As usual, Thanksgiving was held at our house for 19 (1/2 are kids). I was pretty unprepared this year...waited until the last minute to decide on the menu. I was able to start some stuff on Tuesday, do most of it on Wednesday, and have a mostly stress-free Thursday. My mom came up on Tuesday night - it was nice to have help and company for this years prep. Thursday was a really nice day with kids running around, lots of food and drink, and good conversation. We ended up having:
- Butternut Squash Soup
- Brined, Roasted Turkey w/ Sausage, Fennel, & Sage stuffing
- Mashed Potatoes (I hosed the potatoes for the first time ever and had to send Joe out to get 7 more pounds of potatoes. Nice.)
- Roasted Vegetables - Sweet Potatoes, Turnips, Carrots, and Parsnips
- Brussel Sprout hash w/ Lemon and Poppy seeds
- Cranberry Orange Sauce
- Brioche Rolls
- Green Bean Almondine (my sister in law brought this)
For dessert we had Cherry Pie, Apple Pie, cake, and Chocolate Pecan Pie.
Friday, Shelagh and I drove to NJ with my mom for my 20th High School reunion. We drove by way of NYC and stopped in to Eataly, Mario Batali's new market/restaurant extravaganza. It was overwhelming, tothe say the least. Beautiful bread, meat, pasta, gelato, etc. I did think it would have more bite-sized eats for noshing on, but it was more sit down restaurant and goods. WAY expensive too, I might add - like Whole Foods x 3 expensive. We also stopped by Mom's cooking school to show Shelagh where Grammy teaches. She was very impressed.
High school reunion was cool. Everyone looked pretty much the same...maybe a little more lbs and a little less hair, but mostly the same. It was nice to see people, but I really feel like I had lots of partial conversations. Glad I went though and great night with my best friend from h.s. and her husband. Joe's was the same night in MA so he couldn't come with me, unfortunately.Also stopped in to see my Dad, who is ill and not doing so well. It was tough but I was so glad to see him at least. Shelagh and I took the train back from NJ to Boston, which was a fun adventure for her.
Last week was nuts. We had stuff every night plus I had 8 loads of laundry piled up. Monday night I had to go to the mall to get all the cousin swap gifts. 8-10pm at the mall is a good time to go - not that crowded, good parking - I got all the gifts done in one swoop. Tuesday we had a safety curriculum review at Rory's pre-school - the kids thought it was cool to be at school at night with their friends. I had all the Hanukkah wrapping to do also. Wednesday was the 1st night of Hanukkah and the rest of the wrapping for the Xmas party we had this past weekend. Thursday Shelagh and Joe had a CCD event at church and my cards arrived (without my kids name or the year - glad I was paying attention when I ordered them!), so I got started on those - we are sending 140 this year - why the hell don't I figure out how to do labels???? Friday we left for NJ, dropped by a friends house in CT and arrived in NJ for the family Xmas weekend.
Family Xmas weekend is always the 1st weekend in December - I love that. Most of my holiday craziness is done now! My aunt arranged for a horse-drawn carriage so that my Dad could ride around the neighborhood with all his grandkids. It was just what he needed - the fresh air rejuvenated him a bit and we all had a very wonderful day. Joe, the kids and I had 2 awesome diner breakfasts this weekend- diners in NJ are like Dunkin Donuts in MA - there is one on every corner. And, they are all good! I love diners.
We are back home and settled back in. Continuing to enjoy Hanukkah...Joe's work Xmas dinner is tonight at a beautiful restaurant in the North End in Boston. I get my winter veg share from the Food co-op (which I'll have to pick up in heels!!).
Off to skating with Rory and Kelly now. Let's hope Rory doesn't decide to lay down on the ice and flop around like a dying fish. I keep telling him that Superman always tries his hardest and so should Rory. Let's hope it works.
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