Xenia Kathryn

I'm enjoying a cup of tea... a moment of solitude here in front of the ol' comp a.k.a. the OTHER "boob tube."

Thanksgiving was great, I got to see some of my younger cousins. It's weird that all of my male younger cousins are now these handsome, tall high schoolers. Holy cow. And my other cousin Christina is a whirlwind of success... smart, a professional dancer, a jack of all trades and perhaps a master of them all, and only 19. Wow.

Christina and I managed to make two pecan pies for the first time this Thanksgiving. I never really cared for pecan pie, hence I never had any interest in making it. I brought one pie to my husband's family's celebration, where I kept my pie in a brown bag in the mudroom, because I was so embarrassed by the way it turned out. By the looks of it, the pie seemed overcooked (The Joy of Cooking made note that, when ready, the pies should be--and I quote--"set and quivery like gelatin"... and the pies that I made were past the quivery stage, and the pecans looked burnt).

After the other pies were served, I snuck into the mudroom (don't know what a mudroom is? It's a room in old houses where people take off their muddy shoes and heavy coats... Job's aunt lives in a gorgeous older farm house), and pulled the forsaken pie from the brown grocery bag. I pinched a chunk of the pecany extravaganza for a taste. Hmm. Wow. Not nearly as bad as I thought. So, I snuck the pie into the kitchen, where it resumed to sit until one kind person took a slice.

I brought the rest of the pie to my parent's celebration, where we had an excess of pies... but the excess did not pose a problem, because after all, we had seven young men under the age of 25 who were more than willing to devour them.

You know what? I really like pecan pie now! True to my southern roots, I guess! Too bad the stuff is chock full of calories.... eek. No wonder it's so good?

Baby and husband are doing well... Job continues to study, study, study for his CPA exams. I'm attempting to crank out some Christmas cards... now I just have to muster the confidence to try and sell them. We have the Conglamo Accounting Firm(not it's real name... anyone remember Rocko's Modern Life?) Christmas party coming up... I REALLY want to go, but Froggie's teething like a madbaby, and the gala is taking place a little too far away for my liking, if I'm going to leave her with one of the grandmas for babysitting... Ahh. We'll see.

Goals for this week? Make my aunt's spectacular spaghetti sauce (thanks for the recipe Aunt Helen!), get my eye's checked out (they're being weird, maybe I finally need glasses??? YES!), market Christmas cards, get some gift shopping done and, on a sadder note, attend the funeral and family events to commemorate my grandfather.

By the way, thank you SO MUCH for your words of love and encouragement regarding my grandfathers. You're all so kind, God bless you!!!!