Happy birthday to...

need4cognition! And to "Marie" and my childhood friend Tina.

Thanksgiving dinner

First I made a pie and some biscuits, then I roasted a chicken, then I made mashed potatoes, fruit salad (strawberries, tangerines, bananas), roasted portabella mushrooms, curried sweet potatoes, and some last-minute gravy. I'd forgotten to get brussels sprouts. We had cranberry sauce for B., and to drink we had sparkling juices: apple-cranberry and blueberry.

This year our Thanksgiving movie was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which we enjoyed; we also enjoyed the feature about filming the Oompa Loopma(s), and I liked the built-in video game, sort of like DDR, but with the DVD remote.

We were still pretty full from dinner by the time we got to my mom's, because we ate so late (around 3 p.m., as B. didn't arrive 'til nearly 2:30), but his late arrival meant that my cooking marathon was wonderfully low-stress. I even got to take a break in the middle of cooking to watch the second half of the Cartoon Network premiere of Scooby Doo: Where's My Mummy, which featured the voice of Christine Baranski (naturally very good at it) and had surprising departures from formula.

Hugh Hefner and I share the same Mayflower ancestor... ( Details )