More post Thanksgiving

November 25th would have been my grandmother's 100th birthday if she was still living.  She passed away in 2012, so she did make it to 94, but we felt like we should acknowledge this day somehow.  And when I say "we" I mean "me" and everybody else just played along.  I invited everyone over to my parent's house at 11 am.  I set up a little altar to her. 

My dad made a polish flag (her parents immigrated from there), I put out the book she wrote (edited to remove most of her name), and included the original Star Wars poster because she loved Star Wars. 

Sauerkraut and poppy seeds, because she made food with those ingredients a lot. 

I made a gingerbread cake, which was one of her childhood favorites. 

The whole party was really last minute, so I had to improvise with the candles.  The purple zero was originally a six. 

I think she would have approved.  

Everybody gathered in the kitchen, including Ginger, 

and we all told stories about her. 

And drank coffee. 

And my mom drank tea. 

Then we ate cake. 

Official pictures of participants, except I didn't get my uncle Terry.  Actually at all.  There's no picture of him.  Oops. 

That afternoon I went to a birthday party for Peggy with my parents.  Peggy, in green next to me, was my teacher in elementary school, my math tutor in junior high, and my confirmation sponsor in high school.  She's also my mom's good friend still.  I grew up with her daughters Siovhan (left) and Stephanie (right).  Siovhan was attending Harvard and Stephanie was attending New York University when I was going to school in New Hampshire, so I spent time with each of them that semester when I was travelling.

Saturday night I was doing a competition on Facebook.  I didn't win.  I had to take a post pictures that had specific requirements.  This one was showing my nails with a mug. 

A recent purchase. 

A silly selfie. 

We got up, packed up and hit the road on Sunday morning.  We spent the whole day at home doing laundry, unpacking, working on indoor Christmas decorations and putting the outdoor lights up.  After all of that I was in no mood for making dinner, plus we didn't have food to cook, so we went out for dinner. 

Michael was really proud of his beef molcajete bowl. 

I got enchiladas with scallops in them.  I have recently become aware that I am straight up allergic to mussels (never used to be), so I am slowly testing other mollusks to see if they cause problems.  Scallops are OK.  I've also had clams since then and they are OK too. 

And that's a wrap on Thanksgiving.  We're into the holiday season now. Officially.