Thanksgiving Weekend

I hosted Thanksgiving this year for some of Adam's co-workers. I wanted to try some new side dishes, so a couple weeks beforehand, I experimented by making roasted Brussels sprouts with apples and bacon. It's official: I don't like Brussels sprouts. I can say that with confidence because if they're not good with bacon, they're not going to be good with anything. So long, Brussels sprouts!

 I bought a brined turkey and brined it again. After his nice soak, I injected him with a blend of chicken stock, butter and garlic, then rubbed him inside and out with sage butter, and finally, I filled the cavity with celery, apples and onions. I didn't get a good shot of the after effect, but it was a beautiful bird and it was, by far, my best tasting, most moist turkey yet. I owe it all to the syringe.

 Buttered rolls fresh out of the oven.

 Guests dishing up. Aside from feeling triumphant about my turkey, I was also stoked to finally make a really good turkey gravy.

 These are our guests, clockwise from bottom left: Kristen, Dave, Yue, Joanna, Brett, Stephanie, and, of course, Adam. Not pictured: Kristen and Dave's newborn, and me. The meal was fantastic. The group was fantastic. We finished the evening by watching the Seahawks game.

 The next day it rained non-stop and we stayed inside as long as possible and watched The Sound of Music and Toy Story 3. By afternoon, we had cabin fever and decided to venture downtown for the lighting of the Christmas Tree in Westlake Plaza. We hit up Piroshky, Piroshky first because nothing is better on a rainy day than a piroshky (a soft bun filled with meat and cheese, or, for me, salmon pate).

 We sat in the hall to eat our piroshkies and Adam and Noah played with Buzz Lightyear and dragon car.

 When we were inside Westlake Mall waiting for the tree lighting to start, we became enveloped in a Ferguson protest. We were on the top floor, coming down the escalators, and tons of protesters flooded the building and went up the escalators. There were police everywhere, including those ones I've only seen on the news lately, with their fold-down masks and billy clubs. It was jarring and I forgot to take any pictures of the Christmas tree or any part of the whole event. The protesters were so loud that the program had to be cut short. The tree was lit and as well as the Macy's star, and the rain let up enough so they could set off the fireworks. After that we decided to jet. We saw on the news later that it did not get violent but there were five arrests. Yikes! It was sad. I was sad for the protesters and whatever pain they were feeling (even if some of them were probably just jumping on the next activist band-wagon) and I felt bad for us and all the other families who were there to enjoy some innocent holiday cheer, and I felt bad for the kids' choir that was too rattled to perform, some of them crying, and I felt bad for the shoppers because the mall closed three hours early. I have never ever wanted to be near - let alone in - a mall on Black Friday, but when I had a moment to peruse Zara while we were killing time, those incredibly low prices made me think twice. Hence my feeling sorry for the shoppers.

On the way back to the car, we stopped at Target for new coloring books (Sienna is obsessed with coloring lately, and had just finished burning through her mermaid book) and walked through a closing Pike Place. We couldn't pass Beecher's without stopping in for some cheese curds and fontina. That's dinner, folks!

 Yesterday was a homebody type day because: snow. It was frigid and windy all day and the snow is still here this morning!