Woo Seska! Congrats!

I'm having coffee for the first time today, because I neglected to have it this morning before going to a friend's for Thanksgiving dinner, and now my brain feels like it's trying to claw its way out of my skull. Caffeine, my one true love, never leave me.

Bird was quite nom. Oddly enough, I think I'm most pleased with the cranberry chutney/relish and the gravy. I've had a hit or miss relationship with gravy and this time, it came out just beautifully. I think I'm going to stick to the notion that for me, with gravy, simpler is definitely better.

Now we're watching football and waiting to make enough room for chocolate pecan pie.

amyth, I take it you survived Mrs. F?

HAHA. Mrs F! She pretty much ignored me, but it wasn't hideously obvious, since there were so many people there, including R. down from Queens, and Calli, and J's sister and BiL and nephews. And everyone was making a fuss over the baby. It could have been a lot worse. It also helps that the F.'s are naturally socially awkward and kind of frosty.

ETA: To splain: Today was the first time I interacted with my friend's mother since she defriended me on Facebook a couple of months ago, over a political argument that some of you may remember (and some of you took part in!) Good times, good times.

Man, what a nice day. Hung out at Daisy Jane's cousin's place, watched football and ate delicious dinner in a sunny courtyard.

The Saints almost made me barf there in the 3rd and most of the 4th quarter, though.

Lovely day here too. HKF and Mal have decided they're 1/2 siblings. Dinner was delicious. And there are games.

Also, how to train your dragon, which we tried to see in the theater, but it was too scary. This time, it seems to have achieved beloved movie status.

amyth, glad it went okay.

Nora, yay for Saintsgiving.

Lovely, lovely feast with friends. It may actually have been the best Thanksgiving I've had in a decade...and I've had some nice ones.

The food was fantastic, the kids were fun, the dogs behaved and there was general conviviality.

I made three kinds of fresh cranberry sauce...double ginger (fresh and candied with toasted pecans)...citrus with tangerine juice and zest...savory with burgundy, balsamic, garlic and onion. The savory one was a first attempt and turned out to be...interesting. Really good with the turkey meat, but not as good as a stand alone.

The host family played a fun game where everyone wrote down what they were grateful for and then the patriarch read each out. Everyone had to guess who wrote which one. The rules weren't adequately described to me, so my statement was pretty obvious. But even that was fun.

I ate way too much...shocking!

Happy Thanksgiving, All!

Just got home from work, where calls were almost nonexistent.

OTOH? The new boss of the helpdesk gave us each a 15 inch Costco pumpkin pie for coming in today.

Pie was a hit, it looked and tasted really good. I wish I'd thought to get a picture. My brother said that it was as good as my grandmother's. Which was quite the compliment.