Nine, Ten - clean the den

Last night I did not use any sleep aids (other than magnesium) because I was so exhausted from climbing on stepladders and chairs. But inexplicably, I still had trouble falling asleep. Then I woke up hearing the trumpet player because no one told it that today is a holiday. When I got out of bed, my left calf hurt. And then I remembered that climibing on ladders has given me tendonitis in the past. But thankfully, with a little stretching, it went away.

I started the day in the usual way, but decided to curtail some of the process. Since we are having dinner midafternoon I wanted to eat breakfast earlier than usual. While Chris made two pecan pies, I looked up the recipe for Grammy's rolls. It seemed complicated. So I looked at sweet roll recipies online. After some investigation, I decided to use the original recipe, but without the baking soda and baking powder. I filled the bread machine, and set it to make dough. I took shower, and got dressed. I finished sewing the second mask and then packed up all the sewing stuff that was in the den. I scrubbed the marble square, and put jug of milk on it to cool it. But that didn't work. When the dough was done, I divided it in half and rolled it out. Chris melted some butter while I chopped pecans. Then I covered the dough with butter, cinnamon, sugar, raisins and pecans. I greased three loaf pans and sliced the dough rolls into 24 pieces.

After getting rolls in the baking pans, I left them to rise and made breakfast. It was noon, so later than usual, not earlier as I had planned. Chris prepared the turkey quarters. He also sprinkled lemon juice on the turkey necks and set them in a bath of white wine. I baked the rolls and they came out just as the turkey went in.

I vaccuumed, and emptied the bag. I moved stuff out of sight. Chris washed and dried the dark red table cloth and covered the table. We got out the china and glassware. I added a table runner. We called Michele. She had arrived safely at the Damours. The Josts came over with white and dark meat and a rum cake. Chris put the asparagus on to cook and soon we were seated around the table. For distancing purposes, the table had both leaves so we were as apart as we could get.

Chris said the prayer and we ate dinner. The turkey was excellent, both theirs and ours. The rolls turned out really well. I even ate one. The conversation went well and there was no lull. As I showed Johnnie my sewing room, Chris and Brian fixed the little door on Grandma's sewing machine. Later we sat down for dessert. I had a very small piece of the rum cake. I think everybody else ate a piece of both the cake and the pie.

After they left, I called Faye. Chris put the food away. I wiped the greasy cookware with a paper towel, then filled them with hot soapy water to soak. I filled a bowl with hot soapy water and washed the good china by hand. I set a few other things to soak, then made my evening drink. Chris was watching a hobbit movie when I sat down. Then he paused the movie and called up Netflix so we could watch Hart of Dixie. We are in season 4 and I can see them wrapping up all the loose ends because there is no next season.

I stretched out my calf, which started complaining again. Then I brushed my teeth and sat down to write today's blog post.

* A version of Grammy's Rolls, now with pecans *