Aaron Neville and I...

are still cutting green and red paper for Christmas cards and singing soulful holiday duets.  I am sure the neighbors next door are loving it.  Ha!  The CD is called Aaron Neville's Soulful Christmas - and we are currently bopping to Oh, What a Night.  Not too loudly.  Well, not very.  My favorite is Louisiana Christmas Day.  Tim, of course, always hated this music - his favorite Christmas CD was, and I am not kidding, Now It is Christmas Again by Garrison Keillor and the gang from Prairie Home Companion.  The tune he would always sing along with was The Sons of Knute Christmas Dance and Dinner.  Very strange.  And yes, I know all the words, too.  Not that I could ever get him to listen to Prairie Home Companion on NPR, but he was completely enamored of the Christmas CD.  Go figure.

Today, since it is Thankful Thursday (thank you for the theme, Yoli, from Apron Senorita), I am thankful for my friend and client, Cari.  And for her little restaurant just four doors down.  And for hot dogs with mustard and onions.  There is a distinct advantage to being close by: a fully stocked refrigerator and kitchen that will make you just about anything your little heart desires - and bring it right to you.  She's been pretty busy lately - which is great in this economy - and she has a loyal following of regulars who are hooked on her philly cheese steak sandwiches and great salads.   So what happened to my giving up meat, you might ask?  Well, I have convinced myself that a hot dog, which does not come from any one animal, isn't meat in the classic sense of say, steak or chicken.  And it bears no resemblance at all to any living thing it might have once been.  And they were left over from Monday's chili dog special - so I was helping out by eating the last two hot dog buns.  Yes, yes, justification, I know.  I do regularly eat the salad and when my friend, Heather, and I had dinner there a week or so ago, I had the eggplant parmesan, which was excellent.  Cari is a hard-working, enterprising young woman and I am thankful that she is continuing to thrive while small restaurants are closing all over town.  She refers clients to me quite often and I try to send people her way every time someone asks me for a suggestion on where to have lunch or dinner.  So if you're ever in the area...

And check out the giveaway at Lemonade Makin' Mama's blog.  Too cute!