Monaloca

This year Thanksgiving had a few twists and last-minute turns. We’d planned to celebrate with my parents in San Jose, but a week earlier jointly decided it would make more sense to gather in Berkeley. My parents were winding down their 2-week-long babysitting stint for the Ham kids while Stacie and German adopted Zoe from China. And we Rapozas wanted to travel to Roseville the day after Thanksgiving to meet our newest family member. Thanksgiving in Berkeley meant less prep stress for Mom, and less travel stress for us.

It also meant our first chance to host turkey dinner in our “new” house. We’d hosted a handful of times at our Alcatraz pad with it’s modern convection oven, and had successfully roasted two chickens at once in our newly-acquired 1940’s Wedgewood oven, but had yet to put our kitchen centerpiece to the 13-pound turkey test. Hosting also allowed us to invited the Schultzes to join us and my parents for a relaxing afternoon of food, festivities, and plenty to drink.

On Friday we hopped in the van and headed up to Roseville to meet 17-month-old Zoe and welcome her to the extended family. She had a cold and was still adjusting to a brand-new life with three brand-new siblings, but enjoyed waving and saying “hi” over and over, and watching the other kids indulge in plenty of good ole’ cousin playtime. We can’t wait to see her (and the whole Ham clan) again for Christmas next month!

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