Hop-Scotch Across the Atlantic

It has been a whirl wind month for us with trips back and forth across the Atlantic. I flew to DC for work for a few days and was lucky to be able to spend some time in Clarendon catching up with friends. Tear. Tear. Then the following week it was on a plane to MN. Lou was in Galway for a week, Dallas and MN for two and then back to Galway for another week.

So while we have no European adventures to report of late (stay-tuned December is jam-packed), we have had a great time seeing old friends, visiting family and exploring Dublin. I flew into Minneapolis and headed up north with Jamie and her boyfriend and was surprised to find Linsey had flown in from Palo Alto for the weekend. We celebrated my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary and took it easy, eating, sitting in front of the fireplace and catching up. Then, my mom and I went to Minneapolis for a night to visit new babies in the family and do drive-by house hunting.

Lou and I have decided that instead of dealing with the upkeep of a dog when we move back to MN next summer, we are going to live close enough to Meaghan and Ryan so that we can just borrow Bella when we want to go for a walk.

Lou joined me in Minneapolis for the weekend and we had nice family feast at Alissa and Jeremy's house. We threw a few steaks on the grill (brrr.....why do Minnesotan's love to grill even in the winter?) and Jeremy made a nice little coq au vin. It was Lou's grandparent's anniversary so they came over to celebrate along with David, Lisa and Jake, and Anne and Doug. It was great to see all of them as it had been over a year.

We both had to return to Ireland just a few days shy of Thanksgiving. Last year, we were distraught to find out that marshmellows, turkey and pumpkin pie are hard to come by in Dublin. Thanksgiving just wasn't the same without eating yourself into a food coma. So this year we swore we were not going to make the same mistake, talking to our families via long distance and drooling at the thought of football and leftovers. So I filled a suitcase with Thanksgiving goods from Trader Joe's, we special ordered a turkey and cooked a feast with our American friends Katie and Rob, and Katie and Pierre.

Lou carved the bird.

The gang.