A busy week

Just over a week ago, we all went to Aunt Sudie's funeral in Waco.  My grandmother asked for my sisters and I to sing a piece we perfected back in high school, one we haven't sung together publicly in 16 years.  But we found it hard to say no.  We only got to practice together the morning of the funeral.  I was pleased with how our harmonies still could ring.  No way I could have done this by myself:  we could do it only because our sisters were up there with us, and for our heartbroken Grandma Dulce, and with the help of our dear Aunt Sudie's spirit.



At the graveside we were asked to sing "Amazing Grace," and with my sisters' blessing we decided to include Anna.  She loves to sing, and when I told Anna she was included, she was duly honored and happy to give something back to Sudie, too.  This arrangement of Amazing Grace was cobbled together via many emails and some YouTube videos, and I'm proud of it, too.



After the interment we went back to the church where a team of kind church ladies had prepared a nice lunch for the family.  This was so welcome, because we all wanted to visit with family members, and the meal and dining room provided space for this.  Amazingly, there was a Spice Cake with real RUM in it.  I had to eat it, just to say I had rum at a Baptist church!  One lady confided that although she doesn't drink, her favorite cake has JACK DANIELS in it, and its her favorite cake!

That weekend, we started demolition on our kitchen.  That saved us several hundred dollars, and it was quite cathartic for Anthony.  Cabinet installers arrived on Monday, assembling our gorgeous new cabinets from Ikea.  They finished mid-day Tuesday, and Anthony reinstalled our microwave, stove, new dishwasher, and placed the old countertop on top of the new cabinetry. (Granite countertops come in 2 weeks.)  We got all our kitchen debris replaced in the new cabinets (fabulously organized by my engineer) late on Wednesday night.

See, we got this kitchen remodel scheduled a few days before hosting a large group for Thanksgiving!  So I did no pre-cooking.  However, I had so much help - first, a precooked smoked Greenberg Turkey arrived that week, and my MIL made pies, side dishes, and a ham.  The meal was completed with rolls and green beans from Emily, cranberries from my mom, and pie-lettes from my dad.   All I had to do was make Alice Waters' Mushroom Dressing, and herb gravy. Also, there was a fabulous team effort in the kitchen by the above parties.  We started with 13 guests, which grew to 16, then 18!  We had plenty of food and room.  There was lots of visiting, some football throwing and wrestling, football watching, performances on the piano, team dishwashing, wine opening and coffee brewing.  It was an epic day.

Late that night, in a freak accident, my sister's elderly cat slipped in the bathroom and hurt her leg badly. Emily called me in a panic, and I drove down there to check her out.  Clearly something was wrong, so we went to my clinic and took an Xray.  She fractured her femur!  We gave her some pain meds, and got her in to see an orthopedic surgeon the next day.  She is 17, but did well with the anesthesia, and got to come home today.  It will be a long 8 week recovery, but we are all glad that Sabrina is on the mend.

There was plenty to blog about in recent days, but I didn't have time or discipline to write every day.  Instead you get this monstrous tome.