Thanksgiving Dinner Was Great, BUT Afterward...

My daughter sprang a birthday party surprise on me this year, which was much fun and a couple of my coworkers attended, but most of the other party goers don't know me all that well. So when we were playing a guessing game--others were trying to guess the card in my hand that was Thanksgiving, and I said, "Hornets," for the clue.

My coworker, fan and friend jumped up and shouted, "Thanksgiving!"

And of course everyone wanted to know how hornets came to be related to Thanksgiving.



It was a cold, sleeting, stormy Thanksgiving (in Central Texas, we rarely get that kind of weather),



but my daughter, mother and I had a delightful Thanksgiving dinner.




Afterward, we were planning on watching a funny new Jackie Chan movie and my daughter turned it on while I started a fresh log in the fireplace. You know, one of those kinds that burn for 5 or 6 hours.

The movie is starting, the fire is catching hold, we're all getting ready to curl up on the sofas and watch the show when I see a groggy hornet fly out of the fireplace. Actually, they were red wasps. I'm thinking, uh-oh, there are going to be more...and more...and more. A whole nest of them.

My daughter is terrified of hornets, wasps and bees since when I had taken my Girl Scout troop to the zoo in Tulsa when I was a leader, and in the petting zoo, a mad swarm of bees stung several of the girls--my daughter 21 times.

So she's running to get the hornet spray.

I'm shouting, "No, it might hit the fire!" I'm not a chemist, but I'm envisioning an explosion of volcanic proportions.

My mom's swatting groggy wasps in the air with my handy-dandy flyswatter, and I'm vacuuming them up either in flight, or on the carpet, or clinging to the brick fireplace.

It gets worse.

The smoke from the fire is pouring into the house. The vents are open to the outside, but the smoke is beginning to grow into a white fog. So I race to the back door and open it, and holler to my daughter to turn on all the ceiling fans, open all the windows, while the ice storm is raging on.

The wind is so strong from the north, it's blowing straight through the front to the back door, and the air is clearing. But the 5-6 hour log is still burning away! I've got to get it out of there, but where is the fireplace can? I douse the log with water. More smoke. Lift the smoldering, smoking log into a plastic mop bucket, sparks are flying off onto the carpet and burning it, and I hurry the still smoldering, hotter than blazes fire log outside in the sleet.

Then I filled the bucket with water, and returned to the house, cleaned up the once beige carpet, found a floor fan, and tons of blankets, and with the doors and windows wide open and the fans all blowing, we snuggled to watch the movie, erupting in giggles throughout the show more about our wasp adventure than about the movie.

The problem was, it was all in Chinese. We had to read the subtitles. "Are you sure you put it on the right setting?" I had asked my daughter.

"Yes, that was all there was."

So at the end, we had to watch the outtakes as they're always hilarious. And they were all in English. LOL!!! So my daughter had set it for Chinese instead of English. It just seemed appropriate for our Thanksgiving entertainment that night!!!

So why the smoke in the house? We'd had straight line winds that had torn up the roof a few weeks earlier. The chimney cap had ripped away, but no one told me. So the roofers covered the chimney with a piece of roofing material. The heat from the burning log had eventually burned a hole in it, but not enough to allow the smoke to escape.

And that, folks, is one of our most cherished, wild, and memorable Thanksgivings to date!

What does Thanksgiving mean to me? Hornets!

Or technically, red wasps.

This year, my stove is out (which occurred in the middle of cooking turkey for Christmas last year, and replacing the oven is out--I'll have to replace the counter and everything, so it's been put on hold a while longer and since I'd had flooding and had to replace my carpeting, I just haven't time to do much else!!!)

All I have is a small counter top convection oven, and my AC is out, which means no heat pump for emergency heat, so my daughter is making the turkey dinner for her and her boyfriend and me the weekend before at her apartment, and we'll play games and have a blast. I'll be going to a book signing right before that, so it'll be a special Thanksgiving in a different way.

Have you had a wild and exciting Thanksgiving dinner that you could laugh about later?

Anyone raising their hand to come to MY feasts???

They're sure to be something you can talk about forever. Just think of Mary Tyler Moore parties. :)

Next up, Wolf Fever's release and the blog tour starts right after Thanksgiving.
This is my FIRST review for Wolf Fever and I'm ecstatic!!

Wolf Fever by Terry Spear
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal
Length: Full Length (399 pgs)
Heat Level: spicy
Rating: 5 Books
Reviewed by Xeranthemum

http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2010/10/wolf-fever-by-terry-spear.html


Wolf Fever is another winner of a story that kept me on the edge with its unique master storytelling and plot. There are villains of different flavors and degrees that prevented me from guessing which way Ms. Spear was going to go. I enjoyed the brisk dialogue and the insights it gave me as I read. I liked Carol and Ryan as a couple and Ryan’s sister is a hot ticket. The quality of writing is as strong as ever and a must read for paranormal wolf fans who enjoy a romance laced with humor along with great suspense. It sure made it a hard to put down book. For me, I didn’t want to stop reading, even when it was time to go to bed. Who wants sleep when they’re in the middle of reading a story by Ms. Spear? Her writing is pure entertainment.

And I received an email from a fan last night, WOLF FEVER is being shipped!! Woohoo!

Happy TGIF!!

Terry
"Giving new meaning to the term alpha male."
www.terryspear.com