I tossed and turned last night and had a hard time waking up this morning.  Finally, I forced myself to get up around 11am.  (I should have stayed in bed.)

After breakfast and a quick trip to the store to see if I could find a dish that would fit in one of the slow cookers at the house, so we could make the cheese cake, I started preparing things for Thanksgiving.  (No, we didn’t find anything that would fit, so I had to make 2 small cheese cakes.)

When we came home I started to work in the kitchen.  First, I needed to print out my recipe for GF Stuffing.  The biggest mistake I made was checking my email.

OK, this is the 3rd time that I’ve tried to write about this.  But without getting into details, it appears that I will no longer be able to have a relationship with my niece.  My husband’s sister is mad at us because we got upset when they defaulted on something we co-signed on for them.  It’s horrible.   I love my niece dearly, she will be 3 in February, and now I won’t be having a relationship with her.

So then I cut up the veggies for the stuffing, I should not have used the food processor, because the onions and celery now look more like soup than chopped.  I toasted the bread for the stuffing, and cut it into little cubes.   I made an herbed butter to put on the Turkey,  I made up my own Poultry Seasoning, after reading what was in the poultry seasoning I bought I didn’t want it in my food.  I made the cranberry sauce, and the cheese cake.  My husband trimmed the asparagus and the green beans.

Then we went to the store and picked up our turkey, and Brussels Sprouts.

When we got home, we saw our neighbor, who was telling us the latest scoop on our HOA.  You would not believe the power trip these people are on.  They are breaking so many rules, fining people for nothing, and taking away rights.  I simply do not understand, we live in a small neighborhood (only about 85 houses), you would think we could all get along.  So this got me all upset too.  We feel so helpless.  There are so many ridiculous things going on in this neighborhood, and even if we could do something about it, right now we just don’t have the energy with everything that is going on with me.

Well, at least the cranberry sauce is done, and the cheese cakes are cooling.  Everything is pretty much ready to go.

Except me.  I’m absolutely terrified about tomorrow.  And all this stress from today is not helping things.  I don’t know how I’ll sleep tonight.  I’m happy I was able to go by the library today and pick up a bunch of books that were on hold for me.  At least if I can’t sleep, I won’t be bored.  I do so love to read a good book.

I just finished American Gods, by Neil Gaiman.  A very thought-provoking book, of course I’ve liked everything I’ve ever read my Neil Gaiman, so it was pretty much a given I’d like this book.  (my favorite of his is a young adult book, called Graveyard.  A great book!  of course Good Omens with Terry Pratchett is awesome too.)

Reading is one of my stress reducers.  What do you do to reduce stress?