Friday, November 28, 2008

New England Thanksgiving

This week was a crazy one. Our holiday festivities started with with visiting Dennis's aunts. They were all gathered in Oxford, MA to visit with his Auntie Jeannie who was down from Presque Isle, ME. We also got to visit with Dennis's dad (Walter) and Dennis's brother (Will) - who had a new car to show off! He is super proud - and I did the honors of taking pics of him in the driver's seat! It is all very exciting!


Wednesday night brought cooking and baking. Dennis got my mom's family's traditional meat stuffing recipe, and he was excited to try it. It smelled like a massacre in our house while he was making it, as it contains beef, pork and turkey.


I baked a pumkpin cheesecake. I don't have any pics, but it came out good - I swear! The fact that there is none left to photograph is a testament to that!

Thursday brought noonish dinner with my family, and naps by the fireplace. Some time in the late afternoon we headed northeast to Marshfield, MA to stay the night with Dennis's parents (and eat some of his dad's delicious cooking). This morning, Dennis and his dad headed out to LaZBoy to find a recliner (Walter is retired now, a LaZBoy is required equipment!), and I headed out to the LYS to check it out. I'm glad I found it, just in case there are any emergencies while visiting (ha!). I also savored the beautiful drive by myself. It was nice to get out and do something that I enjoy and see the local sights. Marshfield, and the surrounding towns, are filled to the brim with small horse farms, restored colonial homes and lovely wooded neighborhoods. On recent trips we haven't ventured anywhere else besides the grocery store, so it was nice to see some of the other scenes. Especially pertinent were the cranberry bogs near the end of their street. It made me immediately reflect on old traditional New England recipes, and the cranberry sauce that Dennis made and canned last year, and we enjoyed this year again.

Now that Walter has his chair picked out, we were given their old chair and ottoman. It is a futon chair (unfolds out into a single bed). I have loved it ever since they got it last year...and it is now my next big project! I am itching to break out my sewing machine and sew a cover that matches our living room! I have about a week and a half of this semester left...and then it will be time to craft!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Santa's Workshop

As evidenced by my beautiful Christmas cactus, Christmas is coming! I'm quite thrilled with (and proud of) its flowers this year. It is the best bloom since I've had it. Interestingly, the side of the plant that has the most blooms is the side that was facing the window. I am not sure if this is because of the Easterly sunshine, or because that side was more exposed to the chilly late-October nights. It is the chilliness that makes the cactus bloom. Either way, I turned that side toward the living room so we could enjoy its beauty.




For the past couple of months, I have been working on Christmas presents. I am almost done with my mom's toe-up socks, and my grandmother's Quilted Diamond Vest. But this morning, as I sat and listed to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me and APHC, I finished my mother-in-law's slippers. I embellished one with a flower - and will do the same for the second one!


This Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be tricky ones. Dennis's family now lives just south of Boston. Last year, on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, we stayed at their house until late in the night, just visiting and watching Christmas movies, because they only lived 10 m inutes away. This year will require a little bit more logistical planning. It's just a blessing that they didn't move farther away! Our friends all have their own families, and my dad has to work on Christmas Eve. It may be a Christmas of new traditions...

As my semester draws to a close, I am trying to draw on the peacefulness and excitement that the holidays always bring me. There's a few more hard weeks of paper-writing and cantankerous professors. But at the end, there will be pumpkin cheese cake and Christmas cookies, trees and garland, and the Christmas lights that I love so much.

I started Christmas shopping this week (eeek!), and am planning on making as much as I can. Its going to be a simple Christmas. Back to Santa's workshop to hopefully finish my projects in time!