Ugggggghhhhhh I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

The whole pan of green bean casserole, that is. Over a period of 2 1/2 ish days. I love green bean casserole, but only get permission to make it on holidays (not that El Husbando gives me a strict menu. But he doesn't care for it, and I rarely make more than two sides per meal. And so, if I am making green beans most of the time, they had better be with onions and bacon. Not with soup and french fried onions on top! ).

Now, before you think "glutton"!...well, maybe a bit. But I had some for lunch and dinner on Friday, lunch and dinner on Saturday, and lunch and dinner today (I said I like the stuff, didn't I?). And now I have one fewer pan to shoe-horn into my refrigerators. I am going to be breaking down the sweet potato casserole into a smaller package, since there is only a little of it left. Woohoo! One down, one to go!

But of course, there is still the enormous turkey sitting on a platter in my fridge. Yeah. That is getting sliced and diced tomorrow. Some of it will be bagged and frozen, some will be cooked into broth and canned up for soup use later on. Some will be sliced and used for sandwiches for El Husbando to take to work later this week. It will all get taken care of..whew. Thank goodness.

Of course, I've got a ton of things to do this week--we're hoping to have a party on New Years Eve--we're still not sure if anyone will come, and if so, who. But, we'll be sitting around with our bells on, and food laid out for eating. Whether anyone shows up, oh well! :-) Of course, I'm not sure how much food to make. We didn't invite a huge horde of people--6 couples, and one of whom told me right out that they wouldn't be here, as they will be out of state visiting family. So, I know of a couple of people who won't be here. Nothing from anyone else. Wish they'd use the RSVP number I put on the bottom.

It seems that no one uses them, or responds to them anymore. I like having people over. If I am not going to have anyone show up, I'd like to know now, though, before I go to the trouble of really thorougly cleaning the house again, setting up a buffet table, etc. Not to mention the food to purchase and make into something.

When you have parties, do you put an RSVP on there? Do people use them? Do they let you know? If you're invited, do you let them know asap, or do you wait til a few days before said party? Am I old-fashioned, for expecting folks invited, to let me know? Especially since I said things like "we'd like to get to know our neighbors better" on the invitations? It is kind of hard to not take a complete and total lack of response personally.

Of course, I realize that this is the holiday season, and many people are very busy. But a two or three minute phone call isn't that difficult to make, even for me, and I've got a very busy household, Christmas time or not. I just wonder...am I completely out of line expecting folks to call/stop by, whatever, to let me know that they won't be coming? Or is this just the way people are? Even people you would expect to have better manners than that?

Anyway, I do hope that your plans for New Years Eve--whatever they may be--are settled, and will be fun. I pray for a blessed, healthy, and financially stable new year for us all...and I do hope that you will return the favor, as we've got a lot of stuff on the table financially in the first three months of the year--a potentially substantial pay raise/promotion for El Husbando, our tax returns, and the sale of our home in North Carolina. All of which are very vital for the ongoing financial stability of our family--it will be a great blessing to be out from under a good deal of debt (our plans include paying off the majority of our non-mortgage debt with the proceeds from the taxes and sale of our home). So obviously, your prayers are very much needed, and very much appreciated....so I'll say thank you in advance, and ask that you continue to pray as you think of us, through the first quarter of the year.

I'll be posting more tomorrow. I've got quite a bit spinning about in my head these last few days. Not much silence and quiet to pursue those lines of thought, however, and I hope that with El Husbando heading back to work tomorrow, things will 'normalize' a bit, although we'll be starting to write our thank you notes...which should be interesting...wish me luck..