On 11/25 we were up at 4:30 am to make a 7:30 am flight to Detroit. Things went smoothly despite not having TSA pre-check! The flight was fine and surprisingly the gate staff and flight attendants were pleasant and helpful. They offered more drinks and snacks coming and going than either of our Hawaii flights last year. I am still not over that dreadful experience.
We were met by Pat and Kelly at the airport. They made a car reservation for us using some points that were about to expire saving us $100 on our rental. Ted was put on as a second driver so we could keep it all week and drive ourselves to the airport when we left. From there we all went to Ally’s for lunch and to meet our great granddaughter. What a sweetheart she is. And good! I don’t think we ever heard her cry. She was good being held by everyone, passed around, lying on a blanket, sitting in her car seat. Nothing bothered her.
I swear we did nothing but eat all week! Kara had meatballs and spaghetti ready for our dinner. Wednesday we went to Kelly’s for dinner. We spent a good bit of time on Wednesday preparing for Thursday. Kara made stuffing and sweet potatoes that I peeled, plus two pies - apple and pumpkin. I made pecan pie and raw cranberry relish. Kelly was making the mashed potatoes and a cranberry-cherry pie. She had cut five slits and one bubbled up onto the crust. We decided it looked like an injured Aztec and from this day forward it will be known as dead Aztec pie.
To be sure we didn’t starve, Kara made onion dip, beer dip, brown bread and shrimp for “snacks.” It was so nice having everyone there together.
Saturday night we treated everyone, including Patrick’s mother, to dinner at Picano’s Italian restaurant. We all attended 5 pm Mass then went on to the restaurant. It was quite a group celebrating Kara’s 50th birthday! However, we forgot to take a photo of the cake! For Kelly’s 50th we gave her a diamond ring made with my original wedding diamonds and also my mother’s. Kara had asked for a gold necklace Ted had given me years ago. I want to see them enjoy these things while I am still here.
Sunday we were back to Kelly’s to celebrate Christmas! We had another nice meal and then our gift exchange. We both received umbrellas to replace the ones that were ruined on the Cliffs of Moher, a new paper white Kindle and cover for me with Amazon Kindle gift cards, a dual voltage drying curling brush to use internationally. I burned one up in Italy and tripped the reset button on my current one in Ireland. It was fine in our 110 plug when we returned and reset easily! Ted received gas and Gander Mtn. gift cards to go with his umbrella.
On Monday it was flurrying while Ted took me, Kelly and Kara to Frankenmuth, an alpine village famous for Bronner’s Christmas store and Bavarian Inn and Zender’s chicken dinners. Across the interstate is Birch Run Outlets. Ted kept moving the car while we all headed in different directions to shop.
Our first stop was Lenox. Kara had two chipped bowls she had brought along and was GIVEN replacements! She bought two more. I purchased an entertainment set of cutting board, cheese spreaders and coasters for our neighborhood gift exchange plus a spoon and fork set for the baby. Kelly bought a Christmas tree and an angel. When we went to pay they gave us the percentage advertised for the day, $30 off with another coupon Kara had for spending over $100 and a free snowman ornament for “coming in to the store” coupon that day. We were being helped by the manager and talked about all the Lenox Kara and I have. She has a second Christmas tree with only Lenox ornaments plus everyday dishes. I have a complete set of china, many decorative pieces, the girls’ wedding photos are in Lenox frames, I was given a Lenox lamp at my retirement and a platter with our names written on it congratulating us on our 50th anniversary plus a birthday elephant! I guess we impressed him as really loyal customers and he put two more snowman ornaments in our huge bag (even though we did not have that “stop in today” Coupon). He said he didn’t want us fighting over one ornament at lunch! What a wonderful company to do business with.
We split up after that and Ted stayed in the car. I got two pairs of slacks and 3 tops for about $100 at Chico’s. Considering one pair of slacks is normally $70, it was a great bargain. I love Chico’s!
Kelly and Kara bought what they needed at Polo and Ann Taylor and then we headed to Zender’s for lunch. The family dinner consists of fruit stollen, cottage cheese, Cole slaw, cranberry relish, chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, gravy, squash, and a sundae! We didn’t need dinner!
I had cut off the last of the ham and then cooked the bone in chicken broth in the Instant Pot for one hour. It worked like a charm. We pulled the bones and icky things out, put in onions, celery, carrots, navy beans and tomato sauce. We again put it under pressure for 20 minutes and voila - soup! Bill had that when he came home from work.
We got our things together Tuesday morning, dressed and eventually left for the airport in a few flurries but nothing to worry about. Our flight home was as nice as our flight up. We took the shuttle to our car, drove home and were glad to be back!
No comments:
Post a Comment