Merry December!

Hello!!

Oh man- I'm still full from Thanksgiving weekend. Italian buffet at the club on Wednesday, turkey on Thursday, chili on Friday, steak on Saturday and meatloaf on Sunday. The only one of my favorite meals missing that week was mom's spaghetti sauce, but I think I might have exploded at the mere mention of meatballs!

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the S.'s house this year. For a holiday with both of our families gathered, it went really well. (You'd think combining events with future in-laws would add stress, but with our families it actually reduces it!)

I made the stuffing and stuffed celery. I'm very proud of my culinary achievements. I successfully mixed Roquefort, butter and cream cheese in a bowl and then spread it on celery sticks. This is usually the closest I get to cooking. But this year I actually did something with a pan! And heat! (Whoa!) I made (and didn't mess up) Mom's stuffing!! And put it in the bird! (Amusing conversation was had while stuffing said bird when Teresa flipped it over and told me "there's another cavity under here.") Ick. (But dinner was DELICIOUS!)

Greg and I played quite a bit of ping pong that weekend. We were in Branford Thursday night, New Rochelle Friday night, and then back to Branford on Sunday. The reason for the jaunt back to New York was a meeting with the priest that's going to marry us. That went pretty well, except for the part about him not liking that we're planning to wait to have kids. (Um... we're kinda young, and Greg's kinda going to be away for months at a time... we'd kinda like him to, you know, BE THERE when our first child is born!) The first of three, by the way. (That's bound to provoke a post or two from the boy... that is if he reads my blog!! ;-)

The rest of the weekend was fun and relaxing and filled with backgammon and James Bond movies. (No, not the new one- the marathon that Spike TV runs just about every holiday.) We had breakfast with Kate and John who were visiting from Merry Olde. The boys talked about chemistry, the girls talked about knitting. It was fun, but kind of scary. There's that quote from Grey's Anatomy: "We're adults. When did that happen, and how do we make it stop?" Yeah. But it was nice to see Katie-kate. I miss her.

We had an evening out with the Branford gang and some Q.T. with Greg's brother and sister. Good times. J.J. and I got lost in her closet for a little bit while getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We did our makeup and had all sorts of girl talk, which we don't get to do nearly often enough.

In other news, I'm moving home. Yup- it's official- I'm losing my independence. Actually, this is by my own choice. In addition to saving a load of money on rent before the wedding, living at home will (theoretically) give me the opportunity to merge and purge my stuff. And oh do I have stuff. Stuff happens when the same bedroom has been your home-base for over 20 years (gulp!) and there is 20 years worth of STUFF to either get packed neatly or risk having Mom toss it. (I know there was no way to know that the blue windbreaker from when I was two meant anything to me, but this is why nobody else should get to throw out my stuff! Hmph!)

I think that's about it for now. I'm a Christmas shopping machine these days. It's easy when work is painfully quiet. Too bad it never stays quiet for long.