November 2024 Happenings

Here’s what we did in November 2024.

I went on our annual Girls Weekend
The first weekend of the month was the annual Twin Falls Girls Weekend. And since there’s nothing AT ALL to do in Twin Falls, we spent most of the weekend hanging out in our cozy air-bnb:

drinking a bunch of wine:

 
 
and playing a bunch of games:
 


It was very fun!  We did leave the house for a little shopping and lunch out:

But most of it was spent at our new favorite airbnb.  As usual, it went by too fast!  Next year, we’re staying longer for sure (and at the same house!)  I love my family. 🙂


We did our version of Thanksgiving
First off, I actually decorated for Thanksgiving this year (first time for that!) BUT…we had printer problems so I didn’t get to finish it. This is as far as I got:


The plan is for:

  • one side to show Jac and me in different fun settings/activities, because we are thankful for each other!
  • one side to show all the other stuff we are thankful for, like family members and this house and the cats

 

I like it so far. I’ll finish it next year.  🙂

I also came up with a few activities to help Jac and I remember how much we truly have to be grateful for.  For example, I found this cute Gratitude Pick-Up-Sticks game what we played. 

 

BUT…when it came down to the main event –Thanksgiving Dinner — we didn’t actually have it!  Just as we were sitting down to dinner, mom showed me her hand that had been bitten by Cindy’s cat just hours before. It was swollen and painful…and needed attention.  Here’s a picture of it. Yikes!


So, we said goodbye to Jac (who was in the kitchen making final preparations on the food) and we went to the hospital (because nothing else was open on Thanksgiving night). Here’s mom at the hospital, in good spirits as usual. 🙂

 

It ended up being a good thing that we didn’t wait because even with medication, it got worse over the following days before it started to get better.  And now she’s all back to normal, thankfully.  (See…another thing to be thankful for!)

I did have some apple pie when I got home from the hospital. Jac put cheese on it, which is a weird but popular thing I’ve always wanted to try.  Um…no…it kinda ruins it for me.  After a few bites, I pushed the cheese to the side and savored it the boring old normal way. And now I know.

Hot-Dog-a-Thon
In the end, it was no big deal that we didn’t have Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day because we weren’t really doin’ it the normal way anyway.  Instead of turkey, stuffing, and all that traditional stuff (which I’m tired of), we were having a Hot-Dog-a-Thon—in honor of my mom, who looooves hot dogs.

So, the planned Hot-Dog-a-Thon just got pushed back a few days to the following Sunday.  This is just phase 1, mind you, because there are 20 something different ways that people make hot dogs across the US, and wanna try them all (or most).  

So here was our set up:

I thought this would be easy-peasy for Jac. It is HOT DOGS after all.  But, there was a lot to prep. He spent hours getting it all ready!

 

 

But it was WORTH IT!  Here they are, the main attractions — the dogs! We had:

(1) The Crab Mac n’ Cheese Dog
This one originated in Baltimore, MD.  The name tells you what’s on it. Jac liked it more than I did. I don’t care for Mac n’ Cheese, but still I found the crazy combination of ingredients fun.

 

(2) The L.A Dog
Apparently this is popular in LA, but I never had hot dogs this way growing up. (Orange County is kinda suburban LA). We all really liked this one. The dog is wrapped in bacon (!!) and then topped with grilled bell peppers and onions.  This was good!!!

 

(3) The Slaw Dog
Originating in the South, this dog has cole slaw and barbecue sauce.  That was a good combination! I liked this one.

  

(4) The Kansas City Rueben Dog
Obviously this originated in Kansas City. This one has sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, BBQ sauce, and Thousand Island dressing.  It was yummy, but also very familiar, like hot dogs usually taste. 

 

We were planning on having one more but at this point, I called uncle. I couldn’t take another bite! We had only eaten a third of each dog, but still, I was STUFFED.  The rest will have to wait for take 2 of our world famous Hot-Dog-a-Thon. 🙂

Marvel Challenge
Jac’s been wanting me to watch more Marvel movies, but I kept skirting it because I don’t usually like superhero movies. But I finally relented. Once I realized we could make ‘an event’ out of it, it started to sound more fun.  (“You mean there can be costumes and decorations and games and drinks? Okay, I’m in.”) 

We started in November and it took two months to complete! There’s A LOT of Marvel movies! (I’m including the whole challenge in this November post tho. Just easier).  

We had a list that we worked through:

and of course a banner to make it festive.  We had dinner and a movie:

 We dressed up for some:

  

Even Billy joined in the fun:

 

There was a drinking game:


and more dressing up:


We picked our own Superhero names and powers:

 
 
And we even made a special Captain Marvel cocktail (sweet and yummy):

I was actually sad when it was over.  Hmmmm…..wonder what our next movie series challenge should be? 🙂
 
Also in November…
We FINALLY got the tiles to play on my grandma’s fancy Scrabble board. And Jac won. Good job Jac. Time for a rematch.

 
We voted…and then watched the inevitable train wreck that we knew was going to happen. It’s gonna be a bumpy, sad, sometimes tragic, always embarrassing next four years. I’m gonna try to stay ignorant as much as possible.  I can’t handle the anxiety!

 
We puzzled (here–the puzzle Jac bought at Natural Bridges National Monument):


And we got cozy. We’re moving into winter. Cozy is the word of the season!


And, of course, we ate well.  We always eat well!

And lastly, Jac puttered and he built stuff in his shop!  Look how happy he is!

The coolest thing he built this month was a new, bigger kitchen tabletop. He used the base of the existing kitchen table since it was still functional and has some useful shelves.  The problem was the top–it was pretty narrow, making it a tight fit for us at times and nearly impossible to entertain with! Here’s a shot from last year’s Thanksgiving—covered in a tablecloth but showing how narrow it was: 



But no worries. Jac’ll fix it. He put a wider top on for our daily use (and we now orient it against the window for more open floor space):

 
And he added a leaf (tucked in at the back of the table in the photo above) so that we can actually have people over for dinner or games. With this new expandable tabletop–plus six extra barstool chairs that we keep in the shed–we are ready to host our people over here. YEA!

Pretty cool eh? The butcher block wood of this new table is even much prettier than the wood of the old tabletop. Wins all around, I tell ya. 🙂

What did we NOT do in November?….We did not go on a trip (other than my girls weekend).  There just wasn’t money for it in the budget (which we are killing it on, by the way, go us!) But we have one planned for December. 

In all, it was a great month…and proof that Jac and Betsy know how to make their own kind of fun. 🙂