I had a pretty nice time over Thanksgiving. Went to my mom's house on Wednesday evening. After supper we went shopping for a birthday gift for my stepdad's granddaughter. Then we watched "Sunshine Cleaning". I wasn't sure if it was going to be good or not, considering the scenes they were cleaning, but it was actually pretty good.
Thursday we all got up nice and late, and headed over to the dollar theater and saw "Julie and Julia". That was a fantastic movie, really one of the best I've seen in a good while.
After the movie we headed over to Cracker Barrel for our official Thanksgiving Dinner. I pretty much had to choose off the breakfast menu, because I read a nice little notice that most of their veggies and their corn muffins and their beans are all cooked in/with animal fats. Ugh!
Still, I got french toast, eggs, sweet potato casserole and pecan pie. It was yummy and I was quite full. 
No stuffing though (only trust kind I make myself to not be made with turkey dripping or some such thing.) Maybe I can make some stuffing this weekend.
After we got back home I printed out my running paper for my mom to read - she made a few suggestions, but overall said it was really good. Then I did a 20 minute recording of her talking about family history. We stopped at that point because my knees were killing me. Unfortunately, even though she was speaking loudly, the mike on the camera didn't pick it up very well.
We're going to try it again later - maybe see if we can find some kind of mike or another way of holding the camera when she's speaking ...
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Of the $40 cash I took out, I have spent .... $3.30!
$.30 was for printing out a registration form
$3 was for the movie yesterday (I treated)
Today I stopped at Walmart and picked up $23.34 worth of groceries and some misc. items. But I paid for them with a remaining balance on one gift card, plus most of the remaining balance on a second gift card.
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Tomorrow is church and the no-kill shelter, and then on Sunday I'll be helping E clean up the closed gym location. This time however, I *will* be accepting pay.
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Almost forgot. E had asked me several weeks ago to work this past Wednesday which is normally by day off. I had this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that I should call and doublecheck with him about it on Tuesday ... but ignored it.
I got to the gym at a bit before 8, and found that E had double scheduled the time slot! That's better than not having gotten anyone for it .... but still. 
E was pretty fair I think. He said he'd pay the other person for 4 hours and they got to go home. I got paid for 8 - 3 (when someone else came). I just thought it was kind of funny.
Thanksgiving, Great Movie, Making A Video, Spending
November 27th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
November 28th, 2009 at 12:01 am 1259366470
Last Christmas we ate at a buffet in Reno since it was just DH, me and OD (where we are now) and we enjoyed it. Would not want to do it every year, but once in a while maybe. DH swears he is not cooking again so who knows we may start going every year for Thanksgiving!
November 28th, 2009 at 12:38 am 1259368710
We usually go the day before or the day after the holiday - that way they aren't as busy and since we're good tippers, they don't mind if we tie up a table for an hour or so.
We went this afternoon to one. Hubster and FrugalSon ate OH MY GOD three (3) plates full of food. Where do they put it?????
Yes, I too want to hear more abour Sunshine Cleaning. Loved Julie & Julia!!
Glad you had a nice time with your family.
November 28th, 2009 at 12:43 am 1259368989
Sunshine Cleaning is a movie. One of it's stars is Amy Adams (who also stars in Julie and Julia).
We usually cook every Thanksgiving, but this year my stepdad wanted to go out to eat ... I'm not totally sure why, maybe part of it was that he was worried my mom wouldn't be totally recovered from her gall bladder surgery? At any rate, I don't think we'll be doing it again next year.
Lux,
Do they have hollow legs?
Going the day before or after does sound like a good idea. We went a bit late in the day (5 ish) and had no trouble getting a table. Our waitress was definitely bustling though.
Sunshine Cleaning is the story of two sisters - one was a head cheerleader/dated quaterback in high-school and is now a maid with a 7 year old; the other is kind of a messed up person who can't keep a job. After the first sister gets a tip about being able to make good money cleaning up crime scenes, she decides to start a cleaning business with her sister. There is a scene near the beginning which will make you go "huh?!" but near the end it will make perfect sense. There are themes of suicide in it, so if that makes you feel uncomfortable, you may want to skip. Otherwise, by the end of the film the sisters and dad all learn more about what it means to be family, and gain a great deal of confidence.
There's also an interesting special feature showing two real life crime scene cleanup women and their reactions to the movie and what the reality is.
November 28th, 2009 at 04:15 pm 1259424911
November 29th, 2009 at 04:14 am 1259468088
I was surprised at the number of places I saw open on Thanksgiving myself. Of course, the majority were closed - but the ones that were open seemed to be doing pretty well.