Jim Kofron Photography

It's been a while since I've put any new content up. Sorry for that, but life is just getting in the way, and I haven't been taking a whole bunch of photos (although Grace has).

Thanksgiving was a very nice celebration. All the kids were here, and we got to enjoy the Packers making it 11–0 against the Detroit Lions. The turkey was super-delicious this year. I did it in a molasses and honey brine overnight. After taking it out and blotting the excess brine out, I then placed about a cup of softened butter whipped with lemon zest under the skin before doing it in the convection oven at 300. I went to pick up Max while it was cooking, and when I got back the skin looked to be close to burning, but Jen had tented it with some aluminum foil. It cooked for another hour or so until it was up to temperature. The dripping out of that roasting pan make the best gravy in the world (no need to add salt!), and the meat was perfect—flavorful, moist, delicious. Everyone said it was the best turkey that they had ever had. I think back to the first one I made with Jen when we had her folks visiting us in Verona about 25 years ago—I've definitely gotten better (and I still apologize for that one, Dick and Chris!). Topped the dinner off with about 50 lbs of mashed potatoes, butternut squash, cranberry sauce and stuffing. No green bean casserole this year. Grace made an awesome apple pie for dessert, so the pumpkin cheesecake that I had bought for a fundraiser had to wait for Black Friday breakfast.

This weekend we're starting to get the whelping box ready for puppies (mid-December), and I'm busy practicing new music for church. For those non-Catholics out there, our mass is changing substantially (the biggest changes since Vatican II 40 years ago). The musical parts of the mass are changing (some substantially), and the spoken parts as well (although the priests have to deal with most of these changes). So I get to learn a new mass with some new wording. And practice for cantoring at Vespers tomorrow, which I haven't done in a number of years. And work on learning Bogoroditsye Dyevo for Christmas—my Russian is slightly non-existent! But in all seriousness, it's terrific to have the opportunities to learn new things—especially when it comes to the expression of faith.

I'll try to drag the camera out sometime soon...