Roxy's Strange New Thanksgiving and Black Friday Tradition

Looking back on the past two days, this Thanksgiving and Black Friday have been quite relaxing for my family. Instead of trekking over the river and through the woods to Grandmom's house, since Grandmom is in Bridgeway rehab recovering from a broken pelvis, the four of us stayed at home yesterday and shared a quiet Thanksgiving feast. While we did venture out today to visit my Uncle Joe at the Veteran's Hospital in Lyons, and Grandmom at rehab in Bridgeway, mostly we just kicked back and enjoyed being home in the Roxiticus Valley.

I started a two-day project that may well turn out to be an annual Thanksgiving and Black Friday tradition: cleaning the house! While Rex spent Thanksgiving in the kitchen, today he helped me to better organize our home office and move some of my scary boxes of paperwork out of sight and into basement storage. Sometimes I fear that without Rex, I'd become one of those old ladies one of the neighbors finds amongst stacks of newspapers and twenty-seven cats, though my deadly cat allergies make the cat part unlikely. London and Maddie helped me to prepare the guest room for Saturday's Thanksgiving #2, when Grammy, Trader and his two kids will be staying over. London and Maddie and their niece are planning to sleep in Maddie's room, in the area I refer to as "the cupboard under the stairs" -- an oddly angled closet that my girls have turned into their secret clubhouse.

In time for tonight's bedtime stories, the house seems to be in great shape for our visitors, and I've uncovered a few treasures during the cleaning process that I may begin to post here at Roxiticus Desperate Housewives, or over on my currently less prolific Roxiticus Memoirs. Though I haven't been consistent with my Back to School Workout Program, I'm considering making a similar daily commitment to "letting go" -- taking 15 minutes each day to make sure I throw out more paperwork than I receive in the daily mail -- and at the same time, doing a better job of organizing Memory Books for London and Maddie instead of just stuffing their childhood creations into boxes.

So that's the start to Roxy's long weekend...I'd love to hear from all of you about your favorite (or not-so-favorite) Thanksgiving traditions...not to mention, with two Thanksgiving feasts this weekend, I'd appreciate your unique suggestions and recipes for the turkey leftovers.