Another month has ended, and the last month of the year is upon us!  October was such a fun month that I didn’t really envision November being able to rival it.  But as the month unfolded, blessings appeared and good memories were made!  This month I’m highlighting 10 favorites.

Favorite #1

November couldn’t have gotten off to a better start than this:

 

A letter from my granddaughter Helen put a smile on my face, a hug around my heart, and a skip in my step.  💖💖💖

 

Favorite #2

Also in the first week of November, my friend Maria paid me a visit early one morning and brought with her…

…TAMALES!  Two dozen of them!  Now I’m not always a tamale person.  But when they are authentic homemade tamales…oh, yeah!  One of Maria’s coworkers makes these and sells them around holiday time.  As we visited over a cup of coffee, Maria advised me to separate the tamales into packages of two and freeze them that way.  Then I could thaw out two at a time for eating.  Since Big Eagle doesn’t like tamales, this will definitely work for me.

Here are my tamales portioned out and ready to freeze.  The two baggies in the front were headed to the fridge.  Those babies were eaten within the next couple of days.  Yum!

 

Favorite #3

 

Peppermint spoons!  How cool are these?  And they were cheap, too, because I found them at Dollar Tree!  Can’t wait to use these during December!  And I’ll bet my granddaughters will love them, too!  These will definitely kick our hot chocolate up a notch. 😁

 

Favorite #4

November 12 was forecast to bring us a hard freeze.  So on the 11th I made my way to the garden to pick as many peppers as I could fit into this one basket.

 

I made stuffed peppers with all of the bells.  We ate them over the course of the week.  We’ve really enjoyed the poblanos chopped up in our salads.  They give it a little more kick than a regular bell pepper, but don’t make it as hot as a jalapeno would.  It’s definitely a favorite when we’re still enjoying the FRESH fruits of our labor in the second half of November!

 

Favorite #5

 

OMG!  Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!  The day FINALLY arrived when my eye doctor told me there were daily wear lenses for my astigmatism!  At long last!  So of course I gave her a resounding YES to that!  But not until I did the 10-day trial to make sure they would work for me.  I never thought I’d be able to wear dailies, because they just didn’t make them in the prescription I needed.  I’m so happy they finally engineered this product!  Hello, Favorite!  😂

 

Favorite #6

On Saturday the 23rd, Big Eagle and I went to the Fort Worth tree lighting ceremony in Sundance Square.

It was still daylight when we got there.  It is a 50-foot tree that had to be removed from the yard of a home in Michigan.

 

As the sun started to go down, the lights became more beautiful!

 

 

 

Initially, we were hoping to eat at Mi Cocina, which is just a couple of blocks away from Sundance Square.  But ALL of the restaurants in downtown were packed, as we should have known they would be.  So we headed out to the Camp Bowie area and ate at the Original Mexican Eats Cafe.  Such a fun night!

 

Favorite #7

I attended a Mary Kay event just a little over a week ago, and I couldn’t help but admire my consultant’s nails.  She told me she’d had them dipped at a nail salon in town.  I had read a little bit about that technique, but had never tried it myself.  Well, seeing her nails was all I needed to motivate me to give it a try.

 

I LOVE it!  I had them done over a week ago, and they still look just as great!  I’m told it should last 2 1/2 to 3 weeks.  While I don’t think I will make this an all-the-time thing, I do think I’ll do it every couple or three months or for special occasions.  I’m not sure it would be good for my nails on a continual basis.  I want to give them time to breathe.  But a favorite?…Heck, yeah!

 

Favorite #8

I entered another Bass Hall lottery and scored a big discount on tickets to…

 

Neither Big Eagle or I had ever seen them before.  As it turned out, though, Big Eagle was sick with a cold and fever the night of the performance.  I called at the last minute, and thankfully my friend Lynn was able to join me for the evening.

 

Here we are on a balcony overlooking the foyer of the performance hall with its beautiful Christmas tree.

This is our view looking down.  After enjoying that view, we made our way up to the area where our seats were located.  However, even though the show was supposed to  begin at 7:30, we waited for over half an hour for them to open the doors to our seating area.  Finally at 7:40 they opened the doors and we made our way to our seats.  Sadly, at 8:00 it was announced that due to technical difficulties, the show was cancelled. The Blue Man Group made the audience blue!  The first reaction was shock.  Then the only thing everyone could do was accept it and make our way back out to our cars.

Lynn and I stopped at a restaurant on our way home and enjoyed a glass of wine and some quality girl time.  So my favorite #8 is not the Blue Man Group, but it’s my friend Lynn.  She gave up her evening at the last minute to join me, and she was a trooper through the disappointing cancellation.  Friends like her are rare, and I do appreciate her so!

 

Favorite #9

Big Eagle worked hard early this past week putting up our outdoor Christmas lights.

 

He always does such a great job!  Each year I anticipate seeing it lit up the first night.  It’s a favorite holiday tradition.

 

And this angel is a favorite because she’s the newest addition to our outdoor decorations this year.  I think she’s beautiful!

 

Favorite #10

I’m not sure this last one really qualifies as a favorite.  But maybe it does, because it’s a favorite memory from my childhood.  I certainly didn’t do it as well as my mom use to.  But I made a pie on Thanksgiving day, and I recalled when I was little how my mom would take the leftover pie crust cuttings and make us kids a pre-dinner treat with them.  She would roll them out, sprinkle them with sugar and cinnamon, roll them up, and bake them.  I remember peering through the oven glass in pure anticipation of them and asking how much longer, how much longer.

 

This is my poor attempt at making one of those treats for Big Eagle and myself from my pie dough scraps.  My dough was on the dry side.  It wasn’t nearly as good as Mom’s were, but I felt I had to do this in homage to her.  This was our first Thanksgiving without Mom here.  But she’s here in my heart and my mind.  She always will be.

 

So there you have it!  My November highlights.  I hope you can look back over your November with good memories and happy thoughts.  If you’re so moved, I hope you’ll share some of them in the comments.  And if your November wasn’t the best, you can share that, too.  Life isn’t always a bed of roses…that’s for sure.  Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

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