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I’ve been so thrilled about freezing meals in preparation for lil’ Alice and the first few weeks of her life, during which (I’m told) I won’t want to cook. At all. And I believe it! I think I’ll be too busy figuring out how to feed my brand-spanking new baby to think much about how to feed myself, so I wanted options in stock, ready to go, that just needed to be defrosted and reheated.

Plus, as I’ve mentioned before, there’s that whole childhood fantasy I’ve always had (based on the “Little House” books) of stocking the home with food in preparation for the winter. So even though I didn’t slaughter a pig or string onions along the rafters like Laura Ingalls Wilder did, over the past weeks I’ve built up a reserve of Split Pea Soup, Chicken Marsala, Italian Beef and Peppers, Indian Curry and French lentils, all stacked in freezer bags, labeled and dated.

And then on Saturday (glory of glories) I pretty much doubled what was in there thanks to . . .

. . . Julie and Annie!

They came over around 3pm with large bags of groceries. The idea was that each of us would choose a freezer-friendly recipe and provide enough ingredients to make one giganto batch of it. Annie made chicken and sweet potato burritos . . .

. . . 30 of them.

I made egg rolls . . .

. . . 65 of them.

Julie manned two huge pots of chili.

There was chopping, there was wine, there was good conversation with these two sweet girls, there was music, there were wasabi-coated peas, there was frying and assembly-line burrito wrapping and egg roll-rolling. There was cast iron cookware all over the place, a brief moment in which Julie’s oven mitt was on fire, a short struggle with the Kitchen Aid attachments which ended in a rollicking cheese-grating success, and so much snacking along the way that by the end of the experience, I was stuffed.

We cooked for about 4 hours, and around 7:30 split the results. We each ended up taking home 9 meals for two.

It was fun!

It made my back hurt.

It made my heart happy.

It made my freezer full.

Thank you, ladies, for spending your afternoon/evening with me! It was lovely and we absolutely must do it again, whether or not there are babies imminently arriving.

Here are the nicely stacked bags, with the two new Ziplocs of chili added to the mix:

And the burritos and egg rolls live in the bin at the bottom of the freezer:

Our apartment smelled like egg rolls for the next 48 hours . . .

. . . but my man didn’t seem to mind one bit.

He’s already looking forward to eating those egg rolls, I can tell you that much. Hurry up Alice! We can’t eat ’em until you get here!

I am long overdue in sharing about my weekend in Wisconsin with my sister Erica.

In part, because my extended family is so larger than life that it seems no words of mine could convey what it’s like to gather with them.

The wonder, the chaos, the ridiculousness, the fun.

The love, the generosity, the intensity.

So I’ve decided to take the pressure off myself and just share some of the fun images, and let you draw the conclusions that you will draw! It’s been well over a month now, and letting these images sit any longer would be a crime.

I absolutely must start with this picture of Big Jake.

What a grandfather. If my calculations are correct, he should be turning 90 this year.

He and Mama Kitty are the most interestingly eccentric people ever. For a fun tour of their chaotic, crazy, hidden-treasure-filled home, I refer you back to this post from last Christmas. Which (as you may recall) propelled me into a purging frenzy the moment I got home. Thank you, mannequins in the living room, for planting that Seed of Purging that ultimately made my house a better place to be.

Anyway, we love ’em.

The grandparents, that is . . . the mannequins we merely tolerate.

I also have to state that I love my cousins.

Cousin talk is the best!

Especially when it happens on a blow-up mattress in a nicely air-conditioned space.

And this is Aurora, with whom I spent a summer at 11 years old playing Barbies (who were alternately ice skaters in the Olympics, hard core campers in makeshift teepees, or maidens of the forest by the creek).

Aurora now has 4 precious kiddos of her own.

With a 5th on the way!

When did we grow up???

Aurora also represents my connection to the Slattery family, an amazing, large, multi-talented farming family which includes the lovely Kate and the beautiful Mary (two of Aurora’s sisters-in-law):

I have been following the blog these sisters co-write ever since they started it, and it’s one of my favorites. Kate is about to have another little one to join Olympia, and WOW does she carry that baby (both the baby in the womb as well as her toddler) with elegance!

Of course, as a dancer and harpist and also someone who is over 6 feet tall but rocks heels with a vengeance, I expected no less from her.

The party was for all the pregnant women–me, Aurora, Kate, and Rachel–as well as two of Aurora’s girls who had birthdays that week–and it was also a goodbye party for Erica, who is moving to Arizona. It may have been a party for more people too . . .

. . . but I forget. My family’s philosophy is: why do a party for one person when you can do a party for six or seven instead?

Why indeed.

The more the merrier!

The more chaos reigns, the more my family seems to thrive.

The ability to blossom and thrive in chaos was somehow not genetically passed on to yours truly, so I took many, many naps while there.

And no, you may not ask why the living room is plastered, coated, and indeed almost completely hidden by Christmas stuff.

But you may ask who this cutie is!

His name is Jason, and he was taking a walk with his grandpa, my Uncle Tom.

Anyway folks, I leave you with pictures of me and the pile of presents. Thanks to everyone for the lovely, lovely gifts, which I am working on unpacking into Alice’s room right now!

(by the way, that blanket I’m unwrapping is a GORGEOUS quilt handmade by my sister Erica, seamstress extraordinaire and previously dubbed Nimblefingers the Great)