Thanksgiving 2012 Snapshot

My Thanksgiving this year started early.  I had 3 of them too!

Monday - MND: 2nd Annual Thanksgiving Potluck.  We had quite a few regulars in attendance and it was a lovely affair.  Johnny, me, Danielle, Buddy, Joel, Maggie, Kristi, Eshe, Nia Luis, Mindy... Oh gosh... I hope I'm not forgetting anyone (I was just trying to remember who sat where at the dinner table).  Anyway, it was lovely.  We presented Johnny with his "Pampered Chef" gifts.  A month or so ago I went to a PC party that Aberdeen hosted.  Not being the cook that's necessary to need PC kind of stuff, I thought of a great idea--buy Johnny some goodies!  I sent out a message to the MND folks and received a RESOUNDING response.  We pooled our money together and bought him some goodies!  We gave it to him as a birthday present SLASH "Thank you for making us all dinner on a weekly basis."

We shared our pits and peaks.  We even voted on pit of the week and peak of the week.  Buddy won pit... Eshe won peak--and it came with a dance!

Tuesday - Last day of SCHOOL!  Well, before the Thanksgiving break.  Met up Buddy, Johnny and Kristi at Billy's for a much-needed pitcher and FRITO PIE!  I had to meat-load before heading over to Caleigh's where we had a VEGGIE Thanksgiving!  I had Tofurkey for the first time!  It was great!  I met some great people too!  In attendance were Caleigh, myself, Jeff, Will, Esther, Kelcey, Joel, and... Jared?  We played 5 rounds of Catchphrase in which the girls won (holla!) and then many MANY Mariokart N64 rounds.  It was great.  I hadn't played it in so long!

Then I got a text from a really sad and lonely Jake.  Tiffany wasn't home that night and he wanted a movie night.  He said I would get free reign of Netflix.  Clue it was!

Wednesday - Watched Luke while Lisa and Mike were at work.  This consisted of cartoons and lots of dancing.  Butt dancing to be exact.  If you don't know what I'm talking about then you definitely missed out this Thanksgiving.  Eventually we drove home to Houston.  We left around 6.  Got there around 10.  So for the record, it took 4 hours.  I always forget if the drive was long or not.  Now I'll remember (if I remember to check this post).

Thursday - Early morning drive through fog to take Austin to play football with the guys.  I spent most of my time lamenting the fact that my iPhone cracked after just a ONE FOOT FALL.  Poop.  Then I played with Colin and Ashlynn (am I spelling their names correctly at all?)

Family arrived pretty close to on-time.  Yummy yummy food ensued.  We ate a lot, talked a lot, picked Christmas names (I got Bella & Lina!), footballed a lot, and napped a lot.  Then Amanda, Amber, Austin, and I went to go see Pitch Perfect.  1. I love Anna Kendrick and always have since she became my favorite character/actress in Twilight.  2. It's singing so duh I'd love it.  3.  I could live without the vom, though.

Later that night, after more football and more food, Steven picked me up around 11:15 for some midnight shopping.  It took a little while to convince me to go, but when he said he was going alone to pick out work clothes, I HAD to go!  Also, I've never done a late-night Black Friday thing before.  We made a pit stop at Whataburger (cause what is a Mel-Steven hangout without a random stop at a random fast food joint?) and spent about an hour and a half at Baybrook.  It was pretty crowded, though not insane like I imagined.  (I mean, people DIE on Black Friday, yo!)  There was a very exhausted woman sitting around a mountain of giant shopping bags... wish I snapped a photo of her.

Friday - I went to go fix my phone.  It was a short and pleasant experience.

Then I went to Target.  Another pleasant experience.  A little pricey, but I do have lots of new DVDs for viewing.

That night we went to Kim Son and then Anh Vien's place (with a trip to Anthro of course) and spent most of the night eating.  And drinking.  And eating.  And eating.  And singing.  Oh and Chi Thu showed us "SongPop" which I'm officially addicted to.  So annoying.

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to mention how Chi La got caught hiding in the car.  Classic.

Saturday - Woke up and picked up Scott Saunders at Hobby.  We caught up and had lunch together at Black Walnut Cafe.  It was delightful.  Who doesn't love seeing Scott Saunders?

