It had been a whole
year since we saw my dad. He came for five days- which is pretty amazing, as he's usually only able to sneak away from work for a weekend flight to Nashville. He does take bigger vacations, but reserves them for the two-week trips to England to visit my Grandma and his sisters. We always say that we're happy to take what we can get, and that is the truth, but this is also the first time since we've been married that I haven't seen my dad in a whole year- so it was nice to have it be for a bigger chunk of time! With home improvement, and saving for the adoption, we told everyone that we wouldn't be flying anywhere this year- and we've done just that. It actually feels strange. I love traveling, and with family all over the globe, we usually do. In fact, this is the first time in at least 11 years that I haven't flown on a single flight. I guess we'll make up for it next year!
So, my dad was our only guest for Thanksgiving which meant that it was
a very tame affair. I basically cooked a whole heap anyway, because we enjoy leftovers.
The newest addition this year to the menu was freshly made whole cranberry sauce- and I think it's a keeper! Super easy! Super fragrant! And quite yummy (even though I normally prefer the jellied stuff plopped from a can). The rest of the menu,
made all that day: Pumpkin Pie, Turkey breast, stuffing, huge garlic portobello mushroom caps, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, homemade rolls, green bean casserole, corn, and Martinelli's. I was pretty proud of myself because I stayed calm up until the end when it all had to fit in the oven for the last bit and THERE WAS NO ROOM. Also, I was quite
excited about how I washed dishes as I went, an enviable skill perfected by my mother-in-law. It was hard to handwash in between stirs and basting, but the end result was totally neat. Normally, I'm a "Tornado Chef"- the kitchen is a disaster when I'm done. My neat freak husband was especially pleased.
After dinner and dishes, we considered
going for a walk but it was freezing and drizzly and got dark really quickly so we opted instead to burn calories rocking out in the loft to whatever Eric pushed out of the stereo off iTunes. Lael got dizzy doing twirls, Grant wowed us all with his rock star knee slide, Dean kind of had a break dancing flip thing, I'm sure I looked goofy (I never have been able to dance!) but we had a blast, worked off at least a small percentage of the meal and- most importantly- made room for pie with whipped cream!
The rest of my dad's visit, we kicked off the Christmas season with a bang. We bought some new Christmas items: Christmas classics on DVD, and a fiber optics Christmas village that the kids absolutely love. We also picked up the largest tree we've ever bought now that we have vaulted ceilings. I think it's just under 10 feet. Very pretty- especially decorated. Twice.
Yup. We decorated the tree twice. It was about 2% from being done (the first time), when it fell over. We had bought a new heavy weight cast iron tree stand that was prepared to last us a looooong time ("this thing ain't going no where!" we boasted when we bought it). The trouble, it would seem, was that the well was a bit shallow and had a hard time supporting the tree. It fell over, and my dad was able to grab it before it crashed to the floor completely. However, quite a few ornaments did pop against the hardwood. I gasped pretty loudly and shrieked as more continued to fall and crumble. It was so sad. We unwrapped all the ribbon, and took off all the survivors while Eric went back to Home De
pot to get another stand and more ornaments. Then, we trudged on and decorated the tree again. The second time around is less sweet and sentimental- it's all about efficiency. Total time invested in the tree this year: roughly 4 hours.
