Still Thankful

It was a wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend – slept in every morning, ate too much, drank just enough and soaked up as much time with family and friends as possible. We enjoyed our Thanksgiving day feast at Dan’s aunt and uncle’s beach house on the South Shore of Massachusetts. It was a chilly but gorgeous day that included most, but not quite all, of Dan’s large, extended family. They are all fabulous, interesting people who I continue to enjoy getting to know better. I am extra-fond of the other ladies who have married (or are about to marry) into the family – its nice to share in the “newness” of common in laws with them.

Most of our meal was locally catered (and fabulous) with all the traditional accoutrements, but I provided the almost-as-traditional cheese spread. I was extra excited to use the gorgeous new Mariposa platter that I received recently as a belated wedding gift. Even though I neglected to take a single picture all day (d’oh!), it was a lovely arrangement -- you'll just have to take my word for it, I guess. Didn’t get too exotic with the selections and settled on some known family favorites: fresh baked baguette crostini, dill Havarti, smoked Gouda, port Cheddar and (my favorite) Wensleydale. The pièce de résistance was the baked brie – a one pound round of brie topped with homemade rosemary and cherry relish, folded inside a puff pastry and baked too a gooey, golden finish. I piled the wrapped brie with scraps of puff pastry cut out into tiny flowers so as the pastry puffed it looked like an ample bouquet atop. I really wish I had taken a picture, it was one of my prettier concoctions ever. And, if I do say so myself, it tasted even better than it looked. Needless to say, I gorged myself on cheese and had only a meager helping of the main dinner -- I am such an hors d’ouevres hog, its ridiculous.

Flutie spent Thanksgiving day at a nearby dog day care -- also where we board him overnight whenever Dan’s parents can’t keep him while we’re away, we call the place Doggie Disneyland -- we picked him up that evening on our way home and he looked about as exhausted and content as we were. The only FAIL of the day was watching the horrendous new Indiana Jones movies on On Demand later that night. Gadzooks, was it ever terrible! We both love the first three (so much that Dan onced dressed up as Prof. Indy on Halloween as a kid) but this one was just too much schlock, even for a fantasy-esque franchise.

On Friday we got up early and brought Flutie with us to run numerous errands, including picking out a Christmas tree. We had to go to several tree lots before we found one that was already up and operating – it was the day after Thanksgiving, I couldn’t believe how difficult it was to find a dang Christmas tree, but we finally did. It’s small (about 4 ½ feet) but it’s a beauty, great shape and mostly straight. When we got home, there was a whirlwind of yard work, cooking, cleaning and decorating, whilst Christmas music blared, to prepare for the Third Annual post-Thanksgiving Friday Night Cousins Party at our house. I baked a gooey mac’n’cheese with a crispy buttered bread-crumb topping for dinner and laid out a spread of pigs-in-a-blanket, hummus with veggies and pita chips and homemade spicy-sweet mixed nuts. My plan to stir up a tasty (spiked) party punch took a turn down Alcoholic Alley and came out SO STRONG that I had to serve it as slow-sipping martinis, instead of in big, gulp-able Solo cups. Sure, I wanted everyone to have fun, but wasn’t trying to induce vomiting (especially in my own home). There was also plenty of wine, beer and Dan’s signature random-but-awesome iTunes play list. It was a fun night, one that I did not even see through to the end since I headed for bed around 2am when the guys were just getting their Scotch tasting started. Don’t worry, everyone slept over at our place.

Saturday morning we all tumbled (slowly) out of bed, grabbed coffee and egg sandwiches at the hole-in-the-wall just up the street and took off for the BC/Maryland tail gate. I brought Flutie along for some added school spirit (c’mon, his name is Dog Flutie, after all) but took him home before the start of the game. Chloe came over later that afternoon for some quality girl-talk and helped me finish off the left-over pitcher of martinis. What are friends for, right?

The next day Dan headed off to the freezing cold, rainy Patriots/Steelers game while Flutie and hunkered down indoors due to the nasty weather and my end-of-weekend laziness. I actually had work that I had to finish by Monday morning so I camped out on the couch in my sweats with my laptop and got sucked into the Lord of the Rings trilogy (yep, all three back to back) on TNT – 9 hours (including commercials, sadly)! But I got all my work done and even cleaned the house and did the huge pile of dishes at the same time, so the day wasn't a total loss.

Now it’s a new week (in December!) and I’m getting back into the work groove. I remain as thankful today as I was last Thursday and have been trying to extend the spirit of gratitude and appreciation for all things big and small well beyond the day of feasting. For example, I am thankful that it is finally, really the holidays and so I felt no shame ordering my first egg nog latte of the season at Starbucks on Monday morning. It was worth the wait and tasted like warm, sweet Christmas cheer.

Here are some pictures of our house all done up for the holidays just before the cousin party:

Part of the dining room.

Side table in the dining room

Living room (and Flutie)


Kitchen (and Dan)

martinis and pigs-in-a-blanket ... mmmmm

Another view in the dining room

The bannister in the hallway