November 25

One month until Christmas.  The house is decorated.  Decorating the house brings back intense memories of Judy.  Judy was Mrs. Christmas and every decoration is a testament to Judy's taste and enthusiasm for the Christmas season.  Feels funny to decorate the house when I am the only one who lives here and sees the decorations.  Of course, I'll have a few people over on Christmas Eve as usual, but until then, the decorations are mostly for my eyes only.

On November 15, I hosted gourmet club.  My guests enjoyed my homemade perogies, cabbage rolls, and kielbasa.  We even had borscht for an appetizer.

On November 20, I hosted men's splurge club or "Tool Time" as we call the monthly gathering.  I've just been baking up a storm this month.  Mom shared her secret bun recipe with me last week; therefore, I made my first of batch of buns from scratch on Wednesday night.  I'm afraid Mom guards her secret recipe even from me because when I mixed up the dough as per her instructions, the dough was more like wallpaper paste.  Once I doubled the amount of flour, the mixture looked more like dough.  In spite of Mom's attempts to sabotage my first batch, the buns turned out well.  I just have to learn how to make smaller buns.  My buns were like mini loafs of bread.  Next time.

Other than baking, I have been playing lots of hockey and volleyball in November.

I am looking forward to all the Christmas get togethers in the lead up to December 25.  Mary is having a healthy pregnancy and Haley is working hard on her Masters degree.  Dustin and Haley are enjoying being city dwellers.  Morgan is spending most weekends trying to knock down the buck with a perfect set of antlers.  He's quite picky when it comes to deer.

I may not post a new message on this blog until Christmas; therefore, I will wish whoever reads this blog a Blessed Christmas Season.  God is good.

November 5

A trip to Nashville has been on my bucket list for a number of years and yes, the trip was worth the time.  I arrived in Nashville on October 24.  Paulette and her partner, Vern, picked me up the next morning.  They were staying at a campground near the airport.  Our first adventure was to tour Opryland.  For those in the know, Opryland is a huge event centre that was built when the old Rymen Auditorium in downtown Nashville was no longer large enough.  Indeed, the Rymen is still being used, but Opryland is much larger.  After touring Opryland, we did what any reasonable visitor to Nashville would do...we bought cowboy boots.  Get this...buy one pair, get two pair free.  Of course, they price the boots accordingly.  Still a good deal.  I bought a pair of Tony Llamas for a cool hundred greenbacks.  The last time I bought Tony Llamas was in Rapid City, SD (1983) when Judy was pregnant with Haley.  On Thursday, Paulette, or Polly as I call her, and I went for a long walk the next morning around the J.Percy Priest Reservoir.  During the afternoon, we went to Broadway Avenue in downtown Nashville.  Broadway has dozens of honkey tonks, all with live bands playing incredible country music.  Polly and I danced in every bar we visited including the famous Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.  We received lots of compliments for our dancing especially especially

 the western two step and the polka.  We killed it.  We also toured The Country Music Hall of Fame.  

On Friday, we toured Andrew Jackson's Plantation.  This was the Andrew Jackson who was a general in the Battle of New Orleans made famous in the Johnny Horton song.  Old Hickory, as he was called, owned 60+ slaves.  The original mansion still stands.  There are recreations of the farm buildings and slave quarters on the plantation grounds.  In the evening, we went to the Grand Ole Opry.  There wasn't a weak performance in the entire show.  I saw John Conlee, Diamond Rio, Ricky Scaggs, Sons of the Pioneers, and many more performers.  Outstanding!  I sat there wishing I could have shared the experience with my dad who really inspired me to love country music.  Saturday was my last full day in Nashville.  Polly and I made a return trip to Broadway to dance and take in more country music.  On Sunday, I was 22 hours in transit with a 6 hour layover in Atlanta and a 4.5 hour layover in Toronto.  I woke up fresh as a daisy on Monday morning and scored 2 goals in my hockey game.  A cherry on top.  On Halloween night, I decided to make 4 dozen perogies. No, I did not give them to trick or treaters.  It's good to be home for a while.  Next up...my nephew, Justin, is visiting me on the November long weekend.  And in true Judy tradition, the girls and I are already making plans for Christmas.