Christmas Tree Lighting

First of all, let me explain that my sister is one of the luckiest people I know. She is always winning something off the radio. I mean, she listens to one radio station and when she wins something off of that station, she tunes into another. So having said that, WHOM was having a contest to see who's child/children would light the light on the tree in Monument Square. All you had to do was send in an e-mail describing why your offspring should be the one to light the tree up. Well, once again she won. Darn it all. Always winning. Not only does she have one child, she has a total of three. Lucky.

The night after Thanksgiving was the night to light the lights. I went along to take pictures. I wore a turtle neck, sweat shirt, scarf, head band, mittens, LL Bean winter coat, jeans and socks with sneakers. I didn't know what I was thinking wearing sneakers with just plain old socks. I was alright until I had to stand on the pavement for an hour and a half waiting for the kids to "turn the switch".

After watching a nice dance routine from the Portland Ballet performance of the Nutcracker, a women from the Portland Symphony sing, a man from the Portland Library reading "Twas the Night before Christmas," Rick Charette and the Bubble Gum Band sing (for what felt like a two hour concert) and the arrival of Old St Nick himself, then it was time to light the tree. Along with Santa the three of them flipped the candy cane switch and the lights came on.

Nicole is the oldest at 10, then comes Tyler at 9 and last but not least (cuz he's my favorite),Connor 5. They were very excited that they got to do this. It is a once in a lifetime memory and I am glad that I was there (Fav Auntie again) to see it all. By the time I got back to the car my toes and thighs were numb from standing and waiting, all in the name and love for the family.

Family is the best thing in the world.

Turkey Day

All in all it wasn't a bad day, except for the part that the Future Mr wasn't home. Still on the road doing the trucker thing. Praying that he makes it home for Christmas.

Went to the Future-in-laws at noon and had a wonderful dinner. Turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, yams (I think), peas and another veggie I can't remember what it was. Maybe it was because I passed on it. I thought I had enough on my plate as it was. I had to save room for my future sister-in-laws homemade bread. I am not talking about the bread that you buy in a package and put in a bread machine. NO WAY. I mean, real honest to goodness, punch down the dough and let rise again, bread.

She had made a new recipe...Challa Bread. OH MY. I think I had a slice of heaven. Perfect as perfect you can get. This is now my favorite. And since Christmas is coming and she is the family bread maker and she reads my blog, maybe she will get the hint to make this again. That would be wonderful.....my favorite future sister-in-law. The Bread Maker from heaven. What more can I say, it was the best.

Now, off to my parent's house for more turkey. At this point I am ready for a nap but there was turkey to be eaten, again. Dinner was almost ready when I got there. Gravy had to be made. Broccoli had to be cooked and the turkey still had a little time left. (I am so glad that I almost had time to digest my first meal before eating the second one.) Turkey is done. I don't know when I became the gravy maker but that is now my job. I think it is the easiest thing to make on Thanksgiving. A little flour, a little butter, salt, pepper and the dripping from the turkey and presto....gravy. All in a matter of minutes. So once again I had turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry sauce, veggies. I had a little slice of chocolate cream pie and I thought I was ready to explode. Not eating again until Christmas.

I was not the only one having two Thanksgiving dinners. Sargeant was just about turkeyed out as I was. He had lunch which is a treat for him...turkey, a little mashed tater, peas and turnip. One very happy puppy. As usual he left a present at the in-laws. Not even Christmas yet. Since he is a small dog. He only leaves small presents.

What a handsome guy. Now my in-laws shouldn't be the only one he leaves presents for...Oh no that would not do. My parent are just as special. He likes to share. Good dog.

So after the dinners off to home we go. Sargeant was the first to fall asleep. I think he was asleep even before I pulled out of the driveway. Then when we got home, he was asleep on his doggy bed in mere seconds. I wish I could fall asleep that fast. One deep breath and he was gone. Lucky. After taking care of the leftovers that I careful put into the freezer for when Eric comes home, off to bed for me.

All in all it was a good day. Having not just one family but two nothing is better than that.

What a night.

On Sunday, I was on my way out the door to return some unmentionables to Wal Mart. As I was getting into the car, my cell phone rings. It was Eric. Usually when he calls I ask where is he but I asked him what he was doing. He was on his way to Kohl's to make a delivery. Then I asked where he was, thinking that he was going to say New York, CT, or MA he said Kittery. What!?! Which Kohl's are you going too? He said the one in Westbrook.

Christmas had come early for me. I was so excited. I get to see Eric. But I had to wait to see if he could drop off his load early because it wasn't due to be dropped off until 5 am today. If that was the case then he could come home for the night. Yeah. If not, then he would have to spend the night in the truck. Yuck. He would call me back. I waited and waited, then I couldn't wait any longer. So I called him.

