to be fair, we don't KNOW he wasn't a poodle herder.

so! thanksgiving! that happened. chris, near-saint that he is, came and spent 3.5 straight days with the full aliceblogs family, which is not a feat to be taken lightly. my sister and i even broke out the long-dormant tradition of me playing the sheet music to The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast while my sister... well, "performs" is really the only word for it. it's a captivating mélange of dance and interpretive song that truly needs to be witnessed first hand. my dad, alas, refused to reprise his part in the Gaston song, which was a shame. i suppose he was trying to retain some semblance of Fatherly Dignity in front of chris.

of course, most people come to my mom's house for the food, not for the musical numbers.

we started with the aliceblogs family traditional Truffled Quail Eggs (= deviled quail eggs using truffle butter, = YOU HAVE DIED AND GONE TO HEAVEN) along with caribou pâté picked up from our montreal trip. then of course a heritage turkey cooked to perfection by my mom, and then after this point i was too busy stuffing my face to remember to take any more photos, but i assure you it was all delicious.

after lots of quality time with the fam, we headed back to VA on saturday. on the drive back, we passed a car with vanity plates that read "PDL HRDR." i am incapable of not trying to decipher coded vanity plates, so i immediately started making guesses:

me: pedal hoarder! pedal herder? p...oodle? OOH! OOH! POODLE HERDER!!
chris: um, it's "pedal harder."
me: ...oh. hey, well done! how did you know?
chris: the bike on the car's roof was a hint....