Roast me and carve me up... I'm stuffed!

Why is it that I continue to stuff myself silly even though I'm still full from Thanksgiving dinner? I'll never understand my mind's hold on my stomach. Anyway, this Thanksgiving was quite the whirlwind tour. I took Wednesday off from work and spent much of the morning baking. You'll see here that my kitchen was quite the disaster zone (I had a flour explosion in the Kitchen Aid mixer), but after about 4 hours and three different dish-washing sessions, my kitchen was back to normal and I had about 80 cookies to divide up and pack away. I made two recipes from the new Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Cookies publication, and they really came out well. This little book is really good - I highly recommend it if you're looking for Christmas cookie recipes. All of the recipes are pretty simple, though some do involve a few hours of chilling. I avoided those. The two cookies I made (Lime Shortbreads and Ginger Crinkles - don't they look yummy?) were very quick to put together, and are delish. Really. I brought some to the Siskos, some to my parents, and I even have some leftover for us here at the house. Though not for long, I bet.

We spent Wednesday night through Saturday morning at Doug's parents' house in Monroe, CT. This is Doug surveying the new homestead. Where is Monroe? Somewhere near Trumbull, Newtown, Fairfield, Brookfield... in an area of CT that I've never really explored. We got to know it a little better this trip. Thursday was spent eating, basically. Doug's grandfather came over at about 1 o'clock, and at about 3:30pm we all sat down to eat. At left is a picture of me and my giant plate of food. I like peas; can you tell? Dinner was great - thanks, Mrs. Sisko! She quickly put it together, as the day before Doug's Uncle Bruce called to say that he was sick, and Mrs. Sisko decided that we should not go to his house for dinner. Poor Uncle Bruce is now stuck with 22 pounds of turkey all for himself. Personally, I can think of worse fates, but perhaps he isn't a fan of turkey like I am. Anyway, after dinner Doug whipped out his computer and showed his grandfather some photos and video he had on his hard drive. Then we all had fun with Photo Booth. Doug's grandfather got a kick out of the computer - "How do the pictures get onto the computer, Douggie?" Computers always amaze older people; they're a great conversation starter. That and talking of the old days. I don't think Grandpa will ever tire of talking about how Fairfield looked when he was younger. He's seen quite the changes in his lifetime; after all, his first car was the kind that you cranked to get started. After show and tell, we all ate dessert. Doug's grandfather enjoyed his cherry pie (he took the rest of it home with him), and then we all sat around the television watching a James Bond movie - The World is Not Enough. Can I say that I think Denise Richards is probably one of the most vacuous of the Bond women? Maybe I'm just biased against her, but she's really a ditz.

Let's see. Then on to Friday. Friday was a day for touring around Monroe. We headed out to an errand with Mrs. and Mr. Sisko in the morning, then went from there to see the new James Bond - Quantum of Solace. We saw it in Danbury, and I had never been to Danbury. And no offense to Danbury, but I don't see a real reason to go back. The James Bond movie was a little disappointing - where was the plot? I know that the point of a James Bond movie is not the story line or the character development, but the point of this movie seemed to be how many fights James could get into, or how many explosions there could be. I think Daniel Craig is a great James Bond (and yes, I admit to thinking that he might be the most attractive James Bond they've cast), but he didn't get much of a chance to really showcase his talent in this movie. But enough of my review. On to the rest of the weekend. After the movie we grabbed lunch and then Doug and I headed off to Milford to see if there were any great bargains to be had on Black Friday. We found none. We finished the day watching the Mork and Mindy marathon on the SciFi channel and stuffing ourselves with leftover Thanksgiving dinner.

Saturday (yes, I promise, the play-by-play of the weekend is almost over!) morning I woke up feeling so slothful that I made Doug find us some kind of nature area to walk around. We found Wolfe Park in Monroe, which consists of a man-made lake and some walking trails, along with a playground and some soccer fields. It was nice. Doug and I walked around the lake twice, stopping along the way to swing on the swings and play on the playground, of course. Here Doug shows us his hidden equestrian abilities, and I prove that you're never too old to ride a dolphin. There's really great fun to be had in Monroe! After our walk, Mrs. Sisko stuffed us with sandwiches and snacks, and then we were off to central CT to visit our friend Adam. Why don't we have photos of Adam? I don't know. We should have taken pictures of Adam - he showed us a good time. We hung out in his house, saw some photos, surfed the internet, then went out for pizza in Windsor Locks, lattes at the Windsor Locks Starbucks, and came back to Adam's. Adam made us some homemade scones - very tasty! Doug and Adam also enjoyed a drink of blackstrap molasses. Blackstrap molasses are very high in iron, protein, and calcium, so if you're ever looking for a healthy snack just drink some molasses. Adam does, and I bet Doug will now, too. I have blackstrap molasses on my grocery list right now, actually. I just hope Doug doesn't let the molasses sit like he lets his vitamins sit. The key to life is follow-through.

Anyway, now we are both home. Doug's putzing in the basement with his musical gear and I'm up here blogging and getting ready to go to the grocery store. It's a wonderful November day outside - gray, brisk, and misty. This is a great way to end a satisfying Thanksgiving weekend. There's something about gray and November that go together like turkey and cranberry sauce. Love it!