The Start of the Season

This year, Thanksgiving came early and there's an extra weekend before Christmas, and so the season seems to be stretched out a little bit.  Usually I can hardly wait to pull out the Christmas CDs and start decorating, but this year I seem to be in a little more of a lazy mood.  I think my inner procrastinator is hard at work, encouraging me to put off the preparations.  Lest you think I'm a total Scrooge, we did break out the Christmas CDs and decorate the basement over the weekend.  Then today, we received the first Christmas card of the season, from my childhood friend, Fonda:

RB&B&B Circus

Sometimes, it's all about connections.

Erin not only babysits for humans, she looks after several people's pets while they are traveling.  One of Erin's regular cat-sitting gigs has a friend who writes the music for the circus.  "The Cat Lady" offered Erin circus tickets in exchange for Brookfield Zoo tickets, and Erin took her up on the offer.  We were told to go to the will-call window at the United Center, and the tickets would be waiting.
As often happens with will-call, the tickets weren't quite there when we arrived.  Erin called the Cat Lady, who called her friend, who said, "Gimme a minute."  Cat Lady let Erin know her phone would be ringing shortly with a strange phone number, and that Erin should be sure to pick up the call and  verify the necessary details.  Sure enough, Erin's phone rings a few minutes later, and it's the number of the circus's corporate headquarters in Florida, verifying the number of tickets needed.  A moment or two later, the phone rings at will-call, tickets start spewing out of the computer, and the agent hands us our complimentary tickets, which just happen to be front and center - some of the best seats in the house.  It was all a little magical, and certainly added an extra element of fun to the enchanted evening for all of us, especially Erin and one of her besties.

Thanksgiving Day 2012

H A P P Y   T H A N K S G I V I N G !

The Night Before Thanksgiving 2012

This is the second Thanksgiving that I've worked at Whole Foods Market, prepping other people's Thanksgiving dinners before making my own from-scratch dinner for my friends and family.  Whole Foods is open on Thanksgiving Day, and it's my goal to never have to work on that day.  Since the week of Thanksgiving is typically the busiest grocery shopping week of the year (even bigger than Christmas), this is no small feat.  Each year, we're told that Thanksgiving week is "all hands on deck, no exceptions."  I continue to argue that they are required to give me at least one day off, and may I please have that day be Thanksgiving Thursday?  Last year, when I gave the "I'll do whatever it takes to get Thanksgiving Day off" speech, I wound up working the overnight shifts, assembling all the holiday catering orders, and leaving the store at 6:30am on Thanksgiving Day.

This year I've managed to get the entire day off tomorrow, but I have been working extra-long hours this week as a trade-off.  I'm exhausted, but I'm ready to go:  the shopping's done; the cranberries are cooked, the turkey's swimming in brine.  The timeline's in place, and I'm pretty sure I know where all the serving dishes are that I plan on using tomorrow.  Mom and Dad have arrived safely from Iowa.  My favorite cooking holiday is almost here!