Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Today was akin to Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events". I never read the 13 Lemony Snicket novels but the titles alone peaked my interest. And I loved his quotes, i.e., "If you are interested in stories with happy endings you would be better off reading some other book." I wonder if granddaughter Katie Adelaide still has her collection. When she was little, I can remember how excited she was when she started reading "chapter" books. We always gave the granddaughters books for Christmas back when they were all growing up. Now it's high tech stuff. Or expensive clothes. Or makeup. Or cars.

Unfortunate event #1 - Jim got sick again this Thanksgiving; 2 years in a row, the day before we were to leave to go to SC and NC for the holidays. Last year he came down with a bad case of bronchitis. We talked about that over the weekend and how glad we were that nobody even had a cold this year.

We spent Monday afternoon packing our van so we could leave  early this morning. I baked for about a week and made 2 cakes (seven-layer chocolate and fresh coconut cakes). Made some Christmas baskets for my 3 sisters we would be visiting. We had everything in the car when we went to bed last night.

At 5:30 a.m. I heard Jim get up and go to the bathroom, where he spent most of the morning!!

Need I say more. He picked up a bad virus from someplace (not at home; we don't allow germs to enter our safe haven). James and I got dressed for our trip before we realized our driver would not be able to accompany us. Jim went back to bed where he stayed until 6 pm. James was very disappointed that we were not leaving and he told his dad he was disappointed in him for doing this to us! Throughout the day he kept peeking in the bedroom to see if his dad was "over" it yet.

Event #2 - About noon one of my sisters called and said they would not be able to meet us for lunch in Charlotte on Saturday; her husband has pneumonia.

Event #3 - Today is my 74th birthday (for my 75th I'm going to throw a big party and celebrate). My 3 granddaughters in SC have been planning a party for me and only found out at noon today  that I wouldn't be there to help celebrate. They ordered a cake, decorated the dining room, and had a special meal planned. I told them to go ahead and have the party and invite the friends that were coming and when they got ready to light the candles and cut the cake, to call me on the speaker phone and we'd all celebrate together..... and they did. What fun. They are saving the rest of the cake to have when we do make it there, along with the unopened presents.

Event #4 - For lunch, James and I ate the sandwiches I had made for our picnic lunch today on our way to SC. We had emptied the frig over the last few days and had a hard time finding food for dinner tonight. It ended up being a fish and chip dinner. When Jim finally got up and came to the kitchen, he ran back out when the smell of fish cooking greeted him. I quickly lit a candle and turned on the exhaust fan.

I guess that's about all the unfortunate events of the day. I did remember to call the hotel before 4 pm to cancel tonight's reservation. I told them to keep the other 5 nights for the time being. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings.

My Aunt Bob used to say, "When life gives you lemons, Make lemonade!" AND do I love fresh lemonade. I'm think that I might just go outside to the van and make up a tray of all the goodies stashed away for our trip. After all, this is the 1st day of our vacation, and it is my birthday, and besides, they won't miss a few. They don't know that I'm bringing chocolate chip cookies, wagon wheel cookies, brownies, 2 cakes, chocolate peanut clusters. sugared peanuts. peanut brittle, sand tarts, and I can't remember what else I have made. For breakfast tomorrow, I might cut off some links of those smoked baby links that we're taking our son.

Maybe Jim will feel better in the morning and we can still go on our trip. Or we might just leave Thanksgiving day when there's not much traffic, and arrive in time for Thanksgiving Dinner. Our son is a great cook.