He said he was just about to call me. Once again, I asked where are you? Wal Mart parking lot. I told him I would be right there. I picked him up. Got some dinner. Went home, ate, did laundry, Eric told a shower, (first one in two days, stinky boy, whew)talked for a little bit, went to bed, got up 5:30 am (I am not an morning person), took Eric back to the truck and off he goes again. Very brief visit. Almost to the point you want to say.....who was that masked man?

Looking good for him to be home for Thanksgiving, but not holding my breath. Keeping fingers crossed instead. Will know more later tonight. Now I am off to get ready for work.

Great to see Eric for the few hours that we had. Can't wait to talk to him tonight.

I am innocent, I swear.

Well it seems that when it is time for me to take the truck out for a drive, it rains. I just don't understand this. Especially since the truck is clean or should I say was clean.

As I had mentioned before, I had used the truck to attend my nephew's soccer game after a day of rain. That the parking lot was a little muddy and I drove through a puddle. Come to think of it I don't recall saying that last part about the puddle, oh well the cats out of the bag now.

I told Eric that the truck was a little dirty the last time he was home and explaining all this in my "sweetheart" voice and a look of pure innocence. He looked at me with confusion on his face. Do I believe my "tomboy" fiancee or do I just go and have a look see. "What?" Trying to pass off the innocent look again. (You know the look....it's the one like Puss-n-Boots in the movie Shrek 2, right before he takes out his sword to start fighting.) Of course, he didn't fall for that. He said that he would look at it the next morning. Good thing I had to work.

OK, so there was some mud on the tires, in the wheel wells of all 4 tires. Mud sprayed along the front panels on both sides and a very pretty mud splat pattern a across the tailgate. But that was it. I promise. I do take credit for the everything except for the tailgate. Well maybe just a little blame for that....since I parked by a puddle that I knew people would be driving through. But what can I say, I got a sweet parking space right next the the soccer field. It was prefect. Besides I would have had to park at least 8 or 9 cars down and that just wouldn't do. No sirree bub. Me lazy. Less walking I have to do on a Sunday morning at 10:00 AM is OK by me. At least I made it to the game. It was a SUNDAY after all. So anyhoo.....

We have a friend who works at a Scrub a Dub car wash. Eric and I was discussing the "mud". I didn't think it was all that bad but Eric had a different opinion. He brought it over to the car wash (as my friend Tracy states " have Eric wash it when he comes home, all he does is sit on his butt all day anyway") and our friends sides with Eric. I was appalled. She broke the sister rule # 458 "No matter how bad it is, lie" or at least fib a little. She felt so bad for Eric that she gave him a free wash. He really was working the sympathy card. Oh, my poor truck.

Actually, he was really great about the whole thing. We just laugh about it. (It's not like I hit a mailbox with the outside mirror and took the mailbox right off the stand. Or back into a retaining wall at my parents house. Those things never took place. That is my story and I am sticking to it.) Eric has an even temper. Never once has he raised his voice to me or to anyone I know. He is a great guy. Love him to pieces.

Two Posts Back to Back.

No one faint. I know that I haven't been faithful in posting but in my defence, Eric was home for 5 days and I was a little distracted. Now that he is "on the road again" (country song by Willie Nelson I think) I am able to do a least 2 postings a week. That is until he comes home again.

So to keep myself a little busy while Eric is gone, I do a few things here and there. One of them was going to my newphew Tyler's last soccer game. Since I am the favorite Auntie, I thought I would be the Official Picture Taker. That was great. Eric has this feature on one of his camera that lets you take a series of pictures. All you have to do is hold down the button and off you go. I felt like a pro. Taking shot after shot. Then Tyler gets the ball and heads off to the goal. He scores. I got it all. Woo Hoo, fantastic job Auntie, your the best.

Off I go to the homestead to look at the pictures that I had taken. To my surprise, they had come out quite well. Now all I have to do it put them in a file. But first I should try to save one on the desktop just to be on the save side. To make sure I know what I am doing. Ta da. It works. See photo.

Not the best of them but Tyler is the red head going after the ball. Off to score another goal. He scored three that game. So I knew what I had to do. Make a folder and put pictures into folder. No problem. Done. Now rename new folder. Now I thought I knew how to do this, you learn that in basic computer 101. I took that class. Easy as pie. Well not as easy as I thought. Turns out instead of just typing over the words new folder (which was highlighted), I hit the delete button instead. And guess what happened......the pictures were gone. Even looked in the recycle bin. Nothing. Called my sister told her what happened. Bad Auntie. Not some much the favorite anymore. Oh by the way did I tell you that it had rained the night before. At the soccer field they have a dirt parking lot. Water + Dirt = MUD. Good thing I had the truck. A Ford Ranger 4X4. Big tires, little mud. At least that is what I thought until Eric got home. But that is another story.

