob Newhart Show and Netflix discs in a stack and ready to go.

My only commitment for Thanksgiving day is go to my brother's house with the homemade Cranberry-Orange Chutney mentioned above. Otherwise, I'm footloose and fancy free and ready to spend time reading and watching some feel good tv.

Here are some highlights for you to enjoy on Thanksgiving day:

• Fiddler on the Roof - TCM
• I Love Lucy Marathon- TV Land
• House Marathon- USA

Here are some marathons for those determined to stay in shut-in mode on Black Friday (join me, won't you?):

• Monty Python's Flying Circus Marathon- BBC America
• Diner's Drive-ins and Dives Marathon- Food Network
• Cities of the Underworld Marathon- History Channel (and one of my new favorite shows)
• What Not to Wear Marathon- TLC (I recommend Tivoing a few of these and speeding through the boring shopping parts)
  

Enjoy!