Thanksgiving, 2018, Visiting Medway!

Saturday, 17-Nov-2018 through Tuesday, 27-Nov-2018

 

For Thanksgiving, Sarah and I have been cycling through a three-year plan. We alternate between Thanksgiving in Medway, Thanksgiving with Sarah’s family, and Friendsgiving with our friends. Last year was the lovely-yet-chaotic friendsgiving, where we hosted people at our house and had the kitchen piping explode, so we were quite excited for this years Thanksgiving in Medway.

Obviously, ten days is way too much to put into a single blog post… but failing to write this down would be horribly remiss of me, because I absolutely want to remember it in the future.

As a trade, I’ve created the rough sketch below, to give history an idea of what adventures went down, and will be letting the attached photos stand mostly for themselves:

 

Saturday, 17-Nov

• Our flight to Medway. We dropped Ollie off at camp in the morning, and then spent the rest of the day before our flight relaxing and finalizing our packed bags. We didn’t arrive in Boston until nearly midnight, but thankfully my Mom and Steve were stoically waiting for us.

 

Sunday, 18-Nov

• Morning was simply relaxing, decompressing, and catching up. We had a lovely breakfast at home, sipped coffee, and chatted and hunt out. I think we did a quick walk, even.
• Evening was dinner with the East Coast Lydeckers! Sarah’s Uncle and Aunt had just recently moved to Cambridge to be closer to their children & grandchildren; they’d actually moved right down the street from where I used to live, interestingly enough. Since they were close by, we drove into the city to meet and greet and all have an lovely evening of dinner and chatting.

 

Monday, 19-Nov

• Bolton Orchard and Nashoba Valley Winery! I mean, we did also have breakfast and such, but it was pretty simple and relaxing, so nothing really to speak about. The real fun was our trip searching for apple cider donuts and wine.
• We started at Bolton Orchards – an apple orchard in the town of Bolton that has an amazing general store. They have everything, but our goals were specifically to pick up various thanksgiving ingredients, and to eat donuts! Unfortunately, we arrived just 20 minutes too late for hot apple cider donuts; the donuts were still quite fresh, but they weren’t quite the same as “fresh off the machine”-fresh. Still, delicious.
• Next up was Nashoba winers, a really cool winery nestled in the nashoba valley that specializes in fruit wines. As such, it’s quite different than the wineries that we have in Oregon, and is a favorite or my Mom and Steve.

 

Tuesday, 20-Nov

Tuesday was our prep day – Hannah made it into Medway by the late morning, if I remember correctly, and then we all plotted out a menu and then headed to the grocery store to pick up the bits that we still needed. Mostly a restful day, with a little bit of high-octane planning thrown in for good measure.

 

Wednesday, 21-Nov

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving… I wonder what we could possibly have done…

Ohh right! A bajillion recipes, a flurry of kitchen adventure, and more than a little bit of hectic preparation. Also a few walks to escape said hectic preparation…

Wednesday, for all it’s energy, was a gloriously relaxing day. We had our timetable for cooking, and mostly stuck to it – when we weren’t in the kitchen, we were relaxing by the fire, reading a book, or just enjoying the peace and quiet.

 

Thursday, 22-Nov

Thanksgiving!

The most family day of the year here in the States, so obviously our first course of action was for Sarah and I to drive out and pick up my Grandma, and ferry her back to Medway for the main meal. It was lovely, as driving with her always is, getting to catch up and hear stories about how everyone in Brookhaven was doing. We chatted, heard family Thanksgiving stories (some old, some new, and all appreciated), and the drive went quickly.

Dinner itself was exactly what we’d expect it to be – a huge feast, where we devoured food for the first 15minutes, and then quickly slowed down to a more sane pace while talking and nibbling.

Afterward, we cleaned up, worked on the puzzle (because Eigner/Hutt/Price family Thanksgivings always have a puzzle), and the had dessert. Then Sarah and I spent a lovely drive bringing my Grandma back home.

One nice surprise was that Sarah and I were able to give her brother a call in the evening! Australia time and New England time synched up beautifully, so we were able to chat and catch up for a while, which was an excellent surprise, and a great way to end the evening.

 

Friday, 23-Nov

Slow breakfast, decompress after Thanksgiving

Wander around Medway a bit, then chat in the kitchen for ages

Drive into Boston, and climb a bit at Central Rock Gym in Watertown

Tatto Ramen with my friends (and Fitbit rivals) Dillon and Liz! Parking at the restaurant is a bear, but the food is amazing!

Back to their house, play Gubs, head back toward Medway

 

Saturday, 24-Nov

Meet Daniel, Erin, Brian, and their dad at Lincoln Woods to do some hiking and climbing

Get a little bit of bouldering, but mostly hike around. Though we do see a really cool / ridiculous group of people driving their tricked out RC cars around.

Lunch at Ollie’s Diner, yay Ollie!

Home for a little bit, then off to Molly’s Apothicary to make… Soap!

Make soap, tons of fun

Visit a bit, check out the shop, enjoy.

Chinese for dinner, then a chill night

 

Sunday, 25-Nov

Pack up cars, pick up Dunkin’ Donuts on the way, and drive to Aunt Tovah’s house!

Meet & greet, then head to the restaurant – grilled cheese & world famous chocolates… Yes. That is a very excellent lunch.

Hang out at the house, play with the goats, enjoy, then head home

Drive home, it’s a long drive. But we make it! Have leftovers… so many leftovers!

 

Monday, 26-Nov

Relaxed morning, take a walk down to Galantes for breakfast!

Help move some heavy stuff onto the curb, and go through the garage a little bit.

Go into Boston to see the MFA, Mom meets Kent & Toni, and we see the amazing exhibits: Winnie the Pooh, snack, model ships, propoganda, Singer Sargeant, landscapes

Drive home, Steve’s made an amazing salmon dinner!

Pack up, go through a bajillion old papers… man I had a lot of stuff

Relax and chill, chat and bed

 

Tuesday, 27-Nov

Up & at ’em, have a lovely breakfast and relax

Finish packing, and relax some more.

Head to Brookhaven, and have a lovely lunch

Drive to the airport and fly home :'(