It was time to get ready for Thanksgiving. I spent the entire weekend before the big day shopping for food! And Birthday gifts for Scott. Both events were quickly arriving. Before hitting all the stores, I took some time out to enjoy some of my birthday funds from Grandma and Grandpa Seitz. For the past several years I have attended the Basket Bingo event sponsored by Mt Hebron High School as a fund raiser for their  After Prom event. My neighbor friend Gloria accompanied me. We had something to celebrate for Gloria-she found another nurse manager position at a local out patient surgery clinic. Thank goodness. We had a wonderful time but sadly did not win a thing-not even a door prize! But I did drag Scott along as a volunteer to earn  hours for his NHS requirements. So Thanks Mom and Dad S for a great Bday gift!

I also managed to take Pickachu in to the vet for her 17 year old check up. She needed a rabies shot(although she never goes outside). However, you never know. We did have a fox in the garage! And I spotted a mouse on our back deck! The wild life is trying to move in!  Picka is still taking medication for her pancreatitis, and she has lost more weight so her fur started to clump. She weighs 6 lbs. The vet tech was able to shave off some large clumps of fur since I could not brush or trim them off myself. So Picka looks better and I think feels better, even though she did not enjoy her vet experience. And she let the vet know it!

I also attended a Boy Scout meeting for retraining on Merit Badge counseling. Scott has one more year of scouts. He has been trying to do the summary report for his Eagle project. Boy Scouts sure require a lot of paperwork! And no rest for the weary as he dove right into his classwork again for the second semester. He did bring home a pretty good report card, and was even chosen for Student of the Month! Congrats Scott. However, we did decide that he needed some extra help with his Honors Math class, so his new tutor started working with him here at the house. Shaun is a math professor from Towson U and also teaches at our local Community College. I think he will be a great help for the upcoming SAT and ACT as well as the next few years of calculus,  especially if we try to get it done before Scott heads off to college.

We all decided we could use a break though and Tom picked up a few tickets to the Saturday night Hershey Bear Hockey game. After Scott got off work, we picked him up along with our good friend John D and drove up to Hershey PA. The day had started off beautifully, warm and sunny. We were walking around in our short sleeve shirts in the morning. By nightfall we were driving through snow and sleet in PA. A huge front came through with a strong wind that blew all the rest of the beautiful fall leaves off the trees. Tom was very happy since he raked all the leaves off our lawn into the street and they all blew away! (Except for the large pile that ended up in our driveway). So now I have less leaves to rake. (as long as another strong wind doesn't blow them all back our way!). We hope  they ended up in some neighbor's yard that could afford to hire a landscape company to pick up all the leaves for them.

So we really enjoyed the hockey game(even though our Hershey Bears lost in overtime). They were playing the number 1 rated IHL team in the league from Wilkes-Barre, PA. So far our favorite teams just keep losing(except for an occasional good win like the Ravens over the Steelers!) And at least our drive home was a lot less snowy.

On Sunday, I picked up my mom in the afternoon as soon as Scott got off work and brought her over for dinner and a movie. We started watching Paddington Bear which was actually quite cute, but Mom decided it was time to head home before we finished.  Since it gets so dark early in the evening, she thinks it is much later and gets worried that no one will be up to let her back in since they lock the front door around 8pm. So we'll have to try and finish watching it on Thanksgiving.

Mom B got an early start on Thanksgiving dinner when she attended the Howard County Senior Holiday luncheon. Each year the Sr Center puts on a huge Thanksgiving luncheon complete with entertainment and small gifts for all the Seniors in Howard County. Usually several hundred people show up. She gets a ride from Neighbor Ride volunteers. This week, the Director that helped found the Ride program 12 years ago picked Mom up. Colleen took time to get a few photos with Mom B and enjoyed chatting about her  school teacher days. We are grateful for the wonderful resources and people that support the programs here in Maryland.