Holiday Travels - NY

The second half of our trip was spent in NY with my family.  There was a long list of people to visit, but we managed to see everyone.

Our first visit was with two ladies I worked with while I was on rotation in Syracuse.  They both have 4 month old babies now.  So we had lunch with them and their babies which was a lot of fun.  They are cute as buttons and have very different personalities.  As the mom's tell us, they are already bff's, they just aren't aware of it yet.

The next stop was up to see my Aunt.  We picked up my dad and headed north for a short visit.  We played our wedding slide show DVD for her since she was unable to attend the wedding.  She thought it was lovely.  A few random cousins came in and said hi since they were working out in the barn.  I always consider those bonus visits since you never know who's going to be at the house.

We had a big fancy polish dinner with my parents and Joyce's dad that night before opening presents.  I finally got to deliver the quilt I had been working on since November of last year.  To be fair, there was about a 10 month break in there after Christmas last year.  Something about getting married and moving that put things on hold for a little while.

Joyce and the complete quilt

As always dad's wrapping jobs are never missed.

3 different kinds of paper to wrap a sweater

And we completed the evening with a family photo.  This tripod thing is really coming in handy!

Chet, Joyce, Sarah, Rob, Larry

Afterward we headed back to my sisters house where we were allowed a lazy day on Thursday.  We spent the whole day at the house with my sister and Wayne and my brother Dave and Audrey came over in the afternoon for a bread lesson.  My older brother always makes grandma's bread for Christmas.  It's become somewhat of a tradition that I show up after they have had real dinner and then I eat a turkey sandwich on grandma's bread.  Something about it is just phenomenal.  So on that day, we made bread and used it for turkey sandwiches.  Delicious!!

The process of learning how to make grandma's bread was quite interesting.  Measuring was not an exact science and there were a lot of Gramisms to learn along the way.  For instance, use your hands to clean your work surface to prevent your sponges from getting really gross.  Neat trick. 

Stirring ingredients together

Until there's too much in the bowl and my brother takes over

Me kneading bread

"Spanking" the bread to get the air pockets out

Finished product

My loaf, a little lumpy on the top, but still yummy on the inside

No complaints from this peanut gallery

 After dinner we played our slide show for this crowd and got another group photo.  I think this will be the year of the group photos.  Thanks free tripod!

John, Audrey, Wayne, Sam, Rob, and myself