ANDREW.MERELIS.COM ----NOVEMBER 2004-----> BACK TO MAIN MENU

11/25/04 Thanksgiving 2004:

This year, thanksgiving was held at Aunt Diane, Uncle Ira, and Russell's house in Mount Sinai, Long Island.

The bird looked great in the oven. Nana checks on it.


The house has been completely repainted since we've all last been over, so we took a tour. Lots of colors were added to what had mostly been white walls, and, just as it did at Richard's Parents' house, here it made a surprisingly positive difference as well.


Another big new feature of the house, was the very colorful chandelier in the stairwell.


Also, the door to the basement was replaced with glass, and french wood inlays.


The wall in the dining room was dark and bold, and went well with the dark set of furniture and the floor to ceiling painting.


For some reason, changing the walls to colors really brings out the furniture. I had never given much thought to this piece until now.





The cork fell into the wine! And, if I remember correctly, we kept pouring from it, simply with the added step of checking the glass before drinking. I think I did eventually end up chewing on a tiny piece of cork. It tasted awful!



The appetizers.





I have to ask the story of how they ended up with mini versions of the king and queen paintings that have been in my mothers posession for many years, and used to hang at the top of the stairwell in my old house, growing up.





I believe the fireplace was done up a but as well, adding some lovely wood to the hearth.







The turkey is done!



A short tour of Russell's room, as it is today:


Lots of ikea furniture, put together, and neatly stuffed. I think it looks great. Beech? Birch? Malm? Billy?





A little later, back in the kitchen, Nana is freaking out about the copious amounts of spiled gravy, all over the oven and kitchen floor. When the turkey was attempted to be moved from the oven to the counter, the foil underneath gave way. Nana was upset because she had told her youngest daughter to use double the amount of foil, but shoe had forgotten.




Rescue and recovery.





Nana was a bit hysterical about it for a while, and my mom was full of nervous laughter, to the point of tears.


Papa used the foot-on-paper-towel method.



Meanwhile, the culprit was busy showing off her new black and decker. (Not for wet, I think.)

As things in the kitchen died down, Russ and I settled into a game of Chess,







And the oven eventually became clear for the other dishes, as the turkey was sliced.




Papa is the senior turkey-slicer.




Papa wore his new leopard-print cooking smock. I think this was a gift from Aunt Diane.


We had Nana's famous annual cranberry jello-mold in the shape of a fish, whose eyes are provided by two pinemtoed olives.

We sat down to eat.









After the meal, much of the family sat in the Living Room for a phone call to Peter and David who are still in England, celebrating Thanksgiving over there, even though they were the only ones celebrating it over there.






And there were thanksgiving-decorated cup-cakes for dessert!!!


Yay!