Our Christmas tree - Amaranta. We picked her up from the regular place that pops up every year by the subway station on Driggs. And, like most years, we again misjudged the size of the tree when we bought it. Trees just look so much smaller when they're outside, stacked against other much larger trees! We got her home and set her up and took off the netting and she just kept expanding...and expanding...and EXPANDING. When all was said and done she blocked half of the tv and half of the doorway into the 2nd bedroom. But whatever - more tree to love!
My friend's son sent me a flat Stanley as part of a school project so I had to take some pictures of him in front of typical New York scenes. This is at the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, overlooking winter market at central park. Mike and I went to go see the "Red Hot Holiday Stomp" at Jazz at Lincoln Center and of course, I took no pictures except for one of Stanley. Typical!
Tiffany's 30th birthday party! And where is Tiffany? Off somewhere scavengering! She had a pirate-themed scavenger hunt for her birthday party, and the crowd split up into 4 or 5 teams. This was my team - Team Blue Pirates - pictured here at Barcade. I don't remember why we were at Barcade. Something we were looking for was there, but I don't remember what it was.
Ah, this one I do remember - Union Pool. We got points for getting kisses from strangers. Which, is surprisingly easy to accomplish, as Joe Show discovered.
Fran, taking care not to abuse her power over the young males in attendance.
Joe, trying very hard to abuse his power over the young females in attendance.
Chris, trying to get in on the action with his...err...secret friend....
And yes, Guinness was on our list of items to finds. Here Mike was nice enough to take one for the team.
Joe, still cleaning house in the strange kiss department. At this point just for the fun of it.
Meeks!
A photo booth picture was also required, which prompted Adriana and I to take a picture in the photo booth. Of course, once we did that it occurred to us that we could have easily just USED the photo booth instead. So, we did that too.
Fran, getting smooched.
We had to find an anchor too, which proved to be surprisingly easy since our friend Bravo happened to be working at Union Pool that night.
Fran the Pirate Princess, keepin' it real, much to the entertainment of the kitchen crew at Viva El Toro.
Meeks, slaying the mechanical bull. After about 30 seconds he fell off and proceeded to get gored by the bull. It was pretty amazing, to be honest. You know, what with the bull being mechanical and attached to the floor by a post and all.
Getting a sweet neck tatt at the Levy.
Fran, relying on the kindness of strangers to mutilate her pristine forearm with a lick-on tattoo.
This one I still don't understand. We ended up at Mulhollands, with a long line of pink plastic cord. Someone said we were supposed to run it through our clothes, and once it was threaded through we had to share a Guinness. Well, I don't know if that is what we were supposed to do, but that's what we ended up doing.
Joe and Meeks, sharing a special pink bond.
Fran, risking rope burns to bring us closer to glory.
Meeks, risking future generations of Slagles to do the same.
Another beautiful bird from Turkana Farms! Its was either a Narragensett or a Bourbon Red (hard to tell without the feathers on, but the ones I did find were black). You may notice that the bird has a large breastbone and long gangly legs, something not usually seen on your standard Butterball. This is because the birds from Turkana are heritage breed and raised without hormones, and thus take longer to reach their full weight. They also run and fly outside, which gives them a leaner look in comparison to their factory-farmed brethren. We had a smaller crowd this year so of naturally we ended up getting a bigger bird!
Francesca, enjoying the house wine...
Fran, Tim, and Steve all showed up wearing slightly different variations of the same shirt. I think this means that maybe we have all been spending way too much time together.
Mike, making a MONSTER batch of mushroom gravy. He added some red wine to it which resulted in a robust, almost beefy flavor - this despite it being completely vegetarian.
Carving up the bird with the fillet knife Mike bought up near Indian Lake a few years ago. Its not the best for filleting a walleye, but it worked wonders on the turkey!
