It’s the holiday season, mofos! More importantly there’s only about 3 weeks until the sunshine starts coming back into my life so cheers to that.

This year we had Thanksgiving at my cousin S’s house and I was asked to bring … MASHED POTATOES. You guys. This was big, because mashed potatoes is one of the dishes that is mission-critical to the feast. I was honored and broke out my favorite cookbook — Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything — for the occasion.

Mashed Potatoes a la Bittman

If this were a food blog, I’d tell you a 20-paragraph story about how as I peeled fifteen pounds of potatoes to feed my family I fully blossomed into the nurturing mothergoddess I was meant to be, and tie in my vacation to Tibet where I only THOUGHT I found enlightenment but I am not that food blogger so here’s the mashed potato recipe I used. It’s stupidly simple! Potatoes, milk, butter, water, and garlic for one pan. Oh, and I never went to Tibet.

I remember when most of these people were BORN and now they’re adults and I should just lie down now.

WM was running a fever so he stayed home and I flew solo. I made sure he got a plate of leftovers. He’s doing better now and so far I’m still not sick. Win/win.

shopping at the classy places

On Friday, Mom and I went shopping for the first time in five years! I love shopping on Black Friday, which makes me a rare bird anymore. I don’t go out at midnight or on Thanksgiving, so by the time I hit the shops at 8am, the doorbusters are still on and the crowds are friendly. I finished up the gifts for Nephews A and B, bought gifts for various white elephants and my giving tree family and bought myself a copy of a sweater I likely wore in 1989 but is back in fashion.

I was thankful for the shopping because Mom had A SUMMER last year chock full of surgeries and casts and a walker and a knee immobilizer and all sorts of appliances. This time last year I was cropping her cane out of photos. This year she wore me out.

out of shopping practice

We ended up hitting 15 stores.

The rest of the weekend was spent decorating the house while in a food coma. I’ll have pictures of that eventually. Today I worked from home in thick socks and elastic-waist pants. It was divine.

If this were a shopping blog, I’d have a billion affiliate codes and sales to check out, but I’m not that blogger so the only advice I have is this: Target photo is offering 60% off of photo prints today, but only if you get them shipped home. If you’re thinking of filling those empty frames in the basement, or updating the 15 year old photos on your wall, pour yourself a cup of coffee and upload some photos. The interface is crappy, but hey – 60% off is pretty good! Every fall I try to update at least half of the photos in my house. I don’t even have a good photo of Nephew B framed yet — but I will in a few days!