Step One: Ham is a success!

Well, Gina and I are hosting both families tomorrow for Thanksgiving. As such, we needed mucho food. So I went shopping today and bought all the stuff, then came home and thawed and cooked the 8-lb. ham I bought. Of course, I've "cheated" and bought an Oven-Ready Hormel ham, as well as a Jennie-O Oven-Ready Turkey. But, you can't beat "buy the ham, get the turkey free