Happy Holidays

These past few days have been a blur here at SSG.  Thanksgiving is always a great holiday for us but it is also such a busy time.  We started setting up for our Thanksgiving feast Tuesday night.  We have a large crowd over and we have to move some furniture and extend our dining room table.  You can see Duchess was helping out by standing in the way.

Wednesday night we cleaned our china and set the tables.  Ben is a collector of china and for Thanksgiving we set a table with our Wedgwood India set and we set our other other table with our set of Waterford Colette by Mark Jacobs.  Ben always knows how to set a beautiful table and he did a great job once again.  

When we finally got everything set we had a chance to go to sleep.  Thanksgiving morning brought a day of cooking to our home.  We got up early so I could start some last minute cleaning and Ben could get the turkey in the oven.  With the turkey baking, he started some homemade rolls. This year we had a smaller crowd (just 18 people) but we never are at a loss for food.  

We always feel like we are feeding an army.  We ended with 2 turkeys, 48 rolls, 4 batches of green bean casserole, 12 lbs of mashed potatoes, a huge baking dish of sweet potato casserole, a spiral cut ham, Watergate salad and a Crock pot of gravy.  I can say we sent home lots of left overs and had quite a few sandwiches with the leftover rolls for the next 4 days.

It is a little stressful but always such a great time.  This year, since our numbers were down, everyone was able to sit in one room.  It made the whole night a little more intimate then usual.  After everyone ate and had time to socialize, our cleaning began.  Ben and I were able to get most of our cleaning done that night which was good since we headed down South the next morning to see more of his family. 

We ended up staying Friday in Oxnard because we were just too exhausted.  We stopped by two of our favorite fabric stores (The Quilter's Studio and Super Buzzy).  I was able to pick up the Bernina V7 upgrade that we purchased, Ben got some fabulous fabric that has mid-century modern homes printed on it.  It reminds me of Palm Springs.  His mom found some great fabric for some projects she is going to be working on and I got a very nice Jelly Roll for a baby quilt that I will be starting soon.  That night we went to dinner and hung out with his Aunt, Uncle and Cousins.  We played a card game and just spent the night laughing.

Saturday morning we headed down to Redondo to see his Grandma, brother, sister-in-law and aunt.  We had a nice brunch and spent time just visiting with them.  We had to leave around noon to head to The Ahmanson Theater for a production of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty.  It was a special ballet by Matthew Bourne.  I left wanting more.  I was so excited to see this ballet but it just wasn't up to par.  The story was a little bazaar and the dancing wasn't as on point as I would have liked.  I guess my previous ballets have spoiled me (Joffrey productions).  After the ballet we headed back to Oxnard for the night.  We stopped in Thousand Oaks to do a little shopping and get a tea.  Once we were back home, I fell asleep. 

The next morning I woke up really early and started cleaning the house.  I wanted to be sure to leave early, as to miss all the Sunday traffic and we did.  I spent the rest of the day on the couch binge watching The Walking Dead.  I was starting back at Season 2.  WOW that show is good.  Ben spent the day trying to finish up a quilt he has been working on.  He has finished it and I am hoping a post will be up soon about it. 

Hope your season is very merry and bright. 

'Til next time....