Food, Facials and Tom Foolery.....

The Sweely Clan Sitting Down to Thanksgiving Dinner...

I had a wonderful time at my mom's over the Thanksgiving holiday. My daughter stayed up until Sunday and then I drove her back to Philly. We had a wonderful dinner, prepared by my mom....with contributions by all of us. On Friday Becky and I needed to drive to her dad's house to pick up her suitcase which she left in the trunk of his car. We did a little shopping, got the oil changed in my car and went back to hang out with mom. On the way back to mom's house, we went by the site of the gas well that Linda and I saw the last time we were home. Here it is now...all capped off and producing gas. Two more have popped up within a short distance from my mom since that time.

Becky had made up a "To Do" list while at grandmas house and one of the tasks was to make cookies. Sounded like a fun thing to do so mom pulled out her mother's sugar cookie recipe and they made oodles of cookies. Becky decorated all of them except for one.....I had the honor of doing one in a sun/moon motif. I was going to take it home to Linda but my brother ate it before I could get it boxed up to take home.

Thanksgiving evening Becky and I went up to my younger brother's house to watch him make maple cotton candy. He needed to make a bunch of it to take to a craft show this past weekend so he had the cotton candy machine fired up and was in full production.

Here my niece Angela is stirring the sugar blend while a
heat lamp keeps it warm....

My brother, Jim pours some of the sugar mixture into the machine...

And...voila..here's the finished product..ready to bag up.

It's good stuff...I'm not a fan of cotton candy but this isn't as sweet as the other stuff and has a light, maple taste. He was going to make up around 60 bags of it, which he said would take him about an hour to make.

Saturday night Becky and I had facials....she had bought some packets of "mud" and an avocado/olive oil blend and we were all set for some pampering. It was fun and our faces came out really soft and smooth. I brought the remainder of the packets home and gave Linda a facial tonight and also painted her toes.

It was a wonderful weekend, with lots of laughs and good food. I drove Becky back to Philly Sunday afternoon. On the way we stopped at the Rt 15 flea market and we loaded up on veggies, fresh pressed cider and some cute things bought from the outdoor vendors. The car was filled to the brim with all sorts of goodies when I dropped Becky off at her place. Arrived home about 9:30 Sunday night....

Today Linda and I took some items to the Ali Forney Center in Manhattan. This is a wonderful facility that serves as a shelter to homeless gay and lesbian youth. These young people have been kicked out of their families' homes because of their sexual orientation and have no place to go. We didn't think the trip was going to be as difficult or stressful as it turned out to be. We had to go through the Holland Tunnel and then drove straight up through Manhattan...through tons of traffic. We got to the center on 35th street and found a place to park right across the street. We grabbed the bags of items we had taken, put our four way flashers on and headed into the building. We only stayed about 10 minutes...just enough time to get some info from the receptionist and leave our items with her. We get back to the car and find a $115 ticket on our windshield....oh great !! It would have been cheaper to have stayed home and sent them a $100 check than to brave the traffic, spend $8 to go through the Holland Tunnel and then get this stupid ticket. We'll just keep telling ourselves that it was all for a good cause.....grin and bear it !!

Tomorrow, it's back to work....