My family sprung me from the hospital yesterday, so I’m home for the holiday!

In case you didn’t know, my chemo port area was infected. My body rejected that contraption. So, I have a hole in my chest that my poor dd has to pack with gauze twice a day as it heals. Painful, yes, and it’s impeding my chemo—which will resume in two weeks. But I’m home for the holiday. Yay!

The hospital wasn’t bad. The staff was kind, and they gave me a lovely, large private room (I guess my insurance is pretty damn good—thank you, U.S. Army!) while they ran me through surgery to remove the port and took care of the wound for the first couple of days. The food? Ugh. My dd made the trek daily to spend hours with me. The 15-year-old spent quite a bit of time with me to keep me company. I couldn’t access my website to do any updates, though, because the hospital’s internet kept slapping a “porn” warning on all my accounts. I went in Sunday and came out yesterday afternoon, so you know I was dying to get home to read my email.

Anyway, I’m back. I hope you’re all doing well. My dd is in the kitchen as I’m writing this, preparing the turkey for the oven. My SIL made his “famous” deviled eggs last night. Three pies are in the fridge. Everything else will be made fresh today. Yum! We’ll eat too much, take breaks to nap and watch something family-friendly, I’m sure, then back at the feast. Tomorrow, we’ll all be complaining we gained five pounds.

I love the start of the holiday season! I wish all of you here in the U.S. a lovely holiday, filled with too much food and pleasant memories to be made.

Report Card

Last week…

1. I finished one author’s edits and will complete another’s today! So, a productive week, even if I didn’t write one word for myself.
2. I attended the annual potluck at my art guild. It was lovely seeing friends! I was good until just after I finished eating, then I felt as though a curtain fell and I was instantly exhausted. You can see the moment in the picture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t leave immediately because my dd, SIL, and the girls were busy hanging donated wreaths around the center after the meal. When I got home, I crawled straight into bed and slept like a rock. The food was good BTW. 🙂
3. I had a Doppler scan of my port area. The doctor wanted to rule out blood clots as the cause for the swelling. No clots! But also no explanation for why my port area is still swelling and sore. I also had a blood draw to make sure I’m good to go for infusions on Monday!
4. I watched the romcom Hot Frosty this week on Netflix. So I got in one Christmas movie! It was really cute! I’d recommend.

This next week…

1. Chemo is tomorrow! I’ll be there bright and early in the morning and sitting in the chair until around 3 PM. It’s a long day, but they start it off with a bag of Benedryl, so I get a long nap, too. Silver linings, folks!
2. I have no plans to do ANY WORK AT ALL this week.  I’ll likely be miserable and sleeping most of the week anyway, but without the stress of working. My holiday gift to me.
3. Despite the fact I’ll be in my worst phase of recovery from chemo on Thanksgiving Day, I’m still looking forward to spending it with my family. Maybe I’ll sleep in the recliner in the living room rather than in my bed so I can hear the chatter and be closer to the kitchen and dining room. Fewer steps to walk! I do love the holiday meal!!!
4. I do plan to putter around my office a little bit during the week to clear out some clutter. Mostly to get in some movement, if not real exercise. Clutter tends to accumulate without my even noticing, but I’m noticing now because my In Box is so tall it’s teetering, and there’s dust on my bookshelves. So, there’s a goal.

Open Contests

Be sure to check out these posts and enter to win the prizes that are still up for grabs:

1. A Poll! Advent Countdown Giveaways (Contest) — This one ends tomorrow night! Win an Amazon gift card!
2. It’s Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
3. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Your Christmas Movie List! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Flashback: Brian (Contest–3 Winners!) — Win a FREE book! THREE winners!
5. Gabbi Grey/Gabbi Powell: Why mental health is so damn important (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
6. Memory Puzzle: Dead Horse Bounty Hunters (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
7. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Turkey Day is Coming! — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Linda Rhoden!
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It’s the Saturday before Thanksgiving! This year, the schools gave the kids the entire week off! So, we’re covered in kids (well, the three), and we couldn’t be happier to have them at home. My daughter has all the things purchased for the meal other than the fresh produce she’ll pick up this week. We all love her Thanksgiving feast.

The turkey is always the centerpiece, even though turkey isn’t our favorite meat. Is that you, too? We tend to look for a smaller turkey, around twelve pounds, because we really, really don’t like endless leftovers. We also have a small ham, and that’s a preference for me and the 15-year-old. We freeze whatever’s left over for soups or other meal ideas later. Not the turkey though. It’s a once-a-year thing for us because we’re just not that into turkey except for Thanksgiving Day.

How will we fill the days until then? Good meals, for one. Last night, the 20-year-old took over the kitchen and made handmade corn tortillas, which we stuffed with shredded, smoked pork (my SIL manned the smoker!), cilantro and onions, and her special, homemade hot sauce (so much better than store-bought). Sooooo delicious. We’ll have some leftovers today, and then who knows?

My dd is going to man a table for the art center for the downtown Holiday Open House on Sunday. There’s Black Friday sales she and the girls are going to do on Friday. I’m sure we’ll watch a holiday movie or two. The 11-year-old is dying to see Moana-2 in the theaters, so that might happen, too. I’ve been dying to see Wicked, but I don’t want to face the crowds just yet. Masking up is a pain—and how would I enjoy my popcorn? I might wait until it streams, which is a shame because it looks like a delicious spectacle.

Anyway, those are our plans. Maybe I can talk the fam into hitting the flea market this week. That’s low-key and few people—and one of my favorite things to do.

Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you love the bigger turkey and all those leftovers. What do you do with them? And do you have big plans for the week?

UPDATE: The winner is…Wendy Vest!
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My daughter and I made the shopping list last night. She cooks the entire dinner every year all by herself, and she looks forward to it every year. I can’t imagine liking the prep. She even has a To Do list that tells her when to start what, with notes about how to make everything. She refines it every year. And the dinner is always amazing!

We have the turkey (we always get a 12 or 13-pounder because we hate having more than a day or two of leftovers). Then there’s creamed potatoes, mac ‘n’ cheese, pea (instead of green beans) casserole, bread dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, dinner rolls, a tray of olives, pickles, etc., and I can’t remember what else. Oh yeah, pies (pumpkin, chocolate, key lime or lemon meringue)!

So, to celebrate the prep and the “preppers,” solve the puzzle and tell me what your favorite Thanksgiving dishes are for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!  

I set my alarm for 5 AM. My daughter is rising that early to start the turkey, but she needs me for one vital task, and one only. She needs me to reach inside the turkey to pull out the “stuff” inside it because she’s too squeamish and doesn’t want to start her day gagging. So, yeah. Hero Mom to the rescue. After that I might or might not go back to bed. It’s 3:30 AM presently, and I thought since I’m already up with a lovely bit of insomnia, I’d go ahead and post today’s blog.

So, from my family to yours, I wish EVERYONE a happy, wonderful day, and for those celebrating Thanksgiving, hold your friends and family close, eat too much, nap through your turkey comas, then get up to eat those leftovers again. Yes, in our house, it’s all about family and feasting—and PIE.

UPDATE: The winner is…Jule Harper!
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I’ll have a guest on my blog tomorrow, so I’m sharing a puzzle early. And since it’s the last jigsaw before Thanksgiving, I thought I’d go with a turkey theme.

Enjoy the puzzle. For a chance to win a download of your choice from my backlist, let me know whether you’ll be celebrating the holiday, and if you are, who with?