LIGHTS, TRAVELS, FOOD

Well....HELLO!  It's been a month since I've shown up here on the View page and I realize in the 10 years I've been doing this blog, I've never missed a calendar month of at least one post, so here I am!  

My more disciplined blogger friend in Michigan writes twice weekly and sets up prompts for herself to do so.  I just wait for the Muse, who is often on vacation.  She might show up at 3 a.m. with great ideas and beautiful turns of phrase, but by 7 a.m. she's long gone and so are her good ideas and lovely words.  Then I'm just stuck with me.  Like now.  Let's talk about the weather -- the refuge of challenged conversationalists everywhere.

It's dark and rainy here, finally.  We've had the sunniest, driest November on record and it has been totally great and totally weird.  November is usually very wet and blustery.  We might have some lowland snow next week, but I hope the mountain passes aren't too awful because we are heading east on Friday so I can go to a body-work, mostly silent, nurturing retreat for women at a forest retreat center north of a fake Bavarian mountain town that will be decked out for Christmas.  It's the town's annual WinterFest season, which brings in thousands of tourists.  So I'll have no cell/no wi-fi in the forest, but crazy Christmas excess in town.  It should be both relaxing and fun.  Hub is going along even though I will abandon him for my full day of introspection, massage, journalizing, silence, and sister-connections with 14 other women.  He's planning a hike, I think. Or soaking in the retreat center outdoor hot tubs.  Not a bad way to pass the time.

Anyway, Hub has taken advantage of the cold bright weather this month to install landscape lighting around our property -- something that's been on the "to-do" list for 40 years.  Better late than never?  YES!  It looks just as lovely as we'd envisioned.  We can see now driving up our long steep driveway and walking up our long flight of stairs to the front door.  (A little late on that one, since no one of our age-cohort visits, especially after dark, anymore.  Some struggle to navigate the stairs due to creaky knees and/or decreased lung capacity as well.  Whatever the reason most of us just stay home.)  We aimed some spotlights up into trees and bushes, one on the side of the house on the brick face, and a couple on some yard art in our garden.  I hope it's not too much -- I'd rather not look like a museum, although I do love the MET.  Anyway, we are delighted with the whole thing.  No one can see the garden art since it's behind our "privacy fence" of arborvitae, but if you can brave a nighttime visit, we'd love to show you around! 

Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We had a nice day with Son-One and his family.  Son Two and my DIL ditched us all (her family and ours) to travel in Italy over Thanksgiving.  They FaceTimed us from Salerno.  I'm not at all miffed that they decided to travel over the holiday.  Covid Times taught me life goes on when traditions are smashed, and in fact it's a bit freeing.  I'm actually envious.  I have long wanted to ditch Thanksgiving.  To me it's a day devoted to non-stop cooking, eating, and cleaning up.  And gluttony.  It's a little gross.  But I get the whole Norman Rockwell thing.  And I will say in my family of origin and in the family I created, we pretty much fit the painting.  We do all the traditional foods (mostly my mom's recipes) and everyone is in good spirits, feeling deeply grateful for family, food, and warmth.  Son One is our tradition-holder and would never let me not be here for the big holidays, and I love that about him.  So, I won't indulge my Thanksgiving fantasy of ignoring the whole thing.  Bring on the stuffing!

Speaking of stuffing...my new healthy Noom body FREAKED OUT in the middle of the night after our Thanksgiving indulgence. I did not pig out at all and was rather proud of my mostly modest portions (except for the pies -- yes, plural.)  Nevertheless I was miserable for a few wee-morning hours and I believe it was the realization that in spite of my enviable portion control skills, every single bite I took was full of butter/fat!  I am not at all used to that anymore.  Thinking it through, I know how much butter I used in the stuffing and candied yams (a lot).  I watched my DIL make mashed potatoes with half n' half and gravy with pan drippings.  The green bean casserole was full of fresh veggie goodness held together with a rich white sauce.  You can't have dinner rolls without butter.  And my DIL's delicious Dutch Apple Pie and Pumpkin Cheesecake may have also had a tab bit of fat in them.  Arrrrgggghhhhh.  The only items not drenched in butter or fat were the brussel sprouts and cranberry sauce.  

Yesterday I ate a bit of unadorned left over turkey, a few brussel sprouts, and a huge salad.  Yesterday we were also back to the intermittent fast thing Hub and I are doing -- 16:8  No food for 16 hours (for us that's from 7 p.m. to 11:00 a.m.) and all of our meals are within the remaining 8 hours (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.).  It's supposed to be a way to help the body clear toxins or something.  Adds to longevity.  We're a week into it (except for Thursday) and I was starting to feel really great.  But it's early days...

Anyway, lesson learned on that whole fat thing.  With Christmas coming right up, I'll be VERY aware of what I'm shoving into my mouth.  But we don't really do a huge Christmas meal anyway.  We do a mostly finger-food buffet on Christmas Eve, so I can just take the healthy stuff (lots of crab and shrimp!)  On Christmas we have buffet leftovers and maybe some roasted turkey breast sandwiches.  It's cleaner eating, although can be sugar-heavy, which is my everyday nemesis anyway.  I'm already craving frosted sugar cookies in the shapes of Christmas trees.  But I can walk off all the calories taking night strolls through my lighted garden.

At least, that's the view from here...©