Then in the mood for seeing more Singers (and finding out that my siblings were all too busy for me this Saturday, haha) I called up Sarah Bowers (Robinson, oops!) to see what she was up to.  We ended up heading to Baybrook where we both bought clothes we didn't need but wanted.  Ehh, c'est la vie!  I also bought the world's most ridiculous iPhone case (and ironically too).

I'm trying to remember what all we did that night, but I think it consisted only of Psych.  I watched a lot of Psych and hung out with the nieces and nephews.  We were also cooked a smorgasbord of yummy foods and it was awesome.  Luke and his family hung out with us too.  He mostly played with Aaron, though he would occasionally donned us with his presence (and butt dance).

Sunday - More Psych and eventually drove home (we left around 1:30... I kept getting sucked into more episodes of Psych).  The drive home was on par with regular drives home, by the way future Mel.  :)

Overall, GREAT Thanksgiving :)  I'm positive there are things I'm forgetting to say, but oh well.

Dinner #16 - MY BIRTHDAY DINNER!

4/2 - It was the day before my birthday and I had a feeling something was up.  Johnny hadn't yet sent out his weekly message telling us of his details for dinner.  I hadn't thought about it too much because I was still riding on my high from school.  It was a great day!  I was also focusing on my back-to-gym routine (which, thanks to it being my birthday week, I only had ONE day of, but that's okay!)

Long story short, I had a feeling, and I was bold enough to ask Thomas about my suspicions.  Which means I must've been REALLY feeling it, or else I wouldn't have bothered to ask.  I said, "Umm... we're not having crawfish tonight, are we?"  Thomas gave me a look and said, "No.  It's even BETTER!"  But I literally could NOT think of what else could be better (except for maybe... no.  I still can't think of what could be better), so I just nodded and said, "Okay."  I didn't want to make THEM feel bad for NOT getting crawfish (if that was, in fact, the truth).

I was told to sequester myself in my bedroom until they came back with food.  (Another reason I had a feeling it had to be crawfish, because Johnny generally cooks the food, so why would he need to go get it so late?  AND THEN cook it?  Nah...)

I'm finally allowed to come downstairs and sure enough, my best friends were there, with vats and vats of crawfish.  Danielle had even bought me flowers :)

This is a BEAUTIFUL sight.  BEAUTIFUL!

We all sat around and had some yummy, juicy crawfish!  Well... almost all of us.  To make this dinner even more awesome, you need to know that Johnny bought it.  Johnny bought ALL 18 LBS!  It was about $9/lb!  Yes, $9!  And he bought 18!!!!  And the kicker?  HE CAN'T EAT CRAWFISH.  Basically, he'll die.  He used to eat it with us... but I think he'd die a little each time and it's finally sunken in to him that he's deathly allergic (well, mostly).  So to make up for it, Thomas bought Johnny a steak, which he seemed to enjoy while we ate our crawfish.  This is the true mark of a best friend.  If I ever doubted (which... I haven't)... this was proof!

BUT THE SURPRISES DIDN'T STOP THERE!

While we were sitting out in our screened in patio, I heard some voices that sounded vaguely familiar... Buddy, Johnny, and Thomas looked ESPECIALLY excited, so I knew whoever it was, it had to be good.  I literally felt my heart pounding faster and faster until...

ORO AND LAURA WALKED THROUGH OUR DOOR!  Oro, our friend (who some of us may or may not believe that he may or may not be in a secret sector of the FBI) who went for "training" (see?  FBI) in Georgia back in September was finally back!  Laura, his sweet girlfriend, was with him and it was AWESOME!  :)  I was so glad they got to come join us for our dinners!  I think one of my favorite things about them being there that night (minus the gossip that was inevitable) was that Oro kept saying, "You guys are like Friends!"  Apparently the Joey/Chandler/Monica/Rachel roommate friends thing was always awesome to him.  We had officially made him jealous by achieving this.  Anyway, so the full roll call for the night was:

- Me
- Thomas
- Johnny
- Danielle
- Amy
- Maggie
- Buddy
- JJ
- Justin
- Oro
- Laura

No, unlike the other nights, we did NOT end the night with a movie.  Instead we ended it with a bundt birthday cake by Maggie!  It had alcohol in it... and by that I mean every bite was like a mini chocolate cake shot.  Which was awesome.  :)

I truly truly truly truly TRULY have some of the BEST FRIENDS anyone could ask for, and I was so happy they wanted to spend not only this particular Monday night with me, but that we're the kind of friends that want to spend almost EVERY Monday night together :)

Dinner #15 - Despicable Me

3/26 - This was a very special Monday night dinner, as we had not one but TWO visitors!  Eshe & Nia!  Johnny made some more scrumptious grilled cheeses and we watched a kid movie.  Nia seemed to know Despicable me really well (and so did Eshe!)

