My body aches all over! Too much standing yesterday and too much food yesterday…even though I love all the food, I have to go with *much* smaller portions! My body started telling me that last night and continues to complain this morning.

Dinner turned out well. The brined turkey was very juicy and wonderful (Thank you Alton Brown and Kevin for bringing this to my attention!), potato bread stuffing moist and yummy, and the pumpkin pies were perfect. Lots of leftovers–even after sending a bunch home with Patrick–means no cooking for awhile.

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous Thanksgiving Day! Temps were in the high 70’s and the skies were a beautiful blue. I had all the doors and windows open and we marveled at how great it was to enjoy such fabulous weather in late November…especially since I knew how cold and snowy it was back East! Just heard on the WeatherChannel that some areas of Ohio near Akron got 19″ of snow!

Patrick and Veronica brought me a beautiful cornucopia flower arrangement for the dining room table! It’s filled with all kinds of fresh flowers–roses, carnations, daisies, sunflowers, chrysanthemums and cattails. Hope they all last for awhile, ’cause the arrangement is absolutely gorgeous!

Talked with Kevin last night and commented to him how weird it was to have Patrick leave after dinner and to be here alone on Thanksgiving evening. I was exhausted, so wound up in front of the tv doing more napping than watching. Last year it was just Patrick and me–no guests for dinner, just the two of us–but then there were many people here stopping by after dinner. And they stayed till late into the evening. And there was noise in the house. This year it was quiet. Not that awful since I was sooo tired, just different. Wonder how Christmas will be….