Today being a nice but chill one, I went to Scarborough State Park Beach. Took the camera again. Glutten for punishment. But I think I got some good pictures. There were a few surfers out. Brrr. Winter Temp waters. Very Brrr. Actually the waves were out in force. One right after another. It was nice. So here are a few of the pictures that I took. Hope you like them.

There is a surfer in this one. Didn't realize I got him.

The Planning Continues along with some R&R for Eric.

Eric got home as planned on Halloween. I drove in the driveway and saw the Big Orange Truck. Yeah. So, we spend the first night like we always do. Eric sleeping and me, watching him. I know, I know what exciting times we have. We are the envy of all our friends.

The next night (Thursday) we drove to Atlantic Limousine to check out the cars. Nice, very nice. The limo was a Chrysler 300 C. Seats 10. Nice lighting. Mirror on the ceiling. And if we want....Champagne. The other was a stretch Chrysler 300 C. That is the one we use for after the ceremony. Just for Eric and I. I don't know what to do with the limo after the ceremony but I am sure we will figure something out. So we put a deposit down. Yeah. One thing down. Twelve million to go.

Friday night we didn't do anything. We sat at home. This was nice. Not having to rush anywhere. Just came home from work, cooked dinner and had a very quiet night at home. This is something that we don't get to do very much of. With Eric gone 21 days out of the month, the days that we don't have to do anything are the best days of the month.

On Saturday it was different. We went to the florist. Showed Eric the flowers that I wanted. He had given me a lovingly hard time about looking at the flowers but in the end he was happy. As much happiness a man can muster looking at flowers. He was a good sport about it. So we put a deposit down for the flowers.

The whole time we were at the florist, Eric was thinking "cake". So after going to the florist we headed over to the baker. We got our four sample cakes. Now the whole time Eric was away he thought that he would have all the cakes to ourselves. I kept on telling him that 6" cakes are a good size and that there was no way we were eating all that cake by ourselves. I invited a few friends over to help. At this point Eric was saying, "Every time I talk to you, your half of the cakes are getting smaller." I'm thinking to myself if he thinks that he can eat half of 4 six inch cakes I am going to have one sick Fiancee on my hands. But when he saw the size of the cakes he know there was no way he could do that. Not that he didn't want to try but being an adult, sometimes ;), he knows his limits. Back to the house to drop off the cakes and to wait for the next appointment. Keeley's the Katerer.

I really didn't want to go to Keeley's because I thought it wouldn't hold up to the standard that I was looking for. Boy, was I wrong. We got there around 4:00pm. One of the rooms was set up for a birthday. I was nice. I thought that there wasn't going to be any room for dancing (heard rumors). Wrong again. Both Eric and I agreed that it would be a nice place to have our reception. So we put a deposit down.

Thank God at my last workplace they had profit sharing. So when I left I received a pretty good amount to help put deposits down. If I didn't have that I would be Freaking out right now. But I am not. I refuse to be a Bridezilla. If it comes down to me becoming a bridezilla, someone slap me. But not to hard....don't like the stinging.

Now to the cake tasting....

• Cake #1 Strawberry w/strawberry cream filling and strawberry preserve filling. OMG. Way, Way to sweet. Insulin shock. Tester opinion's: Good for B-Day cake, but not wedding cake.
• Cake #2 Spice Cake w/ apple filling. Not so much.Tester opinion's: A tad on the dry side, but it was OK.
• Cake #3 Chocolate w/raspberry cream filling and raspberry preserve filling. Yummy. Tester opinion's: Now we are cooking. Good flavor. Best one yet.
• Cake #4 Irish Cream w/chocolate walnut filling. My favorite. Tester opinion's Very good, but Cake #3 wins overall.

But since no one's opinion counts but for mine and Eric's we like that Irish Cream. But the frosting was too sugary. Need to find out if other bakery's do cake testing. I know, I know, I have to fit into a wedding dress, but not until March. So, if I get all the tasting done before January when I start my diet, I'm good. That's the plan and I am sticking to it. If anyone out there know of some place/one that makes great wedding cakes let me know. I need all the help I can get.

Then on Sunday we took a little trip to Rockland to visit Eric's friends Andy and Kate. It was a very nice visit. Had food, drinks and laughter. What a way to spend a Sunday. Eric asked Andy to be his best man. Yeah, one down three more to go.

Since I already have asked my sister to be my maid of honor, my daughter Samantha to be co-maid of honor, Eric's sister Ann, my friend's Tracy and Alicia to be my bridemaids, Eric is a little behind. But I know he will catch up. It's not like it's a race to see who can find their attendents first. But if it was I WIN, I WIN. But it's not (bummer) so on we go to the next step.

What the next step is I really don't know. But finding cakes would be a good thing.

Until Then.