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I feel like I forgot how to do some things, lol. And the other person that shared my van at work resigned last month, and no one thought "hey maybe we should start that van up since Kris has been gone two weeks" so it was dead when I went to go on a call.

And speaking of cars, last week we went to Ocean City for Thanksgiving. I drove back from NC on Monday and literally didn't even unload the car, I just brought my suitcase from that to the beach and washed my dirty clothes there. We had gotten about an hour into the 2.5 hour trip, and Mr. Kris was driving. I felt the car jerk and asked him if he was doing something - no. We pulled into a Wawa and I texted my brothers and they both thought it was the transmission. I looked up a shop that was nearby and seemed to have good reviews and we limped our way over - the car was shaking like crazy by the time we got there. Three hours and $600 later we were back on the way (it was an ignition coil, not the transmission). The rest of the weekend, though, every time I hit a bump in the road I was convinced the car was about to shut down again. I don't know that I'd trust it to drive to NC for Christmas (though if we do go, my brother said he'd get the rest of the parts needed to fix it up and fix everything for me - they said the other three ignition coils are good for now but should also be replaced, they'd have done it but they didn't have the parts. The local Nissan dealership only had one in stock). I'm doing some car shopping today - I've got it narrowed down between a Subaru Forester and a Nissan Rogue. I hope to go do a test drive or two this Friday. I hate to have to put the money out right now, but my car is 13 years old and I do really want a vehicle with AWD for bad weather.

Thanksgiving was really good - my husband's dad and stepmom came down to the beach and the turkey was AMAZING. I brined it for the first time in my life and then used Martha Stewart's Perfect Roast Turkey recipe like I do every year and it was superb. I made the viral mac & cheese from TikTok (Tini's recipe, if you're familiar). It was good but honestly too much cheese. And though I like dijon mustard, a LOT, I wish I hadn't added it. Jack hated it because it was baked 🙄🙄🙄. I brought the tray in to work because that sucker was probably 5 pounds and we ate maybe 1/5 of it. I also made a pecan tart from a recipe I found online and I thought it just tasted ok. I ended up throwing it away. I may give it another try and see if making the tart dough recipe will help, I went the easy way and used pre-made pie dough. I also think my tart pan was smaller than the one the person online used, so the sauce poured on top was too much.

My mom is doing ok - still in the hospital and tomorrow is two weeks since the surgery. Her gut isn't waking up quickly (which honestly considering her long standing GI issues I'm not surprised at all) but they think it's starting to. I'm expecting her to be in there another week and then to a rehab place for probably a month.

And not to sound ungrateful, but Mr. Kris still wins at being really not good at getting me gifts. My birthday was Thanksgiving, and he and Jack gave me their gifts last night (he realized 20 minutes into the drive that he forgot them on Tuesday). He tends to take Jack somewhere, like Macy's, and just let him pick out whatever he thinks I'll like. Which is fine. Jack picked out a purse and a matching wallet. Both fine, though I need a new purse and wallet like I need a hole in the head. I rarely use purses. But the purse is nice. And then Mr. Kris gave me a clutch (basically a large wallet almost the exact same size as the one Jack gave me) and a matching smaller wallet. Because I really need three new ****ing wallets to go with the other wallets I already have. I'm not kidding I think this is like the fifth wallet he's given me. I'd like to return it but I'll have to hide the damned things first and then ask him for the receipt, because the last time he got me a purse (literally two DAYS after I told him I didn't know wtf I was going to do with the purse his parents just gave me) he took it back to Macy's on his own and didn't give me the money or anything so I just didn't get a gift that year. This year he also gave me a little watch and Jack got me some earrings that hopefully won't react with my ridiculously sensitive ears. I know I sound SO ungrateful, but I put a lot of thought into his gifts and I don't feel like he puts more than two minutes into thinking about mine. I sent him a link for a Hexclad wok I really want, anyone want to bet on whether or not I'll get one for Christmas?