Monday, December 2nd - that means the Christmas Dishes can move to the everyday spot for a while!

After a cold Saturday and a much milder Sunday, we're heading for a high of 5' and maybe a little rain in the morning. It's 2' at 5:30 and the temperatures are predicted to stay mild for most of the week. Great opportunity to get those Christmas lights up! All I have to do is find them.

It was indeed a busy weekend, as predicted. Friday evening, I picked up some pizzas (again - this could be our new Friday Feast!) and the Van Gaals met us at our house. The object of the evening was to make apple crisp for 60 people. Turns out we could have fed 100 but that's another issue. Lloyd and Bernie had graciously offered to help with the peeling. Of course there was machinery involved. Each was equipped with

Dueling apple peelers

their own apple peeler. Brenda and I couldn't help but laugh at the conversation that was taking place. Why one worked differently than the other, what technical pieces needed to be adjusted, etc, etc. Turns out that both peelers operated the same - peeling, coring and cutting the apples all at the same time. Who knew? That left Brenda to put the apples in the pans as they were peeled and I put together a topping. When the apples were all in the pans we added sugar and a bag of cranberries to each pan, then the topping.

They were put into the oven and a while later they came out nice and golden and delicious. That was

a good head start. Saturday I imposed upon Brenda, who had to go to town, to pick up the rolls. Lloyd was helping Bernie with some cement that was being poured, when he got home from work at 8:00 and I set about prepping. Fortunately Lloyd had taken all the turnips, carrots and potatoes to work with him and spent the better part of his night peeling and cutting up all of those. I am very grateful that he did as it saved a lot of work on Saturday morning.

I had made myself a check list and hung it on the door so I could easily keep track of what needed doing and hopefully, not forget anything.

By early afternoon, I was in pretty good shape. I sent Brenda home with a turkey to put into her oven to roast, while I put three in mine, and then stuffed the pork roasts. Lloyd had gone to bed when he got home around 10:30 and he slept until 4:00, which was good as I knew it would be a busy night.

Finally it was show time. He loaded up the car and headed over to the hall to check out the set up while I finished up a few things here. Then when he got back, I went over to cook the veggies and do what little things I could do. He stayed home to debone the turkeys and make the gravy. Brenda brought her turkey over when it was done and they both brought everything else over to the hall.

The set up wasn't quite the same as we had initially expected so we had to make a few modifications but it all worked out. Everyone was fed and we're told they really enjoyed their meal. Our mission was accomplished.  It was lots of work but it's nice to have it over now so we can concentrate on more important things!

Sunday morning wasn't nearly as cold so we used the opportunity to move all the wire shelves and baskets from the spare room upstairs to the craft room outside.  I brought all the baskets downstairs, Lloyd carried them out to the garage and I carried them back up the stairs. Now I know why my calf muscles are a little stiff this morning. Lloyd says he now has a much greater respect for Will and Ethan, who initially carried all this stuff into the house on moving day way back when.  With the racks out there, Lloyd was able to install the top I bought to form a desk. Then the computer, monitor and printer went out. No internet as yet but apparently that will come.  We also installed the miscellaneous desk, that coincidentally will be the visiting crafters desk i.e. Meghan's Desk!  Tonight I'll start sorting through the baskets and reorganizing them as they've gotten extremely messed up. Time to do a bit of editing I think.

It was especially nice not to have to worry about what to make for supper on Sunday either. It was the volunteer supper at the Rec Centre. We enjoyed mussels, BBQ steak, baked potatoes, potato salad, coleslaw and a wide assortment of dessert, including a really yummy coconut cream pie (sorry you missed it Brenda!) Needless to say, the diets kind of went out the window this weekend. 

All in all a very productive weekend. Young James also had a very productive weekend. He and his mom and sister were in Ottawa at a speed skating meet all weekend. I'm told it was VERY cold there on Saturday - minus 19' without the wind chill and lots of snow.  Unfortunately they didn't have wi fi at the arena so we weren't able to use Face Time as we hoped, but Patti kept me informed by phone and text. He did quite well on Saturday and his point count had him in first place. I talked to Patti on Sunday morning and he was heading into a 3,000 metre race, the

longest distance he's ever raced. He's only ever gone 1,500 metres and that's a challenge so she wasn't sure how he'd do with the longer distance. Turns out he did okay because he finished first over all. Well done, James. I know he's pretty pleased with himself and rightly so. His coach looked pretty pleased in the photo Patti sent me. In past years he coached all three of his kids, who went on to skate in the Olympics. Looks like he's pretty good at his job. Definitely an asset to  the Cambridge club.