Mom and Apple Pie

[da]

Well, that was the very model of a modern traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was glazed with a really nice pomegranate and sage sauce, and my cousin brought bourbon sweet potatoes. We went through ten pounds of mashed potatoes, two heads of broccoli, half the cranberry mold, and 1.5 of three pies.

Conversation was lively. Grandma had some great zingers. She's pretty sharp for 98 years old. They think she can come home from rehab in three weeks, when she's a bit stronger than she was when she had the fall. I was impressed when she first came in the door, and seemed so energetic, even if she's not walking. Physio's done good things for her.

My cousin's gotten a black chow, who is really sweet, even if his face has a distinctly scary ursine appearance.

It's pouring down rain, and I'm happy to have a warm place to sleep tonight.

Yes, I wish I were going home tomorrow.

Comments

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

Yes, I wish I were going home tomorrow.

Not nearly as much as I do.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

*misses you*

[sulle-stelle.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lovely day! I think your grandma sounds awesome!

I got together with two gay couples and a bunch of their various family members, and we all went out to eat at this nice restaurant which had a fabulous buffet with champagne (party of 20). It was all really quite nice. And then back to one guy's house, where a few others were getting together and cooking a meal. So I hung out there for another five hours, as more people dribbled in to socialize and eat.

It was really nice.

Unfortunately, I have to work at least a half day tomorrow. But, I have friends coming to visit for the weekend from TN, which should be fun!

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Champagne would've been nice, here. We were going to buy beer, but we thought some of the guests here were avoiding alcohol, so we didn't. ...aaaand they brought Coors Light. (sigh).

I'll be working for part of tomorrow too; learning about the software I'm going to start using on Monday!

Have fun with your TN friends! (BTW and apropos of nothing: are you going to NC in February? d. and I aren't sure one way or the other, but we'd love to see you!)

[sulle-stelle.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm going to NC. And you should, too! Because then I could hang out with you guys; I haven't seen either of you since last February....

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I'd like to. I think d. does too!

...we'll be talking about it shortly after I get back home, I think.

[sulle-stelle.livejournal.com]

You two may talk about it all you want, so long as airplane tickets are purchased at the conclusion of the discussion.... ;-)

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

One major problem is that they're very expensive airplane tickets. Getting from YYZ -> CLT, say, is US$600/person or thereabouts; things get only more expensive if we went to Greensboro. The usual workaround is to drive to BUF, as da_lj did for the trip he's currently on. But that's oftennot possible in winter; Buffalo gets a truly enormous amount of snow.

So that turns it into a $2000 weekend for the two of us. That's a lot.

The other problem is that they're long trips with too little payoff: I've gotten burned out on these airplane-based Midwinters; the trip to Ghost Ranch really cured me of that. When we were poorer, but had more time, we had great fun in California. But we also stayed for a couple extra days on one end and visited with several friends in the Bay Area. North Carolina? Not so appealing.

So I'd like to go, but remain somewhat unconvinced. I am also leaving for Israel on the Thursday after the gathering.

[fyddlestyx.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a lovely Tday! Ours was lovely as well.. there were about 26 folks at Ann's sister's in Woburn, MA. We also went thru 10 pounds of mashed potatoes!

And yummy family appetizers at 2pm, including a buttery, scrumptious smoked salmon and a baked crab dip. After turkey and sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes and stuffing and garlic/pepper kale, and assorted other items and cranberry chutney, the desserts included chocolate bourbon pie, an amazing apricot cake from Ann's younger daughter Maria, a non-wheat chocolate buttercream birthday cake for Ann's mom, pumpkin pie, apple pie and mince pie. Ann's daughters have now taught us the meaning of having an armadillo in your stomach after that meal!

The most fun, I think, was watching Ann's nephew Francisco, age 5, dancing to live guitar music as well as funk for everyone for at least an hour and a half! Too cute!

We had a full carload going out to the Boston area, my son, our resident young man, Michael, Maria, and us. Yesterday we took a quick ride on the T into Boston, as Michael had never been there before (or ridden on a subway).

Got back home today at noon, as Ian has term papers to work on before he heads back to school tomorrow.

Hope you get home soon.