Highly Successful Holiday

We had an awesome Thanksgiving.  The food was perhaps the best we have ever had...many thanks to Chef Stephen and his fabulous assistant, Hannia.  The apple cider brined turkey was perfect.  Tasty, moist and amazing!  The sides were all delicious.  And the desserts?  Oh My Lord....Stephen did an Indian dessert called carrot Halwa.  It was a huge hit.  And Hannia's flan, which is always yummy, hit new heights of sweet creamy goodness.  The only things I did was the deviled eggs (all I really did was boil them.  Jeanne and Calvin did the rest), and Lila's dressing which turned out quite well even if I do say so myself.  The food this year?  Highly successful.  And Jeanne made us all what might be my new favorite drink....coconut rum, mango rum, and a splash of pineapple juice.  I'm not sure what it's called, but it's very Caribbeany.  LOL!  And delicious!

We also had fun beyond stuffing our faces.  Hannia's parents joined us for dinner and we all enjoyed that.  They stayed and played cards afterwards which was very nice.  Casey and Delaney learned how to play Rummy.....one of my favorites.  And after that?  The traditional bonfire.  Bruce had chopped up an oak that had fallen in a storm, and we had plenty of wood.  Enough to go for 2 nights.  We had a repeat bonfire on Friday too.  This is one of my favorite parts of the holiday.  We sat around toasting ourselves by the fire and had some wonderful conversation.  It was really frosty so 1 side of our bodies would be warm and the other side cold.  We determined that having those child's toys...the sit and spin (remember those? ) would be perfect.  We could turn ourselves like rotisserie chickens and keep the heat more even.  LOL!

We did do other stuff too.  Bruce, Calvin and Stephen managed to move our 500 pound granite mantle out of the house and tear out the fireplace!!  That was the first HUGE step towards the remodeling we want to do after Christmas.  We hope to repair and refinish these wonderful old heart pine floors.  I am excited.  But not until after Christmas.  I don't want to be in a huge remodeling mess while Erica is home for the holidays!  

Also?  We celebrated Stephen's 29th birthday!  Jeanne and Calvin got to have a tour of the kids' new house.  We had Saturday lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant and managed to even squeeze a movie in on top of all of it!  Whew....busy.  But fun-busy!  The best kind!

Which brings me to the only thing that would have made this Thanksgiving more perfect....having my daughter with us.  But we did get to Skype her, so that helped.