Hi All!
I'm a happy camper right now. I just finished my annual weeklong vacation/holiday/birthday extravaganza and I had a wonderful time. I cooked a feast for the friends on Saturday the 17th with a roast, gravy, and trimmings. It was a fun night that didn't end until 2 in the morning. Sunday through Wednesday I didn't do much more than a little house cleaning and playing chauffeur to the little boy which was actually fine by me. Not doing anything did wonders for rejuvenating the mind...sometimes vegitating is actually productive!
Actually, Tuesday night, I started the cooking process for Thanksgiving Dinner. We went shopping and I created the brine for my hoping-to-be-juicy turkey. It was mostly simple ingredients, brown sugar, salt, lemon, onion, garlic and thyme brought to a boil and then covered to cool. Apparently, it created an odor foul enough to cause the canine-like sense of smell my wife to go into overdrive and seal up the bedroom. The next day I submersed the bird into the savory mixture and let her "jacuzzi" for 24 hours. The following day I pulled the bird from the brine, covered her in melted butter and a rub, injected it with poultry seasoning and let her cook...meanwhile I put the gravy, stuffing, and veggies in order.
Thanksgiving was a fun night. The in-laws came as well as my parents, family friends and my sister-in-law's friends. We ate, had a photo shoot, sang a ton of karaoke and laughed a lot. We ended up crashing at 2:30 in the morning. The next day, I found myself in line at Target at 5:45AM hoping to get my hands on my birthday present...the Wii. Found out I arrived too late as the tickets for the high priced low quantity items had already been given out, especially for the Wii. So, after the opening, I decided to try my luck at the GameStop at the other end of the Hub. The door read that they had 23 Wii's in stock for Black Friday. I got in line and was the 15th person...I was going to get my Wii. The doors opened at 7 and by 7:30 I was back home in bed recovering from that morning and from the party the night before. By 10:30 I had had a good enough sleep and woke up to play Wii with the little boy and his two cousins. Friday was, for the most part, a veg day. Eat sleep and play were the order of the day, which was fine by me. My in-laws came over for leftovers dinner.
Saturday was birthday day and we met up with the Payumos for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. It was a fun and filling late lunch after which we dropped the little boy and his cousins off with my sister-in-law. Plan was to do a little shopping, have dinner and then a movie. We went to Burlingame to shop and got some good Christmas decoration buys at Pottery Barn. We drove down to Valley Fair and Santana Row but didn't find much. Finally, we had a late dinner, just me and the wife (my birthday request) at the Elephant Bar in Cupertino. As many of you with kids can attest, it's hard to get a quality date night with your significant other so a night like this is cherished. It was fun shopping and dining out with the wife like we used to before the little boy.
Sunday we brought out all of the Christmas decorations, the tree, lights, and started decorating the house...we are not nearly finished! It was a cold one last night. So much so, that we decided to bring the boy back into our room. His room has little insulation so it's cold in there. Feeling bad, I carried him into the room for some cuddles and warmth. It was a wonderful way to end my wonderful week.
Thanks to all of you for the birthday greetings! Hope your week was as good as mine!
