Happy Little Trees

Forgot to mention I would be hanging with the turkeys in Kentucky during this week. Happy Little Trees will be up and running next week. Internet access and Starbucks are slim here in the great Commonwealth.

It's pretty cold. I'm sporting every item I could round up for cold weather at the Houston Target store.

Hope you all had a great turkey time!

Did you know Oprah writes down 5 things she’s thankful for everyday? I don’t do that. There’s one more thing that makes Oprah savvier than I am. Now, she’s even more thankful than I am. But I really don’t want to be Oprah, I’m happy being me. So not being Oprah one thing I’m thankful for?

Let me get a list going. And I’d be curious about your lists, too. Five will do for publishing. Make sure to share a longer and more personal list with God.
1.I’m not Oprah, but I’m happy being me.
2.I’m going home for Thanksgiving.
3.We still own my Grandmother Richards’ old house so I can swing on the porch swing like old times.
4.My neighbor got a beagle puppy named Smokey—but his good friends call him Smoke.
5.I get to visit with old high school friends late Thursday night. It’s been 14 ½ years since high school (and the end of 90210--we all graduated together).

Here's a little stroll down memory lane--click to watch:
90210 Thanksgiving

Today is probably a day in which I could eat chocolate covered crickets and not mind.

There a new gelato place in town called Gelato Blu. I went there yesterday because I was feeling a small case of the blues, and I knew that some gelato might be some good balm for it. I was greeted by the owner, Chuck (who makes all the gelato himself), and two workers, Kevin and Barbara. They were all very polite and gave me tons and tons of samples because they wanted me to love their gelato just as much as they did. And I did.

All the gelato is homemade—no mixes are used (which I learned that other competitors use). And I can take my friend that has a nut allergy there, because they don’t mix all the gelatos with the same equipment! I’m very excited to get to enjoy gelato with her.

It’s a quaint little place, and might become a good hangout for me. Especially since *bucks has again raised their prices on hot tea. I paid $1.57 for a tall hot tea. And then burned myself. Ouch for both.

Gelato Blu is more smurfy than Starbucks. And you can quote me on that.

Remem-bah! Remem-bah! Remem-bah!

My friend Ann let me burn a disc from her itunes last night. She's got some great hits from yesteryear. I got the fancy tune linked above because I got big dreams.

I also got the Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton duet that was the punchline to the first dirty joke I told on the elementary school playground--What do you call Dolly Parton in a hottub?

I journeyed out to Katy Mills a few weeks ago and journeyed into the J.Crew Outlet store. I like to pretend I’m long and lean and fresh faced like a J.Crew girl and that I have a boyfriend with a 5:00 mountain-time shadow, and he loves the red cashmere muffler I bought him with matching mittens. Although he hates getting the splinters out of the weave after he carries in firewood into the cabin where we’re staying for a holiday with our entire group of friends and family. Ahhhh…J.Crew dreams…

Anyway.

I bought a pair of jeans and a long sleeved tee. The tee looked navy in the store. When I brought it home, it became black. I did the test where I put it next to other black items, and it was black. Now in my florescent office, it’s once again navy and paired with black pumps and a black belt. All I can come up with is that this shirt is a hybrid. It’s gotta be the color blavy. I still like it. I feet mysterious with absence of all color and nautical all at the same time.

Every year, I try to add more fruits and veggies into my diet. I know that eating those magical foods is a great way to fight disease and cancer. So, why is it so hard for me to eat them?

Adding fruit to my diet has been pretty easy. I just have to make sure I take a weekly trip to the grocery store to stock up on apples, grapes, or berries (depending how much money is allowed in my food budget), but those veggies are a different story. Some days as I evaluate my food intake of the day, I try to bargain with myself that the salsa I ate counts for a vegetable serving.

Salad is such a cop-out for a solution because a) lettuce is for rabbits and possesses little nutritional value and b) by the time I doctor it up enough where I can stomach eating it, the salad has gained 50 fat grams and 900 calories.

My only good solution for eating more veggies has been making myself eat at home more. It also helps me in my personal training to be a housewife—and more importantly—a grandma.

Perhaps I’m a late bloomer at 32, but I think I still have time to develop some Jedi-like cooking skills like my Grandmother Richards possessed. “Use the fork, Beth...Never underestimate the power of the fork…” She could whip up some mean homemade buttermilk biscuits. And add a little hot chocolate gravy on top with a dab of butter, and your grandchildren are in complete bliss. This is after they’ve had servings of fruit and veggies, of course.