It was great to get to see them both, as we've missed them since they moved to New York!  It was even extra special to see little Nia, because the poor girl's been really sick and was a week and a half shy of having some surgery done, so we all wanted to show her some love!  Those in attendance:

- me
- Thomas
- Johnny
- Buddy
- Maggie
- Luis
- Eshe
- Nia
- Justin
- Joey

I think that's it?  Anyway, it was a fun night.  Nia was adorable as ever and kept passing out our beds to us.  Yes, we still had our treasure chest up and out.  (Big props to what I assume was Danielle deciding all of that needed to be put away!)

Oh it should also be noted that the weekend before this, we went DT with Eshe.  It was me, Eshe, Kristi, Thomas, Johnny, and Buddy.  It was like the good ol' days, only, Spill was closed and our hearts were broken.  We did however get awesome pictures of Eshe, but because I do, in fact, love her, I will spare her the public humiliation.  :)

Oh and here's one more pic of Nia... holding up her bacon in the back of my car.  Not too many combinations beat that!

Dinner #14 - The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia

Tonight we had chicken spaghetti, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.  It was fabulous--Johnny never fails to disappoint!  We had one week off of our dinners, as Spring Break had begun and we had just hosted the Spring Formal.  It was nice to be back into our routine.

- Mel
- Johnny
- Thomas
- Danielle
- Amy
- Maggie
- Buddy
- Justin
- Luis

Afterwards the group of LHSers filmed a congratulatory video to Sinae for her engagement!  It seems Houston's Fox News did a better job at it than we did!

Tour de Houston Engagement for Cycling Couple: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

Dinner #13 - Sixteen Candles

3/5 - Fish tacos and salad--yum!

- Me
- Johnny
- Thomas
- Danielle
- Amy
- Maggie
- Luis
- Justin

We mostly just chose Sixteen Candles because it has a dance in it, and we were still in the Spring Formal mood (since we had just decorated the house that weekend).  More on that later.

Leap Day 2012!

2/29 - It was a delightful day!  I actually didn't have to work at all that day (I suppose teachers want to come and work on leap day?) Anyway, I started the day getting some hours in at CPI to make some money that day since a girl's gotta get paid!  Then Thomas and I headed to Vintage Villas

We went for a walk at Lakeway City Park to kill sometime.  According to google maps, the Hurst Creek Arm that runs alongside the park is normally full and emerald green.  This, however, is what we saw:

Dry is the bottom of a wine bottle at one of our Monday Night Dinners

Then we went and had dinner at Hudson's on the Bend

The Chef's Amuse Bouche

Rattlesnake cake (yes, it freaked me out and Thomas ate most of it)

Crabcake (now THAT I can deal with)

Thomas's duck and scallops

My steak and lobster

Us wearing blue and yellow (thanks to 30 Rock) on Leap Day!

Oh and check out the magnificent sunset I caught (barely, no thanks to Thomas's indecision in parking spots):

Dinner #12 - The Help

2/27 - We had yummy beef and broccoli, salad, and... rice.  Danielle was our savior with her instant rice that night seeing as how SOMEBODY forgot to make the rice (and that same SOMEBODY gave a toast on his impending suicide due to his forgetfullness).  Regardless, it was a great dinner--maybe too great, we ate it up super fast!

After dinner, we topped it off with some delicious ice cream supplied by the lovely Miss Maggie.  While we enjoyed our dessert, Johnny gave us a powerpoint presentation he had prepared on ideas for our upcoming "Spring Formal."  It's pretty legit, y'all!

As for the movie, we had planned on watching whichever movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Of course... that was The Artist, and as much as I do plan on seeing it someday... a silent film would not fare well in our household.  So we went with the nominee we felt WOULD fare well in our household:  The Help.  Come on... any movie that talks about shit in a pie has got to be a good one for my crowd, right?  Speaking of crowd, those in attendance were:

- Me
- Johnny
- Thomas
- Danielle
- Amy
- Maggie
- Luis
- Justin

I love to hate Bryce Dallas Howard.  She's SO GOOD at being despicable.

