Here are some pictures!

 This kitchen was MUCH bigger, but there was no table, just this breakfast bar. We had to sit on pillows because it was so high.

 Cabin 7

 After settling in on Wednesday

 The Thanksgiving table after turning off the overhead lights

 Centerpiece before everything was ready. Native stone, fallen leaves, and tiny acorn from right around the cabin.  I have had the antler for ages, and brought it along.

 Friday's full moon

Friday's fire that I kept going until all of that beautiful wood was used...this is the best picture of the whole bunch!

Thanks for waiting a week for pictures!  I have time today to do stuff like this!  

In the fireplace pictures, you can see the odd black metal barrier around the opening.  That thing was really in the way, blocking our view of the fire, and making the fire harder to work.

The great news is, WE GOT CABIN #13 back for next year!  That's the one that has always been our favorite.  The people who were in that one this year left before we did, and did not re-book it! Yay!!

We had it reserved in 2013 when Dave's mom asked us not to go.  We canceled it and never got it back.  It's really the best one, with a real open fireplace (without a weird barrier), a table AND a breakfast bar, and an enclosed porch, for $11 more a night.

A side note about what we ate, and the immediate change I saw in my body!!

We have a tradition of having Kraft Mac and Cheese with smoked sausage in it on our Thanksgiving trip.   It's the only time all year that I allow us to eat Kraft Mac and Cheese, and it is a sentimental favorite from both of our childhoods. It's not just because we have gone low carb that I don't make this for us....it goes all the way back to before we started low carb.

I don't make it because it's CRAP!!! 

But, for Thanksgiving, I make enough for 2 full meals of it.

Then, of course, there was the pie (which I baked myself this year--pumpkin in a pecan praline crust), and the biscuits and honey, jam, or cranberry compote.... and the cranberry compote itself, which has sugar and orange juice in it, and orange juice.

Translation:  LOTS of carbs!

I gained 4 pounds in 4 days.  BANG.  Instantly....  just from adding back in the types of carbs we have been avoiding since August.

It was really interesting, and eye opening.

Those 4 pounds are gone now, and I have learned a lot about how and why I was previously so frustrated by the weight gain caused by my medication.

Here it is, December already.  How the heck did that happen?

We used yesterday to get all of our errands done.  Dave went and took care of his dad, while I went out and did all of our errands on my own. 

This is kind of momentous.  I have only this year started doing stuff on my own.  I've allowed myself to become overly dependent on Dave, which is really weird for me, looking back on my life.

When I first moved down here, I was completely dependent upon him out of necessity, but now I mostly can fend for myself, as long as I don't get into an area I haven't been to before.

Doing our weekly errands doesn't involve that risk, so there's no reason for us to do them together anymore.

I've done part of the errands on my own before, to improve our use of time, but never all of them on my own.  

It was a MUCH more efficient use of time, and we were both home by lunch! (the only mistake I made was not taking enough bags into the stores, and having to struggle to lift too much weight, HAHA!)

So we have today off, which we usually have a hard time accomplishing.  

Trying to create a new routine that removes weekly date night so we can save money, and re-arranges when we do the errands so that we actually have some time to relax, is a process that is evolving.

We did well this weekend, time wise, but we still spent money on an unplanned meal out.  Gotta work on that.

Dave has to travel for work tomorrow and Tuesday.  There is supposed to be snow and ice.  He was able to upgrade his rental vehicle to a bigger, SUV type.   This was because I insisted he do that!

We haven't been in our hot tub for weeks.   It's either been too cold or too windy, or both.  It's awful getting out of it when it's 20 degrees and windy!

I think the thing I hate the most about Oklahoma is the wind, which can be truly relentless.  It was awful yesterday, so we missed another chance to get in the tub.

Dave opened it up for me, and I checked the chemistry and cleaned up some scum.  The wind raged, so we closed it back up and went inside.  *sad face*

Maybe today...?  Before it gets dark?  Sigh....