Dinner with Sam and His Family

Wednesday, Augsut 16, 2023

Mom, Dale, Sam & Becky & their boys, and Pete  & his kids, along with Becky's cousin Cass, Cass's mother in law, and Cass's daughter Abby, all went out for dinner at Creekside to celebrate their last night in town. Pete's family was with us earlier in the week but they went home Tuesday evening. It's the first time we'dall been together since Dale and I got married in 2014. Wow, nine years. 

I'm having suregery on my foot tomorrow to have my broken fibia fixed. I know that's one of the leg bones but it broke just above the ankle. I'll be getting general anesthesia for the survey but the doctor said I could have one mixed drink the night before. I, not surprisingly, went with the Wisconsin style Old Fashioned.

As we left I noticed a VCR tape of The Three Stooges was playing on the grandma style floor console television set. What a hoot. Outside on Chicago Avenue we all said our goodbyes. It was bittersweet as I think it'll be a long time before all our families reunite again. 

Thanksgiving 2020

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Thanksgiving was scaled back this year due to the pandemic. We often head out to visit Pete & family for the holiday but that was not to be this year. When we've been in town for the holiday over the last few years we've gone out to eat. Also, due to the fact Covid-19 cases are surging again we decided not to have Mom over. We did, however, run a care package to her after we finished our dinner today. 

The day melted away seemingly quite quickly due food prep here and there throughout. There was time in between for the scaled back Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. . .

...and a Bloody Mary. . .

...and the coloring of the turkey in the Star Tribune. 

We ate at 3:15. Dinner was awesome and we watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. 

After we ate we got Athena taken care of and then ran a care package over to Mom. She met us at the entry to her building with her mask on and seemed pretty excited to be getting delivery on Thanksgiving. She texted me that she was impressed with the amount of food. She also texted how delicious she though it was. Pictured above are Mom and I during a pre-pandemic Thanksgiving. I believe the photo was taken at Jax in 2015. 

Thanksgiving 2013 - A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

We watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving tonight. I watched it with the kids at school the other day. They loved the scene where Snoopy goes at it with a lawn chair. Pretty funny. The special dates to 1973 which means it's 40 years old! I remember Sam, Pete, and I watched this as kids. Dale and I tried to eat a healthy dinner tonight in anticipation of tomorrow: chicken breast and broccoli - not bad, huh?

Dinner at Bilbo Baggins, Alexandria, VA

For dinner on Saturday night, Pete and Steph took us to a restaurant called Bilbo Baggins in Alexandria Virginia. I started with a Hendricks martini which was mixed with way more vermouth than is to my liking. Mom had a beer as did Pete. For dinner I had house made tortellini stuffed with crab meat, salmon and fresh dill. It was served with an apple ginger Chardonnay cream sauce and was quite delicious. It's always wonderful to eat seafood when on the east coast. I did a little research and discovered that tortellini means "little twists". Mom had the grilled lamb chops and Pete ordered a steak.

According to Stephanie, the restaurant got permission to use the Bilbo Baggins as the name of the restaurant from J.R.R. Tolkien's estate in the early 1970's. Both restaurant and bar were rustic and charming. Bilbo Baggins is located at 208 Queen Street, Old Towne, Alexandria, Virginia.