The Prep Begins.

The official Thanksgiving prep has begun. A couple weekends ago I roasted a practice turkey (we ate off that for a week)and now with only four days left, the real preparation is in full swing.

Right now (at 10 pm)a cranberry cheesecake is cooling on the counter. The house went through an initial clean up today. Our bedding was all washed and aired out in the beautiful weather today. The duvet cover has finally made a reappearance this year (I've been too lazy in the years since we got it). Fleece cuddle blankets have been laundered (yowza, did they stink of Nibbler after sitting in a pile for a couple weeks) and are currently trying to be dehaired, not sure how that will work as fleece acts as a magnet to the dog hair. Groceries have been purchased, in 2 pricy trips to two different stores. The menu is set. And the kitchen has been "staged."

I have this thing where I really like to take pictures when we clean well (see here and here and here). Maybe that says something about our cleaning habits, huh? Today was exciting though, because the kitchen was cleaned up and we put up a new piece of artwork that brings the kitchen one step closer to being done.

And more importantly I got a new gadget that solves a problems we've had the last several months...a bread box. I really don't think I should be this excited about a bread box, but I am. Up until recently we kept our bread in the fridge, I'm not sure why we changed (maybe the fridge was packed one week so the bread had to go on the counter and it just stuck) but the bread tastes better when it sits on the counter, so we haven't gone back. The bad thing is that bags of sandwich bread, bagels and french bread tended to just accumulate on the counter. Plastic and bread everywhere. Not cool, nor attractive. So we decided to finally get a bread box. I've been looking into them for awhile, but the whole jump situation put a hold on unnecessary spending. Now that things are more stable (oh yes, did I mention I accepted a job offer on Friday? I did, Friday was my last day of work and I will start my new job on December 1), Mike said that while I was out grocery shopping to see if I could find something I liked. So I did, and I am happy...no longer will plastic bread bags pile up on the counter in an unsightly heap!

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Oh, and I got some pics of the newly organized junk drawer (see before here) and the decluttered "command center" in our kitchen. Both Mike and I are getting anxious to start some hardcore uncluttering of our basement, we just need to get through Thanksgiving first.