We had our second round of Christmas celebrations yesterday. Dave's sister and her husband, son and daughter came down from northern Michigan, and his aunt, uncle and cousin came from up near Lansing. Dave whipped up a lavish meal for all 11 of us, with occasional assistance from various itinerant sous-chefs.
The menu: homemade sausage and paté (among numerous other hors d'eouvres); scallops on a parsnip puree with orange sauce; filet mignon with brussels sprouts; Waldorf salad (from his aunt); grape salad (from his mom); and Christmas cookies for dessert. I love Waldorf salad. Let me just confess that right here.
Of course there was way too much food -- between this and our actual Christmas dinner, we have enough leftovers to feed Ann Arbor. And this was after we went out for pizza on Friday night! Somewhere in the house there's also half an uneaten pizza. (This place has a network of hidden refrigerators, all liberally stocked.)
I wore the Christmas sweater and got praise for being "festive." (They're too polite to say "idiotic.") Unfortunately I was also dragging after waking up at 3 a.m. yesterday morning and being unable to fall back to sleep. I felt like a zombie. I kept myself busy by doing the bulk of the dishes both during cooking and after eating, and that helped me stay alert.
We finished off the day -- after Dave's aunt, uncle and cousin left, and his mom went to bed -- by playing a card game that his niece brought from college. We'd each get ten cards with a word, phrase or name on them. We'd then draw a question card, which usually involved filling a blank in a sentence, and all of us would have to choose one of our words to do so. Problem is, a lot of our cards were completely inappropriate, rude or pornographic. I never thought I would have to say "anal beads" in front of my father-in-law. (At one point he leaned over to me and showed me another card, one in his hand, and said, "What does this mean?" I knew, but I just shrugged and acted innocent. I'm not even going to repeat it here.)
Last night, thank goodness, I slept long and well, so I feel normal this morning.
(Photos: A house down the street. Suburbia!)
Ah- nothing bonds a family like adult games.
ReplyDeleteHaha!
well, that made me laugh, about the word you wouldn't define for your father-in-law. I'm the dish doer here. Marc cooks and he does well enough but he's no gourmet chef.
ReplyDeleteWhat Ms.Moon said. I so wish I could have been a insect on the wall.(My face hurts from smiling and laughing at you and your words.)Glad you are having a good time.I need a recipe for turnips,as it seems I am going to have a jackpot in a month or so.( this is from Alabama and well,you know...)Could I hire Dave for a bit?? :)
ReplyDeleteThat food sounds fantastic. What a feast.
ReplyDeleteThat first photo kills me. I think it's the tiny wreaths.
ReplyDeleteBoard games, food and bonding...Sounds like you're enjoying, although your description of the game had me chuckling...
ReplyDeleteDarn it - my nephew brought that game over Christmas Eve & we never got around to playing it. That would have been a hoot - especially with my proper (and also irreverent) step-mother.
ReplyDelete