Thanksgiving

First off, before any mistake is made, lets be clear that the first four pictures are ones that I took.  All the rest were taken by Darren.  Another way to say it is, if it looks good, it wasn't taken by me!  Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday... and by always I mean for the last few years when I've been less excited about tearing off the wrapping on a GI Joe.  This year was a great one, too!  Most exciting, our friends Livia and Darren came with us.  Livia is going to Cornell for her MBA and Darren takes amazing pictures and makes great food.  Livia helps out with both of those things, too.  Darren was kind enough to play the role of Grandpa Harrington, always behind the camera, so we have lots of great pictures.

A rare picture of Darren (check out that dapper vest!) without his camera.  He had to put it down to use his fork.  He and Livia contributed a phenomenal Chinese dish to the dinner with spices and beef, cooked spinach, and peppers.  Everyone raved about it.  The turkey was perfectly cooked, there was mashed potatoes from G'ma H, curried fruit from G'ma Rockwell, Grandma Gin's carrots were prepared by Becky under Grandma Cressman's tutelage, mashed sweet potatoes by Pat Harrington, cranberry compote by your's truly, eggnog corn cake and potato soup by Jenn, an awesome salad by Sarah that mostly got saved for Saturday, of course a cherry pie, and stuff I'm sure I'm forgetting.  I ate so much I have amnesia.

Jonas was a riot, trying to fit into Maggie's bed.  Here it looks like he's trying to will his tail to hop in.

Sarah and I threw a small soirée at Veneta's on Saturday night to celebrate the beginning of our second decade together.  More on that in the next post.  It was so much fun to have a fire in the fireplace and totally reminded me of christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Cressman's house.

Zhora got SUPER dressed up for Saturday's party.

The photos below were all taken by Darren.

Livia and Zhora read for awhile before dinner.  Livia joked that they were both learning the alphabet.  (In reality, her English is fantastic, and so is her sense of humor!)

Speaks for itself.  Beautiful girls.

Zhora helped out a lot.  She set the table, helped Grandma Karen around the house, and put the sherbet balls in the glasses.

A meeting of the bald and bearded.

On Saturday morning Livia and Darren went to the barn with Sarah and Veneta.  They made fast friends with the residents!

This is Will.  Veneta is his person.  He's quite the character and we all love him a ton.

Looks like somebody got Darren to relinquish his camera.  Such is the power of the John Deer.

Thanksgiving

We're enjoying a few days off together in the increasingly frozen north. Even as we hike through the woods with the dogs our minds wander and we wonder, will there be snow this year.

Just finished Suttree by Cormac.  It was a long rambling tale, not unlike Confederacy of Dunces, but rather than have New Orleans as a back drop, Suttree battled his way through mid century Knoxville, Tennessee.  To say that it is pointless would be to do it a disservice, it has as much point as any great absurdist or existential comedy...

This is a dinner I had last week.  Sarah's potatoes au gratin made with Parmesan cheese (Ian would be in heaven), an awesome veggie burger with Pat's spicy tomato jam, my apple sauce and some of Erik's home-brewed brown ale.   Look for the recipe soon on our new food blog.

 My applesauce.  I'm really happy with it.  The recipe was super simple and easy, and made a great tasting and textured sauce.

 

A former student of mine came back from Colorado where she is attending a private boarding school and brought me these incredible socks.

Sam and I went deer hunting on Wednesday morning.   Again, it's a good thing my survival didn't depend on the acquisition of said quarry.

 

Sam, stalking not the most dangerous game.

My new end table.  I purchased it from a nice old man at the farmers market for fifty bucks!  I still want to make my own rustic wood block table, but I got tired of having my stuff on the floor by my side of the couch.  This is more than adequate and makes me happy to look at.

A student of mine is all about the jungle this year so I told him I'd take another stab at reading it.  I'm regretting that promise already.  It's just as tedious as I remember it.  Sinclair may have changed the world, but that doesn't make the book any less dense.

This is a photo from the hike that Sarah and I took yesterday.  It was a great hike, couple hours, and a beautiful day, as you can see.

 Jonas dog after the hike.  We took all three of them with us. 

 

It was raptor central yesterday.  We saw a red tail and a coopers on our hike and then a bunch more as we drove around town.