Dinner #11 - Better Luck Tomorrow

2/20 - Johnny had a hankering for some spring rolls (of the grilled chicken variety) so that meant we'd have to find a movie to along with it.  He went with "Better Luck Tomorrow" which was a movie about your typical Asian high school overacheivers trying to not be as mediocre as their academic status makes them seem.  So they spend their time doing petty crime... and drugs... and hookers.  You know, that kind of thing that all of us did in high school (is it not cool to do the "NOT!" thing?)

Anyway, this was our first sit-down dinner in a long time.  Ever since it go cold (before the new year), we've just been sitting around the living room eating whilst watching a movie or chatting.  It's been too cold to sit outside in our patio, which is really the most pleasant way to have dinner.  Last night was the perfect weather!

It was some of the folks' first time making the spring rolls, which always adds to the entertainment factor of dinner.  I thoroughly enjoyed Danielle's commentary on everyone's spring rolls and whether or not they were satisfactory or not.  LC blazed through to eat her first spring roll while I was still explaining why we wet the paper :)  Anyway, those in attendance:

- Me
- Johnny
- Thomas
- Danielle
- Amy
- Maggie
- LC
- Luis
- Justin

Most stayed for the movie (or most of the movie).  It was more graphic than I remembered it when I watched it in high school, but it made me just as uncomfortable and uneasy.

I do still love me some John Cho (aka Chau from Off Centre/Sulu from the new Star Trek/Harold as in Kumar)

However, probably the best thing that came of this night was the creation of Spring Formal.  We will be hosting a Spring Formal in March.  It's going to be Under the Sea themed... and off the chain :)

Dinner #10 - The Bodyguard

We're a bunch of choir geeks, so naturally, we have to do something in honor of Whitney, right?  It was a close call between Waiting to Exhale and The Bodyguard, but... since the guys were around, The Bodyguard won over.

Johnny made his own variation of chicken and waffles.  We had chicken tenders and french toast!  It was de-lic-ious!  I mean, it was REALLY REALLY REALLY GOOD!  Those in attendance:

- Me
- Thomas
- Johnny
- Danielle
- Amy
- Luis
- LC
- Buddy
- Justin

Such a dramatic scene to use as the cover

The movie was a lot more racy than I remember.  By that I mean they dropped maybe 5 f-bombs.  They referred to sexual acts that I did not recall ever hearing about.  There was also some interesting twists that had me, Luis and Justin going, "Whaaaaaa?"  Not a twist like M. Night, just a twist like "Really? This is being used as a device?"

It was a late night for movies, mostly because we were too busy youtube-ing good ol' classics.

We also attempted to switch the movie to Cinderella (with Moesha, I mean Brandy), but Johnny couldn't find a good site he could stream it from without buffering every 2 seconds.  Coincidentally, when I finally got into bed (and naturally turned on my tv) that movie was playing on BET :)

Dinner #9 - Teen Witch

2/6 - We had a Witch's Brew to go along with our Teen Witch movie.  This idea really came from the dinner night the week before.  Somehow the clip of Kenneth from 30 Rock came up from when he sang a portion of Top That:

So Johnny made us a Witch's Brew aka Beef Stew.  It was his first beef stew and I think it went over well!  There were 8 of us in attendance this week and... the vat of stew was empty by the time we were done with it :)  The attendees:

- Me
- Johnny
- Danielle
- Amy
- Buddy
- Maggie
- Luis
- Justin

I remembered watching this movie (no doubt on the Disney Channel) in the past, but I didn't recall the gems of scenes that went along with it.  Here are just a few that I was able to find online:

This is what ALL girls do in the gym

This is EXACTLY what it's like to teach

Dinner #8 - A Goofy Movie

1/30 - Johnny had a hankering to watch A Goofy Movie.  He went out and bought an HDMI cable to connect his computer to the tv.  He made some yummy scrumptious grilled cheese sandwiches (gourmet yo, just like how I assume that one place Chedd's must be like!)  We also had some yummy tomato soup to accompany that.  Those in attendance:

- Me

- Thomas

- Johnny

- Danielle

- Amy

- LC (and Sophie)

- Buddy

- Justin

LC knew ALL the words to EVERYTHING

Dinner #7 - Baby Mama

1/9 - I know the date of the movie and what we ate.  We ate some linguine with mushroom cream sauce.  Asparagus and I'm pretty sure some bread.  I know this was the week that our neighbor Jessie joined us, but none of us can remember what we watched.  As a placeholder, I am putting this here... hopefully someone at some point will remember :)


Update:

YAY SOMEONE REMEMBERED!

Yes, this is what we watched :)

I know the roommates were all here and our neighbor Jessie came.  Did anyone else come?

Dinner #6 - The Devil Wears Prada

12/5 - Johnny's birthday!  :)  We had a potluck...  I don't remember much of dinner, but here's what I do remember.  Lasagna, salad, asparagus, green beans (?), those little snow people Hannah made?  I'm possibly mixing up my dinners...?

- Me
- Thomas
- Johnny
- Danielle
- Amy
- Hannah
- Maggie
- Luis
...?

Of course, since it was Johnny's birthday, we had to watch his favorite movie:

Dinner #5 - Love Actually

11/28 - We hadn't been able to have dinner the last couple of weeks thanks to Johnny's rehearsals for the parent/faculty choir.  So finally we decided to have one and I was going to help cook.  Really... I just wanted stuffing.  So for dinner we had...

- Stuffing, Salad & Corn... Johnny came home with rotisserie chicken.  I can't remember exactly EVERYONE that came, so forgive me if I forget to include you... :)

- Me
- Thomas
- Johnny
- Danielle
- Amy
- LC
- JJ
- Hannah
- Luis?

Am I missing anyone?

<3

Dinner #3 & #4 - Easy A and Harold and Kumar

11/2 & 11/7 - I can't remember what happened on what days.  Herb roasted chicken and...?  Another day was Spring rolls...?

I swear I'll do a better job starting NOW.

Dinner #2 - Bridesmaids

Dinner --Beef and broccoli with rice, prob salad.

Movie - Bridesmaids

Attendees:

- Johnny
- Me
- Thomas
- Maggie
- Buddy
- LC
- Dawson
- Danielle?

Dinner #1 - Paranormal Activity 2

10/17 - Not long after the gang and I graduated, we started Monday Night Dinners (it was something like "People Who Like To Eat Dinner Together On Monday Nights").  It ended after life got serious again.  But Johnny, after having the horrible mizlife that these past couple months have been decided to start it again.

Johnny cooked us some... linguine in mushroom sauce, salad, bread, with a little birthday cake.

Then we watched some Paranormal Activity 2, but not before I spilled wine and broke a glass... yay!

Attendees?  Let's see if I can remember...

- Johnny
- Me
- Thomas
- Danielle
- LC
- Buddy
- Hannah
- Luis
- JJ?

The weeks are blurring together, I can't remember who came which night, haha

P.S. A bunch of us went later on that week to go see Paranormal Activity 3.  3 in a row with LC.  It was awesome.  Lots of hand holding and lots of scream/giggles.  Loved it.

Dinner #1

Penne Pasta w/ pork sausage: Fairly easy to make. I think this was the first time that cutting up onions was such a bitch. I also cut half an onion, which is probably the most I've ever cut at a time. I normally just cut at most maybe a fourth. Anyway, it was pretty easy to make... I think it tasted alright. I wasn't in love, but I didn't hate it. I didn't think it was gross either. It was good. Just not something I'll make constantly.

Roasted asparagus with lemon vinaigrette : FUCKING AWESOME. :) Lisa and Mike make really good roasted asparagus, and I effing love it... so I figured I'd try it tonight. The lemon vinaigrette was also good, and pretty easy to make. I was supposed to drizzle the vinaigrette over the asparagus, but I liked it so much by itself (just tossed in olive oil with kosher salt and pepper--a liberal amount as instructed) that Johnny and I just dipped it. Johnny said he liked the vinaigrette.

Cheesy garlic bread: Meh. I wanted to get real garlic bread from the bakery at HEB, but couldn't find it and didn't care enough to scour for it. So, I just used what we had in the freezer (my favorite garlic bread anyway), put some mozzarella on it, and seasoning. I think it was alright, but nothing crazy awesome. Next time I think I'll try to make it from scratch and have garlic slices it... cause one guy that caters at work sometimes (Randy refers to him as "Chef Jeff") made it that way and it was delish.

Anyway, overall, I think it was fairly good--for a first attempt at a completely new dinner. I'm thinking one a week? We'll see though. My bank account is mad at me. Why does cheap food have to be so unhealthy for you?