We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had the best of times!
Peter, Alexa and the boys drove down from Beaverton on the Sunday before Thanksgiving bringing our granddog, Louis, along. The boys went to the playground a few times and played with the dogs in the backyard. We "babysat" while Peter and Alexa took care of some legal business locally.
My boys were on the lookout for family members whenever they were out of the house. Sandy especially likes to watch the driveway.
Meanwhile, Dusty keeps an eye on the front sidewalk.
The three dogs had a lot of fun playing together. In this photo, I think they look as if they're planning something.
I made the traditional Lanttulaatikko (rutabaga casserole).
Everyone else had smoked turkey, and I had Quorn Meatless Turkey-Style Roast. I made some cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy and roasted some sweet potatoes in the new microwave/convection oven. Alexa fixed some roasted Brussels sprouts and cooked them in the oven with the sweet potatoes. It's getting easy to use, and my cookie sheets fit in nicely. Charlie bought a pumpkin pie, which we finished off after two dinners.
But into every life, a little rain must fall, and not just outside. We ran the dishwasher after Thanksgiving dinner, but on Friday, when we had accumulated enough dishes to run it again, it wouldn't work. The lights didn't even come on to allow us to start it. Peter and I washed and dried the dishes by hand, which was a big job, with dishes from feeding six people.
I'm leaving the dish rack and tray out until the dishwasher is fixed. Washing by hand won't be such a difficult job, now that we're back to two people and the dogs. We will have to get a repair person to come and look at the dishwasher for us. I hope we don't also need an electrician. We sure have had a lot of appliances give up on us lately! Appliances aren't made the way they were back in 1982, when we bought our Maytag washer and dryer, which are still working. Things always seem to go out when we have family visiting! That's the worst! I'm very thankful, though, that we got through Thanksgiving before we learned the dishwasher wasn't working.
During quiet times this past week, I picked up the stitches along the front steek for my Oregon Autumn Cardigan. I'm a little more than half finished with the front and neck band. The stitches go up the right front, up the neck shaping, around the back neck, then back down the left front neck shaping and front. The buttonholes are made by binding off two stitches on the right front seven times, spaced evenly apart. When I continue, I'll cast on two stitches over the spaces. I'll wait until I find out what size buttons will fit through the buttonholes before I order buttons.
On Saturday Alexa and I went to Fancywork Yarn Shop, so I could get some yarn for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL project and to "shop small." Usually it's fingering weight for these projects, but this time it's sport/DK, so I couldn't rely on my own stash. I dropped off some books at the store. The patterns in the back of the books might inspire someone to do some doll knitting. I still have to wind the yarn. The pattern comes out in January.
Since it was "Shop Small Saturday, and the store stocks my books, I decided to look around and see if there was anything else I could use. Alexa was intrigued with the Doodle cards from Pacific Knit Co. and had been telling me about them. The cards have colorwork graphs you can mix and match to make up your own designs. They just happened to have the cards, so I decided to try them out. The same company has digital and printed blank patterns for hats, scarves and cowls, to use the Doodle Cards with. This should be fun during the long winter months, I think.
My Doll Best Friend had another "Chosen," and this time I decided to put my name in, not expecting to have any chance, as these limited-edition dolls have become very popular, and only 250 of them are made. They send out a notice that you can apply for one, then have a drawing for the right to purchase one of the dolls. I was lucky to get Mariah, and then Honor for Daphne a couple of years later. When I didn't hear on Monday, after they had been notifying people, I figured I didn't win, but on Thanksgiving Day I received an email saying I could buy one. People have 24 hours to respond, so perhaps someone didn't respond, or they said they had changed their minds. When that happens, another name is drawn. Lucky me! I don't know how this doll will fit into the stories, but I have learned to trust my instincts when it comes to writing. Stay tuned!
I ordered a boy doll for our honorary granddaughter, who is Alexa's niece. I'll have to make him some clothes.
He will need pajamas, a change of clothes and a coat or jacket. At least he comes with a hat.
My new book will be generally available starting on December 5th. Book Baby has had them for a while now, but in the US, you can order from Barnes and Noble and Amazon and receive a copy in time for Christmas. Booksellers worldwide can order them. Like all of my books, the size is 8 1/2 X 11" with various page counts. This one is 92 pages. The stories, like the blog stories, are illustrated with photos of the dolls in action.
For some cuteness, here's Johan, proudly displaying the scoresheet from his wrestling tournament on Sunday. He won all three matches in his bracket.
Now we'll see how much the dishwasher is going to cost to fix!
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What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is Giving Thanks in Many Ways. Mariah, Charlotte and Jolena want to plan something for the three of them to do over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but they each plan to attend religious services in different places: a mosque, a synagogue and a church. They decide to go to all three...together!
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