Elizabeth and Gypsy drove to 1880 from Montana last week to celebrate anything and everything we could squeeze into the few days they could be here.  Cooking, eating, and dogs played a big part.

Elizabeth brought pumpkins she had grown in her Montana garden and roasted them to use in baked items.  World’s best muffins with fresh grated ginger and glaze will not be forgotten since I seem to be wearing them where my waist used to be.

We prepared and ate our traditional Thanksgiving feast: turkey, gravy, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, and, what I hope will be a new tradition, this delicious salad Elizabeth made of marinated root vegetables and pine nuts on a bed of garden greens.

Elizabeth makes a much greater effort on salad-making than I do. (It’s so worth it!)

Next morning, Elizabeth came upstairs with a stack of Christmas presents for me, and we participated in a bit of animal abuse by making the pups model costumes new and old.

 I believe Dolly it thinking, “That’s my bed and it is clearly too small for you, Gypsy.”

We then moved on to selecting outdoor potted trees to serve as Christmas trees.

Elizabeth helped haul this cedar in to the living room:

and decided on this redwood to take home to Montana:

Then we settled in to binge-watch the third season of “The Crown.” Highly recommended.

Trying to think of a closing statement here.  I think I’ll go with,”Celebrate whenever, wherever, however and whatever you can and be thankful.”