Thanksgiving Comes to Brookfield

AJ and Mia came up from NJ on Saturday and brought the holiday spirit with them. We were not expecting Mia but she had some minor surgery and could not work at the hospital over the weekend. She needed her mommy and here I was - thrilled to see her face at the milk room door. We went to the NY Pizzeria Sat. night, built a huge bonfire and AJ dazzled us with a fireworks show. Back in to the warm apt, then we hung out in our jammies. In the morning we ate porridge (a staple in our house for years) and the guys carried in my new kitchen cabinets. We went to Hamilton to tootle around the Colgate Book Store, then drove to the Earlville Opera House to see the crafts. I was surprised to see many empty parking spaces as we pulled up - traffic was light. We checked out the goods then took a tour of the circa Civil War era opera house - very interesting! Home again for our first vegan Thanksgiving dinner. I made stuffing with apples and raisins, yams with pineapple and marshmallows, fresh cranberry sauce, corn, sweet peas and pumpernickel bread. It was colorful and tasty, but I confess I missed a turkey!! It just wasn't the same! AJ and Mia loved the meal, and are very supportive of the meatless lifestyle. They had to leave to get home for Mia's appointment with the surgeon early AM tomorrow. I hated to see them go. AJ is heading back for California on Wednesday. His Army test for the chaplaincy is on Dec. 12, but first he has to pass a PT test. He's lost a lot of weight so he should be okay. The Army is very fussy about the body mass index. They don't like excess weight. I have a busy week ahead with Delaware this coming weekend. I am hardly ready...