I have to say – the kitchen was a scene of utter chaos. And I absolutely loved it. People moving around, jostling, yelling for space and help. A bustle of activity and collisions and it was just so glorious to witness.
You may gauge the holidays on the meals that are served. But for me, the pleasure and measure of it is in the preparation. A house is full of love when its kitchen is full with motion.
While surfing Facebook, I happened across this post by Anne – and did a doubletake. It was her talking about how much she enjoyed a recent play she had just attended, a production of The Chinese Lady, by Lloyd Suh, at Tipping Point Theatre.
When I saw this – a question entered my brain of “Wait, Lloyd?” And after a split second, I had a follow-up thought of “Of course, it’s Lloyd.”
Back at the house, Sandy’s cozied up in the living room.
Group photo, with a lot of lovely lights in the background.
I’m in awe, and I haven’t even step foot inside any building yet.
Kirt, with the turkey out of the oven. Here, he’s removing a layer of salt that was placed on the turkey, which formed a kind of outer coating/shield during the cooking process.
And then! After we got back, we got to sitting on the couch and just talking. We ended up visiting and catching up, and time somehow got away from us. At some point, Grace went to bed and Jackson came downstairs… and we all just kept on talking and talking. Telling stories, sharing stories.
I think that by the time we decided to call it a night it was close to 3:30 AM! Seriously!
Slow day today. We got up a bit early, and several of us headed out to Musekgon to visit the Muskegon Farmers Market.
Liz and I had an early date night planned today. Earlier in the week, we got an email notification, a kind of last minute invite to a Drammers event at Warehouse Liquors: a tasting event featuring Teeling whiskey. And a chance to sample tastes from two 30+ year old bottles!
We arrived at the show separately, and offered to drive everyone back to the hotel. We had to scrunch, but were able to pack everyone in. Jackson took the hit, and agreed to hop into the trunk – with the rest of us ignoring this clear act of child endangerment.
Group photo, from the last day at the lakehouse before everyone departs for home. L to R it’s Anne, Kirt, Jackson, Sandy, me, Liz, and Grace.
A photo of Kiss, with Gray’s Anatomy and the Illustrated Family Bible in the background.
Pretty slow day today. Kirt, Anne, Jackson and Grace arrived last night. Most of today was just lazing around and hanging out in front of the fireplace.
With us working a lot the last few days, today ended up being a pretty slow and laid back kind of day. The sky was cloudy, the forecast called for rain… so we spent a lot of the day just hanging out inside. Chatting a little, reading a little. And more than one nap took place.
Anne flew in last night, and we had the chance to catch up a bit over dinner. This morning, we all suited up and headed back to the marina to put a few more hours in working on the boat.