I have been officially ushered into adulthood: I hosted Thanksgiving dinner.

B had to work because he's the new guy at the laboratory, so he doesn't get holidays off yet. In fact, he works 8 days in a row. This also means he'll be working on Christmas. So since he had to work, we couldn't make it down to my family's house. And I didn't really want to go down there anyway because Thanksgiving sucked last year. They bought dinner from Albertson's and the turkey was dry and every side dish tasted like feet. Rumors were circulating around that my family was going to go to the local Indian Casino and partake of the Buffet. Going to an Indian Casino was just too depressing to contemplate, plus with B having to work... I convinced my family to join us for the day.

I cooked a 19 pound turkey in 2 hours. I swear. Cooking turkeys does not have to be an all day affair. My mom didn't believe me, but it happened. Vons is awesome. They had this little tri-fold brochure on how to cook a turkey in two hours and it was a success. It was a Butterball turkey, and it was delish: crispy skin, juicy meat... I also made mashed potatoes, green bean caserole, corn, two loaves of homemade bread (a la breadmaker), two kinds of gravy, and Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without sparkling apple juice. The night before I made double decker fudge with a layer of chocolate and a layer of peanut butter which was a hit.

It was great to have my family up. It's sad that they won't be joining us for Christmas, though. My mom doesn't want to leave her mom at Christmas, even though her brother will be there. Something about only a handful of years left or some crap like that. Yeah yeah yeah, I understand because I'd probably do that same. Although, I don't know how I would do the same since I'll never be pulled between my mom and my kid since I will not be having my own stupid children.

I already feel that our apartment is on the small side, especially since the layout kinda sucks (it has its pros and cons; two extra large closets: pro, the bedroom door that collides with the bathroom door that collides with the shower door: con, only having a shower: con, enough space to warrant our portable dishwasher: pro, the fact that we had to purchase our own portable dishwasher and have it take up precious space: con). But we love the perks of the building (extremely quiet, 24 hour access to the heated-rooftop-pool and fully equipped gym, central a/c) and we love the location (I no longer drive because I can get everywhere for a quarter and Brad's commute is 15 minutes in the morning and a half hour on the way home).

But the apartment is pretty small, but we have utilized the space well, especially with the new arrangement of the furniture. But it was a tight fit with three extra bodies in the apartment with me and Brad. Our apartment is not that conducive to people staying over as it was in the Valley. I sometimes wonder what it would be like to have a bigger place, or heck to own our own place (whether that place be a house, apartment or loft). I wonder how you furnish a bigger place. Because Brad and I live a rather minimal existence furniture-wise. Everything is really functional. How would we fill extra space? What is it like to have extra space? That's something we've never experienced.

Labels: apartment, cooking, entertaining, holiday

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