My mutha's cranberry sauce

My mom's sweet potatoes

Bubba's muffin tin stuffing

Mario's brussel sprouts (or rather, an attempt at Mario's brussel sprouts)

New World's green beans (made by A&R)

F&W's Kale recipe

Turkey

Don's punky and apple pies

What's that sound like? Thanksgiving 2.0 @ rose lane last night. Yum!!

Thanks everyone for making it so fun!!

Wintery Mix

This is my least favorite weather forecast:

A WINTRY MIX OF SLEET...AND FREEZING RAIN...WITH PERHAPS SOME SNOW AT THE START...WILL SPREAD ACROSS THE MID HUDSON VALLEY AND EASTERN CATSKILLS...THROUGH 230 PM. THE PRECIPITATION WILL BE LIGHT TO OCCASIONALLY MODERATE IN INTENSITY. WITH TEMPERATURES IN MANY PLACES BELOW FREEZING...THIS MAY LEAD TO A SLICK COATING OF ICE IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. THE PRECIPITATION WILL EVENTUALLY MIX WITH AND CHANGE TO PLAIN RAIN TOWARDS THE MID AFTERNOON HOURS. USE CAUTION AND ALLOW YOURSELF EXTRA TIME IF TRAVELING THROUGH THE AFTERNOON.

I went into the pool and forgot all about the weather until I walked out after 6k of swimming to find an inch of icy snow on the ground. After skidding down Main St., I managed to get the BNC back home in one piece and am happy to spend the rest of the day inside. 

Time to put on a fire, heat up some thanksgiving leftovers and queue up some Law & Orders.  

Is it bad that I haven't left the house all weekend except to go swimming? Maybe it is the cold and ice with the combination of an open toed "snow" boot. That kind of limits the options.

December

Inspired by Sarah's Christmas decorating, I took a walk in the woods (with the boot) and picked up a few blood berries and pine branches. This should get the holiday season started!

Christmas in the City

The Christmas tree vendors are out in full force.  The ones that smell so good that you'll cross the street just so that you can walk through them.  There's one down by me that seems to be run by hipsters and has a "christmas market" attached to it.  Full of good old Christmas decorations like Tinsel and multi-colored lights...straight from an 80's dollar store.  

It is tempting, but I think I'll decorate the way my dad did on Mastenbrook Place - one single red light bulb in sconce between the 2 garage doors.  

Germany

People want to know, what's going on in Germany.  Here are a few pictures of how we'd spend a a sunny day.  This playground was conveniently located steps from the hotel.  On not so sunny days, our activities included going to the lobby for coffee/milk & cookies, going to the gym, going to the trash room (aka dumpster/recycling bin outside in the parking lot) and watching hours of Sesame Street on dvd.  

All this while Leezie and Speed were hard at work on:

http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/901170/Vorbereitungen-fuer-die-Show-India#/beitrag/video/901170/Vorbereitungen-fuer-die-Show-India

Thanksgiving Pics

Here are a few shots from thanksgiving. Looks like I dropped my camera 1 too many times and now all of the pictures are grainy. But, you get the idea...

Ready, Set, Go!!

Last Tuesday, I went to the track with Sarah to coach her through a mile repeats workout. Ea and I hung out on the sidelines and gave splits, "cheering" and repeating "ready, set, go."

This was Wah's first track workout in forever and she did it perfectly. She then ran her thanksgiving turkey trot in the exact time we predicted after we looked at the results of this weekend. She also ran her fastest time since college, despite having to weave through people during the opening few minutes of the race.

Apparently, the ready, set go's stuck with Ea and since then he's been working on his track starts. He gets into a starting position and when you say ready, set, go, he runs around the room in an oval.

From the Mercure Hotel

Sam leaning how to use a telephone.

It is true!  I'm going to Germany tomorrow to help out with the child-minding of Sam and Jack.  Instead of clothes, I am filling my suitcase with DVD's, formula, items from Gap kids, goldfish, and other essentials that seem to have gotten left behind.  

More on that later.  Going for my once a week swim!

Another day of traipsing around the city with this bum foot.  First the upper way east side by subway and long walk for a doctor's appointment, then a walk back to the subway and a trip down to Scott's at 23rd and Park, then over to Christopher Street to meet my training partners for lunch (instead of a workout--it's the offseason), then a walk up to the meatpacking district for a few hours of work, then back to PT to run on the alter G treadmill.  All this is going to take several hours, so I'm resting up for it now.