theinbetweenismine

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Yes, my friends, believe it or not. It’s almost December. I know, some of you have already put up their tree and Christmas decorations and I’ll be getting on that soon. I’ve been a bit in Christmas preparation mode over the long weekend and that also always means that it is time for my annual Christmas cards roll call. If you have been a long time reader of my blog, you already know what this is all about.

If you’re a new(er) reader, I’ll fill you in real quick. Every year for the last – oh, gazillion – years, I have gathered the addresses of my readers, so I can send you a little note in the mail for the holidays. It’s just a little gesture to give back to each and every one of you lovely people who have been reading (or maybe just started reading) my blog!

All you have to do is sign up here.** 

If you have received Christmas cards from me in previous years, I’d kindly ask you to fill out the form anyway, because Google will put all your addresses in a neat spreadsheet which will make it way easier for me to make sure I don’t forget anyone.

I am not opposed to receiving holiday cards myself, ahem, so if you’re also in the business of sending out cards, just let me know and I’ll send you my address as well.

I hope you’ll have a lovely holiday season! This is my favorite time of the year! Who’s with me?

*P.S. Some handmade holiday cards are available in my Etsy shop.

** Sign-up form open until December 10th.

J and I stayed put over the holidays and it was a great and relaxing weekend, just the two of us.

On Thursday, I had contemplated running the local Turkey Trot but ended up sleeping in a bit and just did a solo 10k Turkey Trot around the neighborhood.

I made a big pot of coffee when I got home and then took a hot shower. In the early afternoon, we started preparing our Thanksgiving Turkey Chicken. I love the process of being in the kitchen for hours.

We set our table – it’s important to me to decorate our table, even if it’s only ‘just us’ – and we had some snacks while the bird was in the oven. (Have you tried Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Cranberry Crisps? So good!) We were finally able to eat around 5:30 p.m. As sides, we had delicious cranberry-walnut-stuffing, roasted green beans with pancetta, and potato dumplings (gnocchi) with gravy. Yum.

We skipped the dessert (I know!), but I had  bought Trader Joe’s coconut whipped cream that I needed to try out, so I had a hot chocolate with whipped cream later. It was delicious!

On Friday, I got our grocery shopping done (who knew the supermarkets would be empty on Black Friday!) and otherwise stayed away from the stores. I am not a fan of Black Friday shopping and the only shopping I will do is a) at the grocery store (as mentioned) or b) online. I have no patience to stand in line or fight with other people over any ‘deals’  that I can easily score from the comfort of my couch if I want to. I actually didn’t plan to do any big Black Friday shopping this weekend at all, except for ordering our Christmas cards (there is no way I’ll have time to handmake all our cards again this year) and MAYBE get ahead and order a couple of Christmas gifts for people. Are you also the person in charge of all the Christmas gifts in your household? I don’t really mind it that much, but it can be a bit of work and it’s always a little dangerous because guess what, I ended up with one gift for myself. I bought an Amazon Fire HD 8.

Now, you need to know that I am the person who always said that she doesn’t see the point of a tablet (and I am pretty much still stand by that). I would never spend a few hundred dollars for a tablet to replace my laptop. I do a lot of things on my computer (and I need a keyboard!) and I can do everything I need to do on the go on my iPhone 7. However, $50 for the all-new Fire HD 8 was way too good of a deal to pass it up. Yes, I will spend $50 on a (slightly fancier) eReader with some extra functionality, sure, especially since my (very simple!) Nook is pretty much obsolete now and I paid quite a bit more money for that back in the day. It had no back-light, a black and white display and the touchscreen was awful. This was a major upgrade for me and thanks to Amazon Prime, it was going to get here on Saturday.

We had leftover chicken salad sandwiches for dinner and had a mellow evening at home. I finished my last book and started a new one.

On Saturday, I ran out early in the morning to pick up some yarn (Saturdays after Black Fridays are delightfully light when it comes to traffic/store customers) and pretty much stayed in my PJs for the rest of the day. I wasn’t feeling quite right (one of my lymph nodes was bothering me). I got a bunch of Christmas preparations done though and then the Fire HD 8 was delivered in the afternoon. So far, I am pretty impressed. I mean, my expectations were pretty low and I am planning to mostly use this as an eReader, but the touchscreen is pretty responsive and it’s nice to be able to use some apps and the Internet from the same device. Definitely worth the $50.

We made burrito bowls for dinner and I watched TV and knitted in the evening.

On Sunday, I skipped my long run (waaaah! unheard of!) because it was raining non-stop. I guess I could have gone to the gym, but I didn’t. I slept in a little later and then had my usual phone calls with my family. I puttered around the house for the rest of the day, read a little bit and cooked a new recipe in the evening.
The weekend was relaxing and productive at the same time. I like it that way.

How was your Thanksgiving? Did you stay home or see a bunch of family?