Last Monday brought with it our monthly board meeting, we held it earlier than normal as we needed to finalise details for the SSA Christmas party (which is no longer happening).  The meeting happened in Magz’s house, complete with scones, jam and a nice cuppa (oh, and baby vomit, but that’s becoming a regular event in my life these days – but since Eve is so cute, I’ll let her away with it! LOL!)

We were supposed to have a Holiday Board Lunch after the meeting, but instead, it was just Magz, Alex and I (with Ethan and Eve) and we headed around the corner from Magz’s house to Cheddars – which, once again, didn’t disappoint!

The afternoon was spent baking Thank You cupcakes for a friend who helped me get some sponsorship money for the choir’s holiday programme – and y’know baking is always fun for me!

Tuesday started at Le Peep, a restaurant I’d heard a lot about, but never tried.  I was late to lunch (shock horror, it’s the story of my life these days, being so freakin’ busy!) but Tracy, Natalie and Magz (with little Eve) were very patiently waiting for my arrival.  The food was yummy, it was quick and service was good.  I’d happily go back for another lunch/brunch any time!

When lunch was done, I ran around a few restaurants to solicit donations for the choir’s food festival after the concert.  I hit up a few places and got met with a lot of good intentions, no actual commitments and a lot of phone numbers and email addresses to contact about getting a donation.

From soliciting to visiting, it was off to visit my friend Ann, who I’ve not seen in a while as she’s heavily pregnant with twins and on ‘light duty’.  It was good to hang out with her for a while and play with her gorgeous boxer Bella before heading home (which at first wasn’t too bad, but when I hit HWY6, the rush hour traffic kicked my ass!)

Later that night, Col and I decided to have an impromptu date night, with a quick pit-stop at Mission Burrito for a cheap and quick dinner, before heading to the movies to see InTime.

Wednesday was a day full of Thanksgiving prep, picking up our folding tables, last minute groceries and running a few errands ahead of Thursday’s big shindig!

Said shindig went down better than I could have hoped it would, it was the first get-together that I properly delegated, pretty much ever.

With such a big group (12 adults, 6 kids and an infant) we decided that it was too much work for one (two) people to do and it would cost way too much money to feed everyone, so we’d ask everyone to bring a little something to the table.

Here’s the menu:

Starters/Appetisers:

Savoury cheese ball with pita chips
Mini quiches
Two types of salad including my favourite strawberry and mozarella salad (Ana Maria)

Mains:

Ham
Two turkey crowns
Slow cooked pork tenderloin
Two potato gratin (Me)
Veggies – Broccoli, carrots and green beans (Magz)
Mash potato (Natalie)
Mac and cheese (Julie)
yorkshire puddings (me)
Stuffing (me)
Gravy (Col)

Dessert:

Individual Apple pies (me)
Trifle (Col)
Vanilla ice cream (Kat)

Extras:
After dinner mints (Natalie)
Apple cider (Julie & Col and I)
Soda (Natalie)

It worked out very well indeed! The first people arrived just after noon (Magz and Sam with a very adorable Southern belle, Eve ready for Aunty Las cuddles!) and the last people left just after nine o’clock!  We had a great day and it was, by far, one of, if not THE least stressful get-together I’ve ever thrown – this delegating malarkey isn’t half bad!

Sunday was a bust in many ways.  Quite literally.  We headed to HEB to pick up naan bread for lunch at the Maddens with Natalie and Jaime.  En route, we got a flat, and the next hour was spent trying to change it (at the side of 59) and find somewhere to fix it.

Lunch was delicious (Sam made curry, Magz made apple and blackberry crumble – as my first attempt at making toffee didn’t work so well!) but the F1 wasn’t on BBC online, so we, once again, had to quit on the last F1 Grand Prix of the year and headed home for Col to do some work.

A quiet weekend after a great Thanksgiving day, without a doubt, my favourite holiday of the year – yes, even over Christmas, Thanksgiving, is like Christmas, but without the seriously huge materialistic element.  It’s just a day to get around a table with your nearest and dearest, have a big feed and be thankful, once again this year, our house was filled with friends and love and we both thoroughly enjoyed it!