More On Christmas & Semi Formal Woes!

I posted a few more Christmas pics to the FHH Christmas 07 album. We took a pic of the turkey I cooked to prove we didn't starve to death on Christmas ;) Most of the newer pics are off Shawn's phone, so there's a different perspective going on... which mostly means there are some of me... blech.

The turkey turned out well... twas tender, juicy and tasty. That said, it still wasn't as good as my Mommy makes, but maybe with practice mine will be passable. I also made garlic mashed potatoes, just for something a bit different... they were yummy. I also made a large batch of gravy so there'd be enough to serve with leftovers. I saved the pan drippings from the beef tenderloin (didn't make gravy that night because I made those cheaty baked potatoes with cheese) I just added water to the beef drippings, cooked everything off the pan, just like I was going to make gravy and then just didn't thicken it. After it cooled I poured the au jus into a measuring cup and saved it for the turkey gravy. It made it extra tasty and added some good brownness.

I didn't make anything else, no veggies, no dessert. We had large salads at lunch time and Jess isn't a big dessert eater and I knew Shawn and I would pig out on meat and potatoes. Besides, the more dishes you make, the more leftovers there are and with only 3 of us, we didn't want to be eating leftovers for months :)

Last night around 9pm, we left the house and headed into Ottawa. The whole point of our trip was to drive past parliament and see the 300,000 lights they've put up. So we did that and they are pretty nice. Our tentative plan is to go back down later this week when Kyle arrives, they have a center block open house, where you can wander through and see all the Christmas decorations and then go up the Peace tower and see the outside lights and view of the area.

While we were down that way, we crossed into Quebec (always an adventure) to see the Chateau Cartier . The reason we wanted to see where that was, is on Jan 12, Shawn's work is having a semi formal event with dinner there, as their belated Christmas celebration.

Now, were you reading carefully? SEMI FORMAL... did you get that? Ugh... yes, semi formal. Now those words mean different things to different people. Depending on your age group and stuff, that might just mean "not jeans".... but after asking around, Shawn found out it means suits for the men (tuxes are over kill, but maybe some of the company's founders might wear them) and DRESSES for the women. And not just a dress... a semi formal dress. I suppose its an occasion where owning a little black dress would be useful.

Shawn and I have been joking between ourselves and him with some coworkers that semi formal in Dunrobin means clean coveralls and you knock the shit off yer boots. (Formal, you'd put on new clean boots). Actually, originally, before I found out it was semi formal, I thought perhaps I'd wear my new jeans, the ones I bought and have been kinda saving, not wearing and abusing day to day. Guess they won't be quite right.

I also have a nice pair of black dress pants, paired with a nice blouse that had a sheen to it or something would likely *do* but apparently pants on women at these events are very rare. Me being me, I would rather not be over or under dressed, I really would rather not be noticed at all!!

I already own a nice pair of black mule heels I can wear... but now, I have to go... *gulp* DRESS SHOPPING. Oh Lord, kill me now. I'm going to attempt to find something to wear while Jess is still here and Shawn is off work so I can have as many people as possible laughing at me during the experience... I mean as many opinions as possible ;)

I've already been looking at dresses online and found a few I think would be appropriate, but their stock is iffy... never mind buying a dress online and the fitting issue.

This one is my first choice, the price is awesome, but also because of the price, their stock is pretty much gone.


My second choice is this one, but I'm afraid it might be TOO formal, given the length etc and the price is a little more than I'd like to pay. They still have some reasonable sizes available though.

Actually, I really like the igigi.com website, they have lots of helpful information, like "find your shape" and then for each dress, they say which shapes it looks best on.

My plan is to go shopping locally... then if that fails, take a chance and buy something online. We'll see how that works out.

The other big dilemma is accessories... like is it ok to wear my denim ball cap with those or do I need to break out my nice John Deere one?? ;)