Mom's 83rd Birthday.

Mom's birthday was actually the day after Thanksgiving, but she was too pooped from all the cooking and eating on Thursday to go out Friday. Plus, she'd had to go to the hospital Friday afternoon. It was just a regular appointment with her cardiologist. But still, with pre-appointment tests and such, it was a lot of walking around and exertion. So she was in no mood to go out to eat after all that. We postponed the birthday dinner till she felt better. That turned out to be the next day.



Denise and I drove over to Temple with some flowers and a few presents Saturday afternoon. Mom loved the flowers, and particularly loved the presents that Denise had picked out. She'd gone to Wal Mart and Penny's on Friday while I was busy taking mom to her medical appointment.



After opening presents at the house, the three of us drove over to the Texas Roadhouse. Mom wanted a steak for her birthday, and she loves the steaks at the Roadhouse. When it came time to order drinks, he had a Top Shelf margarita, Denise had a glass of wine, and I had a tall beer. Ziegenbock, I think. The selection at the TR is lame, so there you go.



I think Denise ordered the 10 oz. Ft, Worth Ribeye, while mom and I had the Dallas Fillet (mom the 6 oz, me the 8). We all had salads, and then the girls ordered baked potatoes. Denise had the stuffed regular tater, and mom the sweet, marshmallow filled variety. As you can see above, I went for the steak fries.



It was all wonderful. We filled up there at the restaurant and then headed back to mom's for a little after diner tipple. I think she had a great time, much of which was due to Denise and the time she spent preparing the presents. She paid close attention to some of the things that mom needed when we were there for Thanksgiving, and then went out the next day and found those things. She's pretty sharp.

During dinner, mom told us that she's having second thought about the hip replacement surgery. She's scheduled to have it in a week or two. She has about 4 different doctors, and two or three of them have been making what mom thinks are snide, disparaging comments about her plans to have the surgery.

I'm not sure what the hall that's all about. The guy who does the surgery is very well thought of. Point is, those comments have fed the doubts in mom's mind, and now that she's having to cut back on her normal regimen of aspirin in preparation for the surgery, she's feeling a lot more pain. I think it's convinced her to just put it all off for now.

I wish I could do something about it all, but she's gonna make the decision on her own. Really, I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm just afraid that if she doesn't go ahead with the surgery I'm gonna be getting a call late some evening and taking her to the ER because she's fallen and broken a hip. That's when the real trouble will begin. But, it's her hip. It's her life.

Anyway, it was a great birthday celebration. Cheers!

Had a great Thanksgiving yesterday.

Denise got up at 6:30 to start cookin' the bird. We'd gone to Wal Mart a week ago and picked up the bird and a spiral cut ham. Mom was gonna need the bird later so she could stuff it and make her wonderful cornbread dressing. So Denise cooked it in our oven for about three hours, and then I drove it over to mom's place.



About 3PM, Denise and I went back over to moms for the big feed. By then, Denise had cooked mashed potatoes and a lemon Meringue pie.



When the time came, I pulled the bird out of the oven and started carvin' it. It was a huge, succulent beast.



While I did that, Denise started cutting on the ham. She found a wonderful spiral cut boneless ham at Wal Mart. Boneless. What will they think of next? Next to mom's cornbread dressing, this is my favorite thing about thanksgiving. I could give or take the bird, but I loves the pig.



Pretty soon, with the peas, carrots, brussels sprouts and gravy made, it was time to start diggin' in. There was just the three of us this time, Denise and mom and I. We'd invited our friend Kay to dinner, but she'd been puny and begged off.



Here's a shot of my platter (er, my first platter). There's nothing in the world like my momma's cornbread dressing and gravy, with peas piled on tip. Bliss.

Everyone ate their fill, and drank some nice Asti Spumante Ballatore. And then we sat back with a piece of mom's pecan pie and watched the Cowboys play New Orleans. It was a good game, but it didn't end the way we wanted. Close, but no cigar. But that didn't ruin the evening.

In the end, Denise and I piled our share of the leftovers into the trunk and took them home, where I took the rest of the meat off the bird and stored everything away.



Here's the after shot... like a bunch of vultures went after it.



There's a container of white meat for Denise, and another with dark meat for me.



Since Denise doesn't like anything to do with corn, all of this is mine. I covered it with gravy before I closed the lid and put it in the fridge.

The rest of the goods were stored away and everything cleaned up and washed. By the time I was done you wouldn't know all this cookin' and eatin' had happened at all.



The last thing to do... In the rush to get the ham and stuff to mom's place, Denise and I had accidentally left the lemon meringue pie in the fridge. Oops.

After taking care of the left-overs, I rewarded myself with a slice of pie. It's wonderful! Then I wrapped it in foil and tucked it away in the fridge. That sucker's full.

Believe it or not, the left-overs are safe for a while. We all did a little nibblin' this morning, havin' a ham sandwich for breakfast. But the dinner menu is gonna be a different.

Today is mom's 83rd birthday. She's got a doctors appointment this afternoon at 3:30, preparatory for her scheduled hip replacement in a few weeks. I'm gonna go over there and escort her to the hospital, get her to the appointment and back, and then we'll drive back over here, pick up Denise and head over to the Texas Roadhouse. Momma wants a steak dinner for her birthday, so that's what we'll have. then we'll drop by here for a slice of lemon meringue pie, and maybe an after dinner tipple. It'll be great.

So, I hope you all had a great feed and family time yesterday. Cheers!