no catch-up

There's absolutely no way in the world I'm going to try to play "blog catch-up" here.  I'm just going to start in today and keep moving forward.  If I remember something important I'll add it later.

We are in Bozeman, MT for our annual Thanksgiving thanksgiving.  Other guests will be Andrew, already here, Alex (arriving tonight) and Mike's mother and brother.  There is going to be at least one additional dinner guest on Thursday, maybe two.

  This was the first glimpse of snow in Salt Lake City, seen from our arriving flight.  Three hours in the airport, the boredom broken by running in to these two passengers who were also awaiting the Bozeman flight.

They were very well-behaved little ladies, each with a little carry-on canvas bag into which they very willingly wriggled at flight time.

Despite weather predictions to the contrary, there was very little snow when we got here (although it's snowing like mad right now).  Mike and Cait were at the airport to meet us.  We picked up the car, followed them to our apartment, unloaded and headed out to Ted's for bison meatloaf (Mr. C) and bison short ribs for me.  I didn't sleep very well; couldn't seem to get my brain to slow down.

Monday we drove over to C & M's house, admired the gorgeous new window they installed in the living room to take advantage of the fabulous view of their meadow and the mountains beyond.

There was an old (fake) stone gas fireplace that didn't add to the ambiance and obscured the view.  Much prettier now.  We made long shopping lists and took care of all that commercial business in a couple of hours.  First stop was, of course, to buy the turkey from the Hutterite community.  We settled on a big 26-pounder that should yield enough for turkey enchiladas or at least some fat turkey sandwiches.  Back home to unload our haul, then soup for lunch and the afternoon.  But we decided to some back to the apartment befoke darj, have an early dinner and try for better sleep.  It worked!

Back to Cait's this morning to greet Andrew who arrived about midnight last night.  We've been awaiting a big snow storm and it has finally arrived with a flourish.  Check out this little video.

(Well, I can't seem to get the video to load so I'll wait and put it up when I can get help from  Andrew tomorrow.)  OK, he showed me how to do it but it's at the top of the page instead of here!


Here's the back deck with it's lovely dusting of fresh snow.

We've started our great feast preparations.  Mr. C has made a cranberry chutney with jalapeños and has gathered together the ingredients for two cherry-apple pies.  I will make a lemon chiffon pie tomorrow, then prep the brussel sprouts and carrots.  Cait starts her dressing (Andrew will be her prep chef), Mike makes cornbread (for the dressing).  I've already done the flowers so that's taken care of.  I think we're actually going to be ready and hey, if not, we'll all be together, ready or not!

Back to the apartment to avoid (a) getting stuck in C & M's driveway and (b) having to drive through falling snow in the dark on what will probably become icy roads.  We'll save that for tomorrow.  Meanwhile, Alex arrives about 7 PM and she'll come directly here for dinner with us.  Her room is ready and waiting.  Tomorrow morning we'll all head back to Bristol Lane (C & M's) for another round of cooking and talking while we await the arrival of Mike's family in the early evening.