I have to say that I wasn't too terribly excited about the Thanksgiving holiday this year. My grandfather is not feeling well & I was just in the mood for a nice family dinner at a restaurant somewhere - no preparing food, no cleanup! But, the plan was to go to my grandfather's house for turkey day...everyone was bringing something to contribute to the dinner so of course I chose (come to think of it, Ryan volunteered me) to bring my famous dinner rolls (actually my grandmother's famous rolls - she taught me how to make them our last Thanksgiving together).
Well, it was going great...I put on some music, Third Day, and I was making roll dough & planned on splitting it in half for a pan of cinnamon rolls & the rest for dinner rolls...I got ready to set the dough aside so it could rise before I punched it down & laid it to rest in the refrigerator overnight when I suddenly saw in my head a picture of myself measuring out the yeast...then it dawned on me that I was short about 1 tsp! Oh great, I thought, its ruined, it'll never rise! So I decide to make another batch. Everything is going great, I used up the end of the yeast I had on hand & set the dough aside to rise. As I am cleaning up the kitchen I notice that the expiration date on the top of the yeast bottle is from sometime last year!!!! Wonderful! Now I have two huge batches of roll dough that don't have a snowballs chance in hell of rising! That's it, I can't take it...I break down in tears.
Then Ryan comes home from work & sees me standing amidst the flour & the mess with tears streaming down my face & asks, what's wrong? I mumble something incoherent about Thanksgiving being ruined, the yeast is bad, the rolls aren't going to rise, I'm not making anymore, I'll have to bring brown-n-serve to dinner, nobody really cares if they get turkey when all they really want are the dinner rolls, etc. All he hears is, sob sob sniffle yeast sob sniffle sob. Finally, I calm down to a more manageable pace & get the point across...so he says, well, lets go to the store & get some fresh yeast! Now this seems like such a logical point that he is making, standing there with such a positive look on his face like he just solved all the world's problems...which on any other day probably would have worked...but on this day just brought me to my knees sobbing even harder. I decide, screw it, what we have is what we get, if I have to bring store bought rolls to dinner then that is what is going to happen. I drape warm towels over the rolls & pray to the yeast gods that my grandmother is somewhere out there watching over me & working miracles...as I sulk off to the couch to curl up in a little ball.
Then I get a text message from my friend Doug, wishing us a happy turkey day! Of all things! So I text him back, having a crisis-bad yeast-rolls ruined-turkey day destroyed. Of course he thinks this is hilarious, sends me a message saying that it's nothing a meal on the town can't cure! Auuuughhh! So I call him & say, that's what I wanted to do in the first place! Well, thank God for good friends, after a little banter & laughter I am feeling much better & strong enough to get up the nerve to check on the rolls to see if there is any progress...amazingly enough they are rising! wooh yea! Thanksgiving is not ruined after all!
I wake up Thursday am about 4 o'clock...no alarm needed...and roll out cinnamon rolls...mmm, yummy, they were ready about the time Ryan got up at 8. There's just nothing like homemade cinnamon rolls right out of the oven! We drove to Meriden & did the T-day thing & got back to Hesston by about 9 pm. Not such a bad day after the turmoil the night before!
On Friday, Larry & Nancy came to Hesston. Nancy & I were brave souls & drove to Wichita to fight the crowds for great deals (whenever I do this I don't realize just how insane I am until I'm right in the middle of it) and Larry & Ryan worked on hanging trim & doors in the basement. We decided to try Toys R Us for a Sony camera that was a great deal & a perfect gift for Harold. Of course there is construction on Kellogg & it took us about a half an hour just to get to the parking lot! Then the congestion in the parking area was insane...apparently everyone in Wichita was spending their time at Toys R Us that day! We finally see a parking spot & as the lady is pulling out in her new Land Rover (junk) she stops about six feet from my vehicle, rolls down her window & motions for me to back up so she has more room to get out! I'm sitting there thinking, why the heck would someone buy a vehicle that they don't even know how to drive, idiots! So I motion for her to come on back & she just keeps waving me...ugh, morons! In the meantime, there are about three other people that get in their cars & decide that they can all back out at the same time while two other vehicles come up to park! The wonders of the parking lot world...crazy! Once we finally get in the store we find out that they are out of the great deal cameras, do some looking around & realize that the checkout line winds around the store from somewhere in the front, all the way to the back & then back to the front again! Lord help us! There is nothing here that we need so badly that we would stand in line for 2 hrs for it!We did have a good shopping day though. We looked for some maternity clothes, looked at some baby things, bought some Christmas presents, had a really good pizza at Old Chicago after the waiter dropped our first one on the floor (he was sooo embarrassed but really nice about it), in all we had a really good day! I found the cutest little frog toy at Dillards & I just had to buy it for the baby. I couldn't resist. Plus I decided that it is so much more fun shopping for baby things if you know if it is a boy or a girl. There are really cute things for either sex but the generic stuff is just kindof plain. So I talked to Ryan about it & we decided that we will tell everyone if its a boy or a girl when we find out. We had already decided to have the technician write it in a card that we will open on Christmas day...our little Christmas surprise to ourselves. I am excited to get the sonogram done & see what is going on in there...the last one was too small to see anything good!
So the guys got a lot done in the basement & by the time we got home it was getting really cold outside. The air looked like it was damp but there weren't any flurries when we arrived...but later that evening it started to SNOW! It seems so early for snow, but I guess its not that different from any other year...just more surprising since we've had such nice mild weather so far. The ground was covered in white on Saturday morning & Kasey enjoyed running about in it. Most of it melted off by the end of the day. The guys finished hanging all the doors in the basement, got the trim hung around the windows & got the ledges done under the windows. I think I'll find some time in my busy schedule to fill in all the little holes with putty & then we can go back in & touch up with stain.
Kasey's birthday was yesterday!!!! She just turned six years old! We bought her a new ball & a red collar for Christmas. I wrapped it up for her & Ryan says, you wrapped it? I said, of course I wrapped it - Kasey loves opening presents & she is a very smart dog...she knows it is something special when she gets to open presents. I think she had a good birthday...she was smiling & wagging her tail while she was playing with her new ball.
Happy Birthday to Rachelle today! I had better call her & wish her a good one :)
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