as i have said, this is my ex's year to have the girls for thanksgiving. he is a little closer this year, so we drove them to a meeting point yesterday. i believe they've only spent one other thanksgiving with him in the past, b/c he couldn't get time off, or whatever. in 2004, however, they did spend it with him, but since he was further, and they needed to fly, they took the whole week off from school. at least e. is getting a little too old now to take time off casually, which is why we did the exchange yesterday.
since beloved and i have been together, we take our holiday without the girls for an "us" day. we have tried different versions in the past - we've done jammies all day watching movies in bed eating take out and partaking in questionably illegal relaxation methods, we have gone out to eat, we have cooked, but non-traditionally, and we have shared the day with my sis, back in CA when she lived with us, and watched movies and cooked way too much food. that time was kidn of fun - we each cooked 3 appetizers, and that was our dinner. i believe it was christmas, and sis's son was with his dad, and my kids were with their dad, and so we were just 3 mellow adults.
this year, though, i said i wanted us to cook. i wanted to still have the holiday together (as in, alone), b/c it's not something we get too often. we are spending christmas at my parents' house, and even though we were in their neighborhood yesterday and could have easily stayed for thanksgiving dinner, we really wanted our time for us. but i didn't want take out in bed, b/c that was, quite frankly, a wee depressing for me. even though i try to buck tradition sometimes, i am an oldest child from new england - i'm a bit of a traditionalist. there's no escaping it. blood and all that.
so we're cooking! beloved is brining the turkey, and as soon as i get off my lazy ass and stop posting, i am peeling potatoes (white and sweet) to get going on my 2 mashed potato recipes - one cheesy and one glazed in brown sugar. sweet potato brulee, they call it. i already made the cranberry sauce, and he's going to do the gravy and stuffing and the veggie. i was going to make dessert, but uh, i bought ice cream instead.
we were thinking of eating at 2, b/c i love mid-day meals on holidays, but since we didn't wake up until 10, that was changed. i find that another fun thing about our laid back holiday (i.e., no company coming, nowhere that we have to be) - we can be flexible like this.
we woke at 10, lay on the couch watching the wet Macy's Parade, and then we suited up to go out into hte practically-freezing rain and go for some pre-feast exercise (although last night's dinner with my parents made it so that it was also post-feast). i did my usual route, but was slow thanks to the weather.
we are now planning on eating by 6.
we were still goign to do our movie marathon. we rented 2 from the video store, and were expecting 2 from netflix. but netflix did not deliver, and we are slightly (or more) disappointed.
beloved was in charge of a classic and a foreign, and i was in charge of a "big dumb" and a creepy. i chose Wicker Man (the original, not the recent one), and Mission Impossible III (i refused to go to the theater to see Tom Cruise when this came out, but I can't wait to watch Philip Seymour Hoffman - i LOVE LOVE LOVE him - as the bad guy). MI III is the one we have, Wicker Man did not arrive (jerk). Beloved chose Diabolique as the foreign (which seems like it will be creepy, too, so that's good), and Sunset Boulevard for the classic, but that one also didn't arrive (jerk).
we are on hte fence about whether or not we can watch a movie while the bird cooks. it's a little bird (10 pounds), and while beloved keeps saying it will be in hte oven for 3 hours, i think it may surprise us and be done in 2, and i'll need to do my taters.
we'll see.
hope everyone's having yummy foods and good fun.
[google docs intrigues me, so i'm trying to create this post on google docs, and then i will publish it to my blog. this would be useful for me in settings where i do not want people to know i have a blog. such as, school, or eventually, work.]Labels: beloved, cooking, holidays, movies |
