Our Weekend

We went about our lives on Friday, working and getting ready for a nice weekend during the holiday season. I made a delicious soup and fun grilled cheese croutons and shared the recipe with you. All was well and life was normal and we were still blissfully oblivious to the tragedy that had unfolded that morning in a Connecticut school. But slowly the news started creeping in and we learned about what happened. We spent Friday evening sadly watching the news.

An overlook across the Hudson River, where we always stop.

On Saturday we headed out for a drive upstate that is usually a Thanksgiving weekend tradition. We'd had to postpone it this year because we'd both been down with flu that weekend. And so we headed out on a nice, clear day. This drive is steeped in romantic tradition for us and we had the Christmas music playing in the car, as we always do and we held hands, as we always do. But we also talked about the tragedy. Trying to understand, trying to make sense of it and maybe holding hands a little tighter.

We woke late on Sunday to cold, rainy weather and so we stayed home. Brian read the paper and I headed into the kitchen to make some comfort foods. I roasted beets, pickled them and served them with herbed goat cheese and candied walnuts. It's one of our favorite salads. I took note of my large stock of canned pumpkin puree and baked a pumpkin crumb cake. I made my first batch of heavenly tasting smoked gouda mac and cheese and I will share that recipe with you soon.

And then we got back into bed with our bowls of comforting mac and cheese and watched the continuing news coverage on CNN. The rain was pounding on the window sills and, at some point, we fell asleep in each others arms. I woke up from the nap about an hour later, with Brian's arms wrapped tightly around me and our pup asleep on his chest. I felt loved and safe and so very grateful.

And so we ended the weekend by watching more news and still trying to make sense of what happened. As President Obama said when he was speaking at the vigil in CT, we lost 20 beautiful children and 6 wonderful adults. And our thoughts are with their families. May they find some comfort and peace, somehow.