(Late) Post-Thanksgiving Post

Repetitive title FTW!

Anyway.

Thanksgiving was good...lots of family, lots of food, a personal challenge (that I rocked); good times were had by all.

Wednesday night, we went to dinner with Scott's Mom's family...Bonnie has a cousin (I think) whose son is going to school at Cal Poly Pomona, and is out in CA and away from his home for the first time, so they invited him down for Thanksgiving. He was a very nice young man, and I enjoyed seeing that part of the family for Thanksgiving (we don't usually do T-day with them, opting instead to drive out to Romoland for dinner with Scott's dad, but since this was the night before, we got to see them).

Cooking fell to me this year, we all agreed that it would be easier for Scott's family to come to us than for us to travel out to them, and I welcomed the opportunity to entertain. It's something that I do far to infrequently for as much as I enjoy it. I did Christmas dinner last year, and that was about the same scale...it was actually the same group of people, except for Aunt Rhoda (who was greatly missed, but she opted to spend the holiday with a friend who was going to be alone for the first time, which was very cool of her). Everything that I made for dinner (and I use the term "dinner" loosely...we ate at around 4) I've done before, except for the turkey and the cranberry sauce. I helped with the turkey at my father-in-law's house last year, so I was reasonably confident in my ability to make it successfully. The cranberry sauce, however, I didn't have any experience with. I've never been a big fan of cranberry anything, so I've never had a reason to work with them raw. Scott likes cranberry though, but he's not a big fan of the canned cranberry sauce, so I decided I would try to find fresh cranberries and make it from scratch. Luckily, I live near two hippie-ish stores, and found them quite easily. I was expecting a big challenge: having to find weird ingredients, straining out skins, mashing up the pulp, etc. I have to admit to a slight feeling of disappointment when I read on the bag of cranberries what the recipe was. Here it is (for a 14-oz bag of cranberries, though I suppose you could use more or less depending on how thick you want the sauce): boil 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar, add cranberries, boil rapidly until berries pop open. In my cookbooks, I did find a few different recipes, such as a cranberry-orange chutney, that were more complicated, so maybe I'll try something different next time I make it. Anyway...it went over very well, so I count it as another cooking win in my book! (Yes, I did taste it, just in case it was the artificial, high-fructose corn syrup laden junk that I didn't like...turns out, I just don't like the taste of cranberry.) We also celebrated Scott's cousin's birthday; her 19th. We had the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever had, and I've had a lot of chocolate cakes. A lot of damn good chocolate cakes. Happy birthday, Stef!

Friday and Saturday were fun; we spent the whole time at home with the baby, save for a short walk to the grocery store and going to see Improv Shmimprov.

Sunday was great...Curtis and Rene came over and we played "Zombies!" Rene and I had never played before, so that gave us a little bit of a disadvantage, and despite a slow start Rene came back strong and beat us all. For lunch I made our leftover turkey into a tasty pot pie :)

This week I've been a bit lazy...Monday I mostly played video games, and Tuesday I finished up making candles for etsy. And then there was today...Aurora's 10-week checkup. She's doing well, growing well, her length, weight, and head circumference were right where they should be. Then there were the immunizations. The first one was fine, it was an oral one, and she did fine. Then came a shot in her right thigh...she looked a little shocked at first, and when the second shot went in, her face went completely red and she let out a shriek like I've never heard before. It was awful. I know they're for her own good, I just really wish there were some way I could convey that to her. After I got her back in her clothes, in her carseat, and her pacifier back in her mouth, however, she was fine and has slept most of the rest of the day. And so goes another adventure in parenting. Not looking forward to the next round of shots :(

*Edit: Bonnie's relative goes to Cal Poly San Louis Obispo, not Cal Poly Pomona.