Christmas Time is Here!

Oh boy, oh boy. It's holiday time. And it all starts with a tree. Whoopie!

Saturday after Thanksgiving, after a morning of coffee and organ tunes, we headed to a tree farm in eastern Long Island. It was my first time to pick out a tree to cut down. It was an important decision, and we did not make it lightly.

Some were too fat, some too thin, some to short, some too tall. (Now is the time to find and read the book Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect. It's sweet. We got it when I was little and read it every year.)
But we picked one! It is perfect.
Gingerbread house construction!
Amanda and John tied ribbons on all our ornaments. And then somehow Amanda sucked John into separating sprinkles by color.

The ceremonial hanging of the first ornament.
Family Holiday Cheer!

Other Family Activities

Living here has its perks. We are just a little old train ride to New York City. A hop, skip, and a jump. So off we went.

Did you know you can bring your own ice skates and skate for free at Bryant Park? And enjoy cups of Big Apple Cider (I liked that name).

Times Square: Officially the coldest/windiest place ever. Brought tears to my freezing eyes.

Visited the big dino bones at the Museum of Natural History.

Watched the skaters twirl around the rink at Rockefeller.
Ate dinner eye-level with the rink. We got to watch someone propose!

And, around the house . . . the men played their instruments of choice. Did I mention we acquired an organ? So weird, I know. But they made some music.

how to do thanksgiving

First, invite your relatives. Assemble the guest list: Matt's parents, John and Martha, Cousin Amanda, Brother Adam.

Then, plan the menu. Include many traditional Anderson recipes, confer with husband and mother-in-law to determine what they normally eat, and add a new recipe of your own.

Since you've never made half the recipes before, it might be nice to do a practice thanksgiving a few weekends prior. Invite Tim and Lori and and Naz and Indira, who won't be able to celebrate on Thanksgiving Day because the boys are on call in the hospital. Recruit Lori to bring half the dishes. Try your hand at a cranberry-apple pie. After finding flames raging in the oven, make note that the pie is apt to overflow and that burned cranberry sauce is highly flammable.

For Real Thanksgiving, assemble your recipes and ingredients. Remember to thaw the turkey plenty of days ahead of time. Ever seasonally mindful, bake and freeze Fresh Cranberry Muffins and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and Caramel Chocolate Pretzel Sticks make sweet treats. Assemble Sweet Potato Souffle, Cheese Ball, Pumpkin Dip, and Cranberry Relish the day ahead. Chop onions and celery, bake cornbread and let it and the french bread get nice and dry for the stuffing. On Thanksgiving Day, allow the experienced hands of Martha to prepare the Turkey, Peacan Pie, and Mashed Potatoes.
Recruit:

Amanda to bring Rolls from an NYC bakery,
quaintly wrapped in paper and string.

and

Adam to bring two stunningly adorned
Pumpkin Pies.

Don't spend all day in the kitchen. It's important to have the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade playing in the background. Take time to walk on the beach to show the family the neighborhood.

After spending appropriate time frolicking outside, return to the kitchen. Have husband carve the turkey, save the wishbone, make the Green Beans, Martha makes the gravy, much to her son's delight.

Set the table.

Assemble the family. Give Thanks for our numerous blessings. This has been a momentous, fantastic year for me, heaping joys upon joy. Thanksgiving isn't the only day Matt and I give thanks, but it's nice to have a holiday.

Eat. Rejoice. Talk. Laugh. Go to the movies.

And that's how we did our first thanksgiving.

Multimedia message

Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3... I can post from my phone?!

leaves, before and after

Pretty on the trees.
But they don't stay there.
They fall.
They blow around.
They settle in a carpet over your driveway. Your lawn.

The leaf blowers have been buzzing for weeks at our neighbor's houses. But our house was silent. Until one day, the quiet, primitive sound of a rake, long forgotten by the residents of this leafy state, could be heard on the yard of 32 Crane Neck.

Before:
After:
Before:
After:
The old fashioned way. With a rake. Thank you very much.

changing seasons, changing light

November has just flown by! I've watched the leaves turn and fall as the temperatures drop and the days grow shorter. It's been wonderful, watching the constantly changing landscape of our new home. I'm afraid posting these all in succession takes away from the drama of the scene . . . but I'm not the most prompt of bloggers . . . and they bring us nicely from October into late November. Winter is upon us!

around here . . .

We fill our time with pursuing greatness, thinking deep thoughts, and pondering the meaning of life.

These pictures I pulled off Matt's phone pretty much sum up our days.

Catching some wind with a big tarp.

And the rest are some weird pictures of Moose:

Cat Patrol
Ears Back

Mushmouth begging for food off Matt

The Destroyer

At the time of this picture, Moose had already ripped the tiger head off its rope. Now, 4 days later, the head is but a tattered remnant of its former self and I have removed buckets of fluff from the living room.