12.28.03 - 8:25 p.m.

Whew.

Five days, three Christmases and a few turnpikes later, we are home and must contend with a fragile, spiny tree and loads of laundry and foodstuffs. Ah, loving parents.

I received the much-anticipated and already-beloved All-Clad saucepan (four quarts!) and the nonstick skillet, to which I cooed, "Hello, baby" as I petted it. "Me?" said Dan absentmindedly from the living room. Also four cookbooks came from Dad (because cooking has apparently replaced frogs in Dad's memory as 'things Casey likes'), two springform pans from Moom and a two-quart souffle dish from Mom of Dan. So. Some meals are in order over the next few weeks.

However, the best meal this week is going to take place in my Crock-Pot, where I will prepare the traditional New Year good luck feast of turkey kielbasa (or kolbassi, as we say it in western PA) and sauerkraut. (Insert Homer Simpson gargling noise here.) It is almost too good to wait, and part of me wants to make it tonight in case we go to the shore on New Years' Eve. Or maybe tomorrow. Then it will be the 30th when I eat it, which is closer to the 31st, and thus I will maybe perhaps not offend whatever Polish/German/crazy Pennsylvanian good luck god I am supposed to be appeasing by eating this meal.

Oh, and now I have enough money to nearly cover my portion of the renters' insurance. Huzzah!