So...this post is a bit belated. As in, over a month after the fact. Since today is New Year's Eve! But still, there is lots to recount about Thanksgiving 2011 so I better get it done before I forget. :)
One of the more initially entertaining, but quickly turned annoying, incidents this autumn was Bailey discovering our pear tree in the backyard. Took him four years at the house to realize there was fruit lying on the ground, just there for the taking. (We actually thought it was a crabapple tree for years until Chris' mom pointed out they were pears.)
Once Bailey realized they were out there, nothing could stop him from eating them. If we'd take them away, he'd just eat them secretly on the side deck before coming back to the glass door. Or he'd quietly bring them in the house and we'd find pear stems on the rug a bit later. Thankfully, winter is finally here and all the pears are gone. But it was pretty funny while it lasted!
On Thanksgiving day, we decided to head into the city to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade again, just like we did in 2009. Our front row spot for watching the parade was amazing two years ago, so we we drove in with realistic expectations that the view would not be as great. And it wasn't, but we still had a good time. We watched from the far side of Columbus Circle. Our view looked a little like this:
There's a mall at Columbus Circle, and the view from inside (this was on the 2nd or 3rd floor) was actually pretty good too. And as an added bonus...it was warm. :)
Back in CT we enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, Paul and Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's parents. Elizabeth and her mom are gluten-free, which I found fairly stressful at first since I was supposed to bring dessert. But I made Ina's
pear-apple-cranberry crisp in individual ramekins, and just used gluten-free flour to make the crisp for theirs. And it was delicious!! I hope the gluten-free ones were too. I am a big fan of gluten and ate the ones with regular flour.
To end the long Thanksgiving weekend, Chris tackled a big project in the backyard. The shed that he reroofed this spring/summer had a huge window in the back of it. Not sure why you'd need a window in a shed, but there are many things about this house still a mystery to us. A few of the panes were broken which allowed leaves, animals, dust, rain, etc. to get into the shed. Chris took out the whole window and replaced it with plywood and siding. Much better!
The next day, he left for Taiwan. Nothing like a 20 hour plane ride for sore muscles, right? Here are some pics from his fancy hotel. He can't blog about it himself because he is down in the basement tinkering with the Porsche. Seriously, what did he do in his spare time before he bought this car?? :)
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It took Chris awhile to figure out that he had to insert his key card to adjust the lights in the room. |
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View from his room. He said he saw so many almost accidents on the street below. Apparently there are no stop signs at intersections in Taiwan! |