Thursday morning we woke up too late to see the parade…LIVE! But we Tivo’d it. We made some coffee and started watching, quickly becoming obsessed with its history. People started asking me all kinds of questions I didn’t know the answer to but thanks to the internet we now know just about everything to know about the parade. So happy that’s taking up precious room in my brain!
Guest List: Us, Houseguests Shel and Jaime, My brother Danny, and Jaime’s friend Stephanie from Vancouver who is a freshman at NYU. That brings the Canadian count to 4 and the American count to…3. The irony of that was not lost on me.
We were having a very casual day watching TV, reading, and doing the odd dinner duty as needed. Matthew got a bunch of cooking done Wednesday but still had a bit to do. At about 3:30 we realized we were starving and he went out to get us some lunch and came home with all kinds of cheeses and charcuterie from the store down the street. We were all sitting around enjoying ourselves when the doorbell rang – it was my brother. He told me they were coming at 4:30 but I didn’t think they’d actually be on time! I was still in my PJs.
We sort of kicked it into gear at that point. Matthew and his dad got the potatoes peeled and I set the table.
By the time Steph came at 6:30 we were ready to eat.
We plated the salad before people sat down – and yes it was THE SALAD. Just like I promised.The rest was a buffet.
Turkey: Kosher. Best kind of turkey ever.
Stuffing: Mah Favorite
Roasted Brussels Sprouts: Trying to make Jaime a fellow sprout lover. FAIL. (kid is loco)
Broiled Sweet Potatoes: My mother always makes this so my brother brought them. There is not a marshmallow to be found. Delish.
Matthew’s plate.
Beverages on hand were some kind of wine for the Piercy men (natch) , Dr. Browns Black Cherry for the Jews (NATCH!) and Sparkling Apple and Cranberry juices for the under 21 set.
For dessert Shel made an apple pie and Matthew made sticky toffee pudding.
Jaime and Steph
I’m so glad we kept it casual, it was so much fun. It was Matthew’s first ever turkey and it came out great!!
Matthew’s dad and his little sister Jaime came to visit for Thanksgiving. Since they have been here so many times before we didn’t feel the need to do too many touristy things, which was nice. It probably would have been smart to plan SOMETHING though because we ended up staying up too late every night and then not getting going till about noon every day. Whatevs, we were on West Coast time.
We knew there was no way that we were going to the parade but thought it would be kind of fun to watch them blow up the balloons the night before. Matthew and I went years ago, before it was a “thing” but now its definitely a THING.
Yeah there were signs. Lots and lots of them. It was totally insane. Adam met us there and we really couldn’t stop obsessing over the fact that there were still thousands of people there when we rolled through the barricades at 9:47pm. I think they estimated 350,000 people came.
It was still pretty cool.
We couldn’t help but notice that the balloons were placed Head to Toe (Head to Butt) and the banter became a bit less family-friendly. It was so obvious it would have been more uncomfortable NOT to mention that Ronald McDonald wasn’t sniffing someone’s tush.
Slightly more well behaved balloons included Buzz
and Dora
The real reason why its fun to go is to see how big these things actually are, and how they get them in the air.
Obligatory “We were really there” shot of the night:
I am aware that my posting has been a bit lax since I went back to work at the office. I seriously don’t understand how people do it 5 days a week and then have a life on top of that. It is exhausting! All the talking to people all day, and the matching outfits to shoes, and the subway. It’s enough to make a girl want to get in bed at 8 every night.
So that’s what I’ve been doing. Pretty much eating dinner and getting right into bed. Matthew was here all week but worked until midnight so I didn’t really see him, and then he left for Maryland. I’m free to do whatever I want all the time and that happens to be catching up on Pushing Daisies and Top Model.
Wha? Is anyone surprised?
Last weekend we did actually leave the house and drove to Montreal for my niece Liliane’s first birthday.
As expected there was quite a bit of this:
There was a also a bunch of this:
of COURSE some of this:
All leading up to this:
ahhhh,
“The Return of the Homemade Skillet Pizza – Francophone Version. Pizza Takes Montreal”
If only they made a really huge circular cast iron pizza skillet thingy we would really be in business. The teeny skillet is a little scary, well…for some people.
It took about 9 hours to make a bunch of mini pizzas that we all split when it came out of the oven, so you’d get 2 bites every 15 minutes. Thankfully we had some wine chilling for Liliane’s party. (Sorry that you didn’t get any delicious rosé Theresa’s friends, we had to wait a long time between pizzas!) All we did all night was make teeny tiny pizzas, wait the 10 minutes for the oven to heat back up and then 2 minutes for them to cook, shove them down and repeat, repeat, repeat. Lucky for us we had the idea to make a salad to go with it. Oh the salad. THE SALAD as it is now known. We did not get pictures of THE SALAD because we were too busy enjoying the act of taking multiple bites in a row but it was so amazing I have made it 2x since we’ve been home. Oh, its just a salad you say? Well you are wrong, its THE SALAD!
Don’t worry, I took some pics when I made it last night.
My sister-in-law Jen always puts tons of pics of her kids on her blog and it makes me miss them soooo much! It also makes me sad because they are growing up so fast and I don’t even know the next time we will see them since we aren’t heading to Vancouver for Christmas this year (We only go every other Christmas and its a NYC holiday for us this time).
Whenever I get all sad about it I look through the thousands of pics that I have on my computer or scroll through old posts on Jen’s blog in the middle of the night.
Here are some faves from our summer trip out west this year.
Xavier
Klausine
Lunden
Georgia
Calleigh
*Update on my dad: He is still in the hospital but improving slightly each day. He still does not feel very well so continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers please!
My dad is in the hospital. He had a test yesterday and there seem to be complications so they admitted him. Not entirely sure what is going on but I’m feeling a bit concerned, probably because I’m so far away. Feel better soon Daddy!
*please notice my mom making her photo face behind her huge sunglasses. This is proof that she has been bringing that to cherished family memories for over 30 years.
