Thanksgiving on the farm

This year we spent Thanksgiving with friends.  Emily had talked about this holiday gathering so fondly that I felt pretty awesome when an invite was extended to us :)  So we packed up on Wednesday and headed to eastern Wisconsin to spend it on the farm.

We stopped in Madison first for an amazing philly cheesesteak sammie on the recommendation of a friend of ours.  Then we went to this AMAZING little cheese shopped called Fromagination (even the name is incredible).  What an absolutely divine little place, full of all sorts of foodie goodies!

I settled on a few varieties of cheeses and wild boar sausages to take to our gracious hosts for snacking that evening, as we knew we'd have a lovely, huge meal the next day.  Emily and Will arrived a little bit later than us, and he was a bit cranky ager his bath, but I was thrilled that he remembered Joacim!

On turkey day morning, we headed out with everyone to investigate all that is awesome about this little farm.

Will and Izzy had lots of fun throwing snow at Newton, who never seemed to tire of it.

We found some sleds and headed over to the other side of the farm to do a little sledding.

Pearl....nearly getting run over by two little people on a sled.

Pearl....the ever-vigilant watchdog

And then Emily decided to take poor Lucy on a sled ride.  I think you can see by the expression on Lucy's face that she wasn't nearly as thrilled with this idea as Em was :)

After all the fun outside, we headed back in and got to work on the dinner.   Emily is usually pretty much in charge of the turkey, and we divvied out a few other dishes, but she did a lot of the work.  Here she is with her sexy onion goggles.  She'll probably kill me for posting this, but it's too good to pass up.

Everyone else was pretty relaxed.....fire in the fireplace, dogs passed out

Izzy and Will entertained themselves by playing and coloring

Look at this BEEEEEE-UTIFUL bird!  It was so delicious!

....as was everything else.  I contributed a wild-rice stuffing to the occasion.

It was such a lovely evening, with (mostly) great company and amazing food.  Unfortunately, I did something a teeny bit stupid in that I apparently ran over a board with a nail sticking up when I parked the car the on Wednesday.  There was a fresh layer of snow, and we arrived after dark, so there was no real way of seeing it, but that didn't really matter because the tire was completely flat.  So, Joacim spent Friday morning getting a new tire on the Volvo.  While he did that, Izzy and Will continued to do their silly little things, silly faces included.

We were able to get a new tire relatively quickly/easily (thank goodness for black Friday shopping!), and decided to head back home that Friday.  We'd had a great time, but were also anxious to spend a couple days at home too.  I can honestly say that this farm is one of the most relaxing places I've ever been, and I'm REALLY hoping for another invitation to Thanksgiving next year!

Thresheree (picture-heavy post :)

I'm so embarassingly far behind on this blog.  Life just....well....it just slips away lately.  I've just been slacking on all accounts, but I'll catch up eventually.  This past October, Izzy and Joacim took a trip to Sweden.  I wasn't able to go as I had a 2-day meeting for work that I had to go to in The Dells.  After my meeting, I headed a little farther east to meet a friend of Emily's that I'd heard so much about.  All I knew was that she lived in the country on a farm with alpaca's, and that we'd get along really well, and Emily was 100% correct!  I had a fabulous time!!!!

This lovely girl is Lola.   She's a Portuguese Water Dog (and the only reason I remember that is because the President has the same breed :) and she's adorable...so calm.

Here's Lucy....Em's puppy

The best part about this weekend was getting breakfast made for me (well, and to be honest, lunch, dinner, breakfast and coffee again :)

Mr. Will was REALLY enjoying whip cream

This dog is named Newton.  I've no idea of the breed..I just know he's a herding dog, with a STRONG herding instinct.  What I loved most about Newty is that he looked like Rosie, with longer ears.

And I can't forget the alpaca's!

The boys and girls are separated, and I'm getting inspected by the boys here

I think this alpaca's name is Plum....she's the newest baby

Their property is just heavenly...this is TOTALLY  a place that I'd want to own/live.

Will enjoyed hanging out on this enormous pumpkin.

And this beauty is Pearl.  Again, the breed escapes me, but she is BIG!  Sweet as can be, but she's a worker....she seemed to enjoy nothing more than sitting in the grass, surveying her property and letting everyone know to "stay off" :)  She has a loud, scary bark, but I found out it's all talk :)  She's a sweetie!

They live in a historic park, and on this particular weekend was an event called "Thresheree".  Essentially, it's a "pioneer days" sort of thing" revolving around a mill.

There were LOTS of old engines, with lots of people trying to get them started

and random grinders

and a weird sense of humor could be found occasionally

This is the main engine...it's actually a wood-fired steam engine, and I'd hear the sound of the steam release throughout the weekend

I heart this kid :)

This is a threshing machine, that was used to separate the grains after harvest

This was our "pu pu platter" after our walk.  I've decided that I could eat like this every day :)

Newty wasn't allowed in the living room, and was obedient (although unhappy :)

The day that I left, we headed to the barn to visit Em's horse

It was such a fantastic weekend.  It's such a relaxing place, and a GREAT family!  Stimulating conversation, great food, great friends, and DOGS!  I'm in HEAVEN!!!