Happy 21st Birthday Jacob! Congratulations Aaron! Decorating the outdoor kitchen and a great Sunday brunch here at home

Friday, November 18th was our grandson Jacob's 21st Birthday! He's our sailor over in Italy so no family to celebrate with this time. Not like he was looking forward to his first alcoholic drink as the age is 18 over there! LOL

My favorite pic of him and Allissa💙

A much younger Jacob 💗

Now for the last two grandsons to turn 18 in a few months and they'll all be adults! How can that be? 

Congratulations Aaron! He made the CVC 2022 All Conference team! He was only able to play 4 games because of a hamstring injury in June. A very impressive 4 games obviously! 👏

We headed for Reno Friday morning and made a stop at Total Wine, to stock up for the holiday :)  Then it was on to Gardnerville and Walmart for Thanksgiving shopping. A little stop for me at Dollar Tree (where everything is $1.25 now)  

Around 1300 we headed for Sharkey's and had our linner. Doug K, Ken had the fish tacos again and they were awesome!  After that time to head for home and unload those groceries. The part of grocery shopping I hate the most! 

We got that done and headed to Karen's for Happy Hour. It is so cold in the evenings here, we just stayed on the deck under some patio heaters she has. 

Saturday morning after it warmed a bit, I decided it was time to do a little decorating of the outdoor kitchen.  Even Ken, who is a big believer of no Christmas before Thanksgiving said it looks good! I on the other hand could easily enjoy Christmas for a couple of months before! Once it's over then I'm ready to take it down. 

Our evening was spent next door as John was home for 2 nights. There was a huge  fire! 

Sunday morning was freezing but I wanted to cook on the outdoor grill. Luckily Ken agreed with me and he went outside and built a nice fire in the wood stove in the kitchen. He got it going and I gathered the bacon, eggs and toast. There was a couple of mimosas poured too. It was a balmy 34 degrees when we had our brunch. The sun was shining, so it felt much warmer. 

The cold froze in snowflakes 💗 It was so pretty! 

My sister Wendy, gave me this Charlie Brown tree a few
years ago. This year I decided to turn it into a patriotic 
tree with red white and blue bulbs 

Ken made a warmer to keep bacon warm. 

Brunch in the sunshine! I told him we need to do this once  
a week when we're home. Of course the way we're burning
wood we're going to have to go away after the new year LOL. 

Afterwards we took our drinks in front of the wood stove for a bit. Ken was helping John with a project so he left a little bit later. I on the other hand, stayed in front of the fire, just enjoying 💕 I did cook an additional package of bacon for some of the Thanksgiving dishes. Then I sat back down, added more wood and counted my many blessings. 😊

Finally about 1330 I decided I SHOULD get up and do something. Right then Ken came home and said let's sit and enjoy the fire some more. He poured another mimosa and that's exactly what we did 😋

Eventually I came in and did some dishes etc and then later we went back outside and he made a great fire in the outdoor fire pit for a bit. Then it was time for dinner so in we came! 

Today I spent most of it in the kitchen getting ready for some major cooking tomorrow. A lot of prep work but think i'm ready to go for the morning! I will be cooking a stuffed turkey low and slow overnight tonight. Tomorrow a ham and Ken's cooking a pork roast. Side dishes will be ready too tomorrow. 

Ken's been working on a cover for the wood pile out back to make it easier to get to the wood. Happy Hour when he's finished. Now to some online Christmas shopping! You know Black Friday is everywhere today on Monday! Have a great evening!