Wiener Dog Wednesday

I’m back. Sort of.

I could almost swear that Thanksgiving was last week and there are three weeks until Christmas.

I can keep believing that if I don’t look at the calendar.

Because that totally stresses me.

I’m way, way behind on everything from being gone from home for almost two weeks give or take a couple of days I dropped by my house in between trips.

I’m trying not to complain and to be grateful. ‘Tis the season to be jolly, I know, I know.

It’s just that Christmas can’t come in 15 days because I’m not ready. Ahhhhhhh…

What on earth does my calendar denial have to do with this Wiener Dog Wednesday? (that used to be randomly on Monday but has now moved to this random Wednesday.)

Nothing really except I wanted to recap our Thanksgiving in the mountains for you before I move into my festive holiday baking mode and become even more distracted.

And I wanted to give Granny a DOUBLE wiener WINNER award!!!

Because in addition to being a truly lovely mother-in-law, she rode to the Smokey Mountains in Tennessee with a cute cuddly adorable carsick wiener dog who actually threw up in her son’s lap. UGH.

I really don’t need to say more than that except the trade-off was that I rode in the other car with all three teens and the other dog. Which was infinitely more comfortable than riding with a sick dog.

Frankly, I would have turned the car around and gone back home rather than be trapped in the car with a sick dog.

But Granny loves, loves, loves the mountains.

Maybe these pictures will show you why…

As you can see, we really like to rough it in a rustic cabin. It’s almost like camping in a tent. Except for the tent part.

And the indoor plumbing part. And the other amenities part.

Like satellite TV.

And gas fireplace for Scary Baby to warm up with her daddy man. Thank goodness no one has to gather sticks and PhilBillPaul doesn’t have to chop firewood or we would all freeze to death. Or at least I would because I am not a camper. I would have died at a very young age if I had lived in a “Little House on the Prairie.”

And a game room with pool table for Wizzy, our resident pool shark. No illegal gambling took place.

Granny loves to spend time with her favorite son (sorry to PhilBillPaul’s brother David).

She was also gracious and welcomed my old and feeble mother who drove down from Illinois to join us for three of the five days.

They’re both in the GWPP (Grandmother Witness Protection Program) so I can’t show their faces on the blog.

While I laid on the couch with a horrible cold, they all played euchre. Because if you are from the Midwest or your parents are from the Midwest, it is a requirement that you learn to play euchre. And if you want to play with PhilBillPaul, you better play to win otherwise he is a very grouchy partner.

To have them both with us at the same time is a real treasure. This is only the third time it has happened in our children’s lives. The first time doesn’t really count for the youngest three since they weren’t even born when the grandmas were together when The Grunter was about a month old.

Please remain seated with your seat belt securely fastened to view the next picture…

OH YES I DID.

Cook fresh green beans.

Since my mother came, I knew the TWO of us could eat that giant pot of green beans I simmered all day with a few slices of bacon to add to their nutritional value just like she taught me to do!

The rest of the family just squealed while we ate them. Big babies.

Side note: Yes, that is corn behind the green beans but I’ve never really counted it as a vegetable since it really just fits in the starch category but we all do eat corn! And I made homemade cranberry sauce from a recipe I found on this website and it was excellent!

Granny’s double award is for the fact that when we returned home from the mountains on Sunday after Thanksgiving (with wiener dog #2 medicated on dramamine), Granny extended her stay so PhilBillPaul and I could go on a little vacation.

Which meant staying with us for a total of 15 days.

And keeping track of our four darling children.

Special BONUS for me is that she took the kids (on her birthday!) to the Christmas Tree Farm down the road, picked up a tree and trimmed it before we arrived home.

Totally not worthy of this good fortune.

Well, except that I have been married to her son for 21 years now and I did birth those four darling grandchildren to add to her collection.

On Friday, I’ll share where PhilBillPaul and I went. You might be able to guess from this picture…

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad