We ventured out this morning to Foods of All Nations to procure the fixings for the Boy Wonder's Chinese Feast. He keeps correcting me to say "Ancient Chinese Feast", which prompts me to joke about actual Thousand Year-Old Eggs. He never laughs.

Ahem. Anyway, we've got the dumpling wrappers, the hoisin sauce, the green tea and adzuki bean ice creams and other sundry necessities. The menu as it stands now includes dumplings, rice, stir-fried vegetables, "bbq" chicken legs and the ice creams. I offered to buy a box of fortune cookies, but he declined by admonishing me, "Mom, they're not really Chinese, you know. Fortune cookies are from from somewhere else. I don't know where. Not China, though!" I'm so proud. He's already got his own set of child-sized chopsticks, festooned with Power Rangers, so we're all set, aside from one strategic phone call designed to finalize the guest list.

I'm starting a new project in a couple weeks which brings my run of high-pressure holiday seasons to four. I know that many companies leave stuff until the end of the year because it's all just too much to deal with, bringing in outside people and overseeing them and all the explaining you have to do. And then there's all the stuff that consultants want one to do - analyze this, present that, report on the other. So the needs go unfilled because it's easier that way until the end of the fiscal year comes and someone say, "Crap! We need to spend that money. You know, to do that thing. Better call someone."

As always, I'm grateful for the work and pleased to have a good reputation. Really, it's awesome to know people who advocate for me joining their teams - for however short a time - and really invest in me and value what I can bring to them. I'm not a strategic-type consultant who sits around and thinks big thoughts, I'm more of a tactical kind of girl - the kind who can, you know, get stuff done. My end of the consulting world is by far the less glamourous and so when the phone rings it's a big day. For some reason, December has proven to be my busy season. The work will get done - of that I have no doubt - and my personal life will remain un-neglected, I insist upon that. Come January, I'm going to be shredded.

Who knew? December is my busy season. Wal-Mart, the Post Office, parking lot tree salesmen, and me.

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I am most exceedingly happy to report that we seem to have some progress on what will now be termed Thing 1. Nothing's definite yet but we're at about 87% and rising so with some luck we'll be able to put that one to bed and get moving on whatever will bubble to the surface and become Thing 2. There are a few candidates at this point, but I certainly have a favorite.

I've got Thanksgiving on my mind today. My in-laws have announced that they are coming so now that I've got Company-with-a-capital-C coming I'm switching the plans up a bit. I don't have quite the involved thought process that Julia has expressed, but in my own special way I'm a little...let's just say "consumed". There will be turkey, of course, and my own cranberry chutney (I don't care how much that commercial jelly stuff is liked, I simply won't allow it). I'm branching out from my usual pierogies and going with actual mashed potatoes this time, likely with roasted garlic or wasabi or something, and some kind of sausage and sourdough stuffing (without prunes or apples because I don't like them and without nuts because Brainiac doesn't like them). Veggies are green bean casserole (Brainiac's choice), braised carrots with olives (my choice), a relish dish, and possibly something else - a green salad, maybe (out of season here, and my reluctant concession to tradition). Oh, and some kind of rolls - probably bought. Dessert will be a chocolate cheese cake and pumpkin ice cream pie. Coffee and tea to finish, quite possibly liberally augmented by scotch, brandy or Frangelico, depending upon how dinner itself went.

I'm planning another meal for the time of my in-law's visit, one that needs to be handled a little sneakily. The Boy Wonder goes through these crazes, as many kids do, where he wants to talk all about, say, Ancient Egypt. We check out tons of books, watch videos, do activities, all kinds of things and then one day he announces that the time of Ancient Egypt is coming to a close and he wants to have a "feast" to celebrate. So I found online a few recipes somewhat approximating stuff that we could pass off as typical of the Ancient Egyptian table, served them with yogurt, honey, nuts and apples and there you have it, one Egyptian feast.

So lately we've been all about China - I think this was brought on by that new panda cub in Washington. We've determined our horoscopes (he's a dragon, the rest of us are monkeys), made lanterns, read all kind of folk tales and are now fully versed in the history of Shi Huangdi and those terracotta soldiers. And it is time for a Chinese feast. Now, a reasonable kid might allow us to head out to the nearest buffet place and be done with it, but the Boy Wonder requires that we head out to Foods of All Nations and purchase the provisions to make the meal at home. Luckily I already have a wok - he's already inspected it and found it satisfactory.

O.K., so the challenge comes in that my in-laws aren't really adventurous eaters, nor do they feel any call to fake it for the Boy. The Boy really, really wants to share this experience with his grandparents and his grandparents are equally determined to avoid it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to snow all parties and 1) promise the in-laws that the Chinese Feast will go on, with the addition of Lipton rice and meatloaf and 2) somehow convince the Boy that Lipton Rice and meatloaf were not unknown accompanyments to rice balls and crispy noodles with duck. Alternately, perhaps I can persuade them to come to dinner and sit with us, nibbling at the plain rice and then go out somewhere later. This is actually stressing me out more than Thanksgiving. Go figure.

Oh, internet lovelies...anyone see a solution that I'm missing? Something that avoids five-year-old meltdown and encourages grandparental attendance?

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