We had a lovely Thanksgiving. We purchased new kitchen cabinets (in birch) on Wednesday and drove through a horrific snow storm to Michigan City. The food all went fairly well. I made cornbread stuffing with pecans, bacon and apples. It was ok, but I wouldn't do cornbread stuffing again. I really like the regular kind and this just seemed dry. The fougasses did not turn out well at all. Well, they were probably ok before I froze them, but the end product wasn't good. The turkey and the corn pudding were good, I think I might add the corn pudding to the standard repertoire. Oh, and I forgot the cranberry sauce until the next day. Oh well. It was a tall jiggly gelatinous masterpiece, so I was happy at how it turned out.

On Friday, Leo decided to go hiking in the dunes by himself while the ladies went to the outlet mall. There weren't that many people there, so it was nice. My mom bought me a pair of "miracle pants" at a maternity store. I had been wearing this pair of Liz Lange maternity jeans that are so uncomfortable its rather unreal. But they still fit and I don't own a lot of pants that do so I wore them. Anyway, I think the miracle part of the pants is that a large is way too big on me. Thank you very much, vanity sizing.

Leo's mom gave us a faux Christmas tree so I put that up over the weekend. Its been a really long time (maybe 6 years?) since I've used my ornaments. I forgot that I own a whole bunch of crazy colored birds; I put those all over the tree. The rest of the ornaments are either fruit or nut themed. Plus the blown glass sparkly crab that we got this summer at the beach.

I haven't done well studying for the certification exam. What was I thinking, going for two certs in a year?

I'd much rather bake Christmas cookies than study. I bought a big jar of macadamia nuts at Costco, now I need to figure out what to do with them. Oh! And I am on the roster for Leo's family's Christmas Eve dinner! I am so nervous. I think I'm going to start with a tomato soup (thickened with either potato or rice, they all eat low fat) and some bread (probably some homemade baguettes but maybe I'd braid them into a wreath for Christmas). Then we'll have some of the "nouveau" beef wellingtons in this month's Fine Cooking (the recipe uses filo instead of brioche or puff pastry so its lover in fat and the filo creates some vertical drama) with a side of baby spinach and scallions. For dessert I'm thinking about a plum pudding (served flaming, with a zabaglione sauce on the side) and some orange slices with candied ginger drizzled with caramel. I'll do some marinated shrimp and a camembert with pears and walnuts to start. Does that sound like enough? Maybe I need another side dish. I'm so nervous that I am actually trying out soup recipes before hand.