Friday, November 28, 2025

Happy Black Friday to those who celebrate! Ha! I am not sure what’s going on in the blog world but I decided to post today so you all don’t miss me too much! Just kidding, of course!

I am not planning to shop today but boy are there so many sale emails and texts coming through.

Some stuff from the week…

Eddie Otis needed a vaccination on Monday and he was a little angel. He was a good boy.

We got home and then he wouldn’t get out of the car for quite a while.

Do you spot his dolphin he took with him on the ride?

It was a treat to go to a Starbuck’s and be asked if I wanted my “for here coffee” in a real mug. I got a sugar cookie latte and I was tickled by the sprinkles, too.

I hadn’t had much lunch so I ordered the potato chive bake – recommend!

I am loving my short boots for our wet morning walks. I am on my second pair of Costco $20 boots in maybe 10 years and these are the ones I reach for the most. They are so easy to slip on. I really enjoy walking through the wet or dry leaves.

I feel like Eddie Otis looks at me to make sure I’m having a good time, too.

My Christmas library book requests are coming in… how fun is that? Yes, yes I do judge a book by its cover.

I had plans to get a pedicure on Tuesday but it was cold and rainy all day and it just didn’t seem like a good time. I piddled around the house and stayed in much of the day because I knew Wednesday would be a long day.

Wednesday morning I left my house around 9:00 am and it was blustery cold and super windy for the drive to my hometown. We finally got a closing date on my mom’s house and it happened to be the day before Thanksgiving. Molly was the only one who had to sign but I had told her I would accompany her.

We met at a cute coffee shop and I got a really good brown sugar flavored coffee and some egg bites.

I told Molly I hadn’t claimed my Dad’s wedding ring but that I had been wearing it on my middle finger since the day of the offer back in early October and look at this…

She had on my mom’s wedding ring! We didn’t even discuss this and I honestly didn’t know which sister had my mom’s rings. We haven’t divided up jewelry yet.

Kate didn’t come for the closing because she is 3.5 hours away and we understood. We want to do an overnight with all of us when it’s a better time.

I don’t know how to describe the closing rather than it was a really special time. We met and sat across from the buyers – the wife was actually a student of my mom’s in the early 80s and the husband lived in China for his job for a bit and my mom loved China. They are grandparents of 8 and my parents were grandparents of 9. They talked about the layout of the house and how it would be nice for their big family and we told them how our parents used the space. They offered for us to come by anytime and we exchanged phone numbers. It was a closing, and it was a sweet closure. We left the office and cried a bit and hugged and then called Kate and shared the experience with her.

We drove to the Airbnb that we rented for Christmas to check it out in person and then we went to this cute store:

We ate lunch:

We tried to go to a few shops and they were closed until Friday.

We went to a winery and had the weirdest tasting with a gentleman who works there. It was like a Seinfeld episode. I got in trouble multiple times. I yawned and he asked if he was “keeping me awake”. He told me I didn’t taste correctly, and I had to cover my tongue for 15 seconds. I had no idea what that meant.

A group of four came in and he told us he was going to start from the beginning for them so we had to listen about the first few wines again. It was a tasting with a side of lecture. He told us one wine would pair well with ostrich. Someone from the other group asked what would be a good palate cleanser in between wines and he said “roast beef” and my sister asked if anyone had any in their pocket.

Anyway…it gave us lots of laughs!

We went to another winery and it was a Christmas wonderland…

It was a nice day with my sister after a hard thing.

I am still processing what this means. My parents moved to this town in 1975 and owned a house until 2025 which makes that a 50-year run.

Thanksgiving came and we drove a couple of hours to meet Tom’s family at a state park. This was different than the usual tradition.

Someone in the lobby started a fire in the fireplace for us.

It was sooooo cold so these were the photos I got from the lodge balcony.

They had a buffet and we ate.

Former student dog sitter sent us a pic of our boy:

I am wrapping up acorn spice just in time to use peppermint and Iowa pine!

And, now I will let myself use this:

Tell me a favorite of yours from the week!

Amy