Did I think by surviving Thanksgiving things would somehow calm down? Haven’t I already told myself many times to never think.

Saturday went off without a single hitch. Honestly it was the smoothest day in recent history. I managed not to bite anyone’s head off, and I only chewed Marc out a tiny bit. Honestly I was so much more Zen than usual that people asked me if I’d discovered some new drug.

Anyway, the menus was:

For appetizers—a big fat vegetable platter with two types of dip, four different types of toasts (tuna, smoked salmon, cheese/rossette and pizza), crab dip, very spicy wings with bleu cheese dip, the traditional chips and salsa, deviled eggs and my world famous baked brie which lasted all of five minutes and almost caused a fight.

Mains: The Done Tom Turkey, a roasted pork loin and a roast beef (that was apparently outstanding, and perfectly rare so very off-limits), green bean casserole, homemade dressing, cranberry sauce, sautéed courgettes with onions, corn, and mashed potatoes (which brought in several more compliments).

The desserts: Two pecan pies, a sweet potato pie, an apple crumble (made with three kilos of apples) and my regular cop-out-of-the-hazelnut-mousse-cake chocolate cake because time was running out and my energy level was in the negative. I’d also made homemade whipped cream (1 liter of cream to give you an idea of quantity).

This morning there was left over: Half a pan of turkey, three slices of pork, two slices of roast beef, a few stray fresh vegetables, five wings, a small pan of green bean casserole (cooked in 1.5 liter bread pans because there were no larger sized aluminum baking pans available), three small pans of stuffing, about a cup of corn and one slice of sweet potato pie. Oh, and a bit of the various dips of course. But otherwise, that's it. Basically they ate it all.

And apparently it was good because I walked away with three marriage proposals.

Now it’s back to reality. First thing tomorrow I have to drag my butt to the vampires’ shop and get some blood work done for my next visit on Wednesday. Tomorrow evening we have an overnight guest, so more cooking to do—in addition to the shopping needed. I’ve got my regular English conversation group on Tuesday and then Thursday I’m meeting up with my brother’s wife in Strasbourg. Marc takes off on Wednesday for three days and when he gets back, we have to go to a house-warming party on Saturday, so in-between times I need to find a “little something” for the happy homeowners. And, supposedly the rest of the work on the house is supposed to start this week. Again, not holding my breath.

And I have to figure out what to ask Santa Claus to bring Tigger-ette. Anyone got any ideas? She’s already into her brother’s toys and I honestly cannot fathom adding more clutter to the already overloaded toy chest.