All We Really Are Are The Memories That We've Made

Hope it's being a perfect, wonderful, food-filled day for everyone here in the States! (And of course, just a good day for those not here!)

Sitting down to the traditional tape-delayed Parade (although saw a bit of the live one on CBS earlier) on NBC. Wow, Summer Glau is going to be there? Has she gone mainstream?

Poor Woody. Buzz Lightyear is a balloon. Eleven years, he still comes up short. At least in the end Andy chose him (mild spoiler).

All the faux-country songs in the opening dance number, at least they closed with the Cotton-Eyed Joe. Something that's actually country (if sampled and re-mixed into near unrecognizability).

I bought a Disney beach towel on Castaway Cay, determining it will be my all-important travel towel (very important to have a towel, of course), and I think it's notable that the characters represented thereon are Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Chip & Dale, and STITCH. Somehow my strange little alien has, apparently, become one of the most popular characters of all time. Back in 2008, when Barb and I went for our honeymoon, he was very much in evidence; I had assumed then it was because of the television show or the straight-to-DVD films. But now? Still? The last Stitch movie was 2006.

Awesome.

I realized with some amount of annoyance and sadness that nearly ALL of my Christmas/Holiday movies and such are still on VHS, and I now no longer have a VHS hooked up to my entertainment system. I may have to figure out how to fix this dilemma in the next few days or I will be very sad. (In some cases I have refused to buy the DVDs because in my mind it is STUPID to spend the money for ONE "Charlie Brown Special" on a single DVD, when they could easily put four or five of them on one.)

I do at least have Holiday Inn and White Christmas on DVD, as well as a couple others. But I'm going to NEED Bernard and the Genie. Oh, yes.

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Happy happy to all! Time to put the turkey in the oven!

Cold outside, warm inside. (Seriously, it IS cold here. The back porch thermometer says it's 50 F.)
Turkey in the oven, filled with Barb's rice/chestnut stuffing.
Pumpkin gingerbread, some of which was breakfast.
Diet Coke with Lime.
Two annoying cats and an annoying dog, all of whom have been underfoot every time I've been in the kitchen trying to get things ready.
A wonderful wife, who puts up with ME.
Friends, especially those who also put up with ME and have for years.
A marvelously generous mom and a darling, understanding mom-in-law.
Books
Music
Thinkgeek.com
Amazon.com
Tivo
Japanese lucky cats
Good food
Chocolate!
The truck appears to be completely fixed now (knock wood).

I may not watch the dog show after the parade today, despite tradition, simply because they hardly ever show any of the dogs I WANT to see, only the "popular" breeds. But we'll see. I do like the doggies...

I made this:

Three smallish sweet potatoes (red ones), peeled and boiled
1/3 cup butter
1/8 cup of brown sugar (a little less because the potatoes are pretty sweet on their own)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/3 cup whipping cream
Beat all until smooth and spoon/pour into souffle dish.

Then take 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup quick-cooking oats
2 tablespoons melted butter
Mix together and top the potatoes. Bake until warm through and the sugar on top is melted.

I almost forgot the melted butter and so some of my topping got mixed in with my potatoes, but it all came out so crunchy-sweet and tasty, I just loved this recipe!

I adapted this from a recipe in the Christmas with Southern Living 2006; I cut the sugar down significantly (the actual recipe calls for 1/4 cup in the potatoes and 2/3 cup in the topping), increased the cinnamon, and added the oatmeal (from another recipe).