After we got back from our trip, things got a little busier (if that’s possible). We did make time on Sunday the 21st to take in the new Harry Potter film in IMAX (our tradition, the only bad thing was we wanted to see Part 2 right away), then it was only 3 days of work for me until I got two days off for Thanksgiving. We spent most of the day at Mom’s or getting ready for that (Jill made mashed potatoes, turnips and rutabagas while I sauteed green beans and made sweet potato butter). We brought home most of the leftovers (no one else wanted that much) and got several more meals out of it. The rest of the weekend I spent in the basement, slowly getting the place in order (and catching up on TV – really liked The Walking Dead).
The next Tuesday I went bowling with coworkers for the first time in about 20 years. It was… interesting. Two gutter balls, followed by a strike, and then another gutter ball for good measure. That was the most social I got over the next couple weeks, as we continued to unpack and clean up (I was mostly still in the basement). We got a tree on December 5th, at eight feet the tallest I’ve ever had. Of course there’s something off with its base, and it fell three times over the next couple weeks (luckily always while I was home).
We had our annual holiday party on Saturday, December 11th. Jill was not sold when we were planning, but she also put a lot of effort into making the house look nice. We’d had the floors refinished before we went on vacation, and we got both the dining room and living room furniture delivered right before the party. We decorated and prepped the food that Saturday, and I had just started the Christmas tunes when our first guests arrived. We had about 15 people show over the night – the new house definitely doesn’t feel as full with that amount of people. It was fun, and the food was good (it mostly disappeared), and then it was midnight and everyone was gone.
We worked so furiously to get ready we’ve been slacking off since, but next week the rest of the bookshelves should be arriving, and I’d like to get everything ready by Christmas day as we’ll be hosting my family this year. We had our first snow of the year yesterday, and it’s so cold Lake Thoreau has already mostly frozen (the geese sit on top of the ice, or this morning I saw them in the one unfrozen section in the middle of the lake).