One Weekend in November.

This past weekend was a mad scramble of social activities before we all disbanded for the holidays. Second years finish up school obligations today (Wednesday) and will be free until classes start up again on January 3rd...isn't that insane? January 3rd? 6 weeks of winter break? Heavenly! Many are taking advantage of programs through Tuck, but we'll get to that in another post. As a preview, this is what someone's facebook status looked like this morning: Hanover->Memphis->Jordan->Egypt->Israel->London->Brazil->Argentina->Uruguay->Hanover! Best 6-week winter break ever!

....Back to our weekend....

Friday:

I started the evening by throwing together a batch of cookies for later in the weekend. Mmmmm...no better way to start off a weekend than warm cookies coming out of the oven. 

Around 7pm, we headed over to a huge school sponsored Diwali party and filled up on some delicious Indian food (a rarity in this area) that was brought in from southern New Hampshire. Students performed Bollywood-style dancing, professors provided some Indian standup comedy, and an LNDP (late night dance party) commenced soon after. 

Around 11pm, we moved to a smaller venue for a NERF blaster war (self-started) and other fun times.

Fun mix of first and second years at Kellie's chateau.

Our first year friends will be in school for another couple of weeks after Thanksgiving.

We managed to drag ourselves home and into bed way later than originally intended.

Saturday:

I woke up early to pick up my CSA farm share with Laura.

There are three of us splitting a winter veggie farm share which makes getting through the large batches of perishable goods much more manageable. For info on the CSA I did last year, click here.

I attended a brewery lunch and award ceremony with my hockey team.

Got home in time to whip up a green bean casserole and finish frosting these cookies:

Black and White cookies.

Then we set out on a hike to a cabin for Gourmet Friendsgiving.

Deep fried turkey and all dishes made by everyone in this photo:

(this is where green bean casserole had to travel to...have you tried balancing a hot pan of green beans during a 20+minute hike through really, really, really pitch black woods? i have.)

After dinner, we hiked back out and drove the black and white cookies over to a second dinner with 15 other people for Sarah's birthday (super new york girl, hence the new yorkiest cookies I could drum up):

Birthday. Video. Taking. Fail.

Post birthday dinner, we moved to a friend's house to play some pong before dragging ourselves back home and to bed super late.

Sunday:

Jamie started his 1.5 hour drive north to Burlington, Vermont, to hop a 1.5 hour flight south to JFK. He had a 24 hour trip to Manhattan to take care of and I'm super jealous that he got to hit up the original Shake Shack (east coast's substitute for in-n-out) for dinner. In the meantime....

I had brunch with my Tuck Sustains friends at the Farmer's Diner, followed with a hike down the Quechee Gorge (this diner was discussed in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle starting on page 148). 

My new friend, Alvin. 

(who really should pay me every time I don't sing the Chipmunk song around him)

Quechee Gorge.

For what it looked like just after Hurricane Irene, click here. 

Post-hike, I came for email catch-up, a few loads of laundry, another hike through some woods with the dog, and a quick shower before heading out the door again.

My first Upper Valley theater experience = success!

Followed by a terrific ladies dinner back in Hanover.

I was home by 11pm, Jamie had safely arrived in his NYC hotel room, so we did a quick good night phone call then hit our respective hays. What a weekend, right?