Sue and I headed north to Ossipee to spend Thanksgiving Day with her family, and then Sunday we'll do it again here at the house with Colin, Marissa, Gary, and Mia. It's not just Thanksgiving Day, it's Thanksgiving week!

Almost everyone got into this picture that Tracy snapped.

Thursday 11/28/19
When we got up Thursday morning, we were greeted with a blanket of snow!

Thanksgiving morning snow blankets the mountain.

It was a heavy, wet snow that by 9:00 am turned to more of a drizzling sleet. I heard from Marissa, and she was surprised as it was all just cold rain "down" in Rochester where they live. It's all supposed to fade through the day, but we could see a real storm Sunday.

Thanksgiving is truly my favorite celebration of the year. I have such fond memories of Thanksgiving when I was growing up; none of the annoying commercialization as many of the other holidays have. Just family gathering, and wonderful smells coming from the kitchen as all the food was being prepared.

Because there would be so many people at Sue's niece Tracy's house, we had to leave The Beau Dog home — something he was less than fond of learning as we slipped out the door just after 11:00 am.

We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone, though I did spend most of my time in with some of the guys watching the Bears and Lions battle it out. And soooo much food! I didn't get too carried away; only 1 modest serving rather than my sometimes "Round 2," and sometimes... "Round 3" episodes. Very well behaved.

Folks arriving to join us.

Sue's niece Tracy with Sue's great niece Sawyer.

Some of us in the living room watching the game.

Sue's cousin Katti with baby Sawyer

Almost everyone got into this picture that Tracy snapped.

Because we wanted to stop off at Sue's aunt Carol's on our way home, we bid everyone farewell at 4:00 pm. We had a nice visit with Carol, and then got home just at 6:00 pm. Beau was crazed when Sue walked through the door, and it took him awhile to calm down enough so that he'd go out and do his bid-ness.

We had brought a couple of slices of pie home from the party, and around 7:00 pm settled into some relaxing tv with them topped off with whipped cream. Sue had wanted a chocolate slice while I opted for pumpkin, and they were terrific; a really nice cap to a nice day.

So, after exchanging Thanksgiving wishes earlier in the day with my son Chuck out in Illinois, he sends me this totally ridiculous gif. But it's exactly the point of the day, and I think I took that advice totally to heart....

Good holiday advice....

Friday 11/29/19
The Friday after Thanksgiving Sue likes to run out and pick up discounted poinsettias and sometimes pine branch wreaths that she then decorates for outside Christmas decorations.

We got th poinsettias, but passed on the wreaths. They were all pretty expensive at the couple of places that we went, and decided that was something we could do some other time. Besides, we were not interested in fighting through the hordes of Black Friday shoppers that were everywhere on the roads and in the stores.

On the way back home, we slipped into the grocery store and did all of the food shopping for the get together Sunday, as well as for the rest of the week.

The temps had held pretty steady through the day at around 34, or so, but by 3:00 pm it was dropping significantly enough that Sue mandated that we get the wood stove fired up.

At 4:00 pm, and being retired, we get to raise the flag at 4:00 pm instead of working folks 5:00 pm start time. Anyway, we grabbed some wine and snacks, and settled into the living room by the fire to play some backgammon.

For some cosmic reason, I've suffered 5 consecutive weeks of ending the playing week on Wednesdays down. This past week was particularly bad as Sue got me for 15 points. Ugh!

So, tonight we started a fresh week. And though the score went back and forth throughout the 13 games that we played, I at least broke even with her with a loss of 4 points on our final "Death Match" that we played as we ate our pizza. The Death Match is doubled at the start, and then she doubled me during the game brining the cube to 4. Since I was only 4 up going into the final game, that broke us even. Maybe tomorrow....

Saturday 11/30/19
We got up Saturday morning to a frigid 16 degrees, and brisk wind. After fixing us fried eggs and bacon on English muffins, Sue finished up some stuff she wanted to get out of the way, and then headed out into the cold to walk Beau. Beau loves the cold; not so much Sue, and she came back bone-chilled. My accomplishment for the day was hauling 8 loads of wood in from the woodpile.


Sunday 12/01/19
Colin, Marissa, Gary, and Mia planned to arrive for our second Thanksgiving Day celebration around 1:30 pm. To make sure the turkey was ready for about a 2:30 pm serving, I got started in the kitchen with food prep around 9:00 am.

Sue had been up for awhile before I dragged myself out of bed and had done most of the prep work she needed to do. She was making a sweet potato casserole, as well as an apple crisp. I was in charge of the turkey because I used the recipe Chef James Haller of the 70s and 80s famous Blue Strawberry Restaurant in Portsmouth, NH had taught me.

Colin wasn't able to make it over until around 3:30 because he had been out on a fire call. We had saved him plenty of food, though before he came in the house, he and Gary switched out my car's tires for winter snows. Good thing because Monday and Tuesday we got body slammed with about a foot of snow.

Getting the turkey ready with a rub down mix of butter, garlic, marjoram, thyme, chicken stock, and some rich Zinfandel wine.

Chef Haller taught me to cook the turkey uncovered in a 525 degree oven for 45 minutes to sear in the juices. This is what that looks like. Then you ladle the pan juices and some wine over it, lay a wine soaked cheese cloth over it, hit it with more wine, cover it tightly with aluminum foil, and stuff it back into a 450 degree oven for a about an hour. After an hour, you pull it out, remove the cheese cloth, hit it with wine and pan juices, and stuff it back into the oven for a couple of hours, hitting it with more wine and pan juices about every half hour. Mah-vou-loose!!!

Sue, Mia, Gary, and Marissa about to celebrate our dinner together. And then more when Colin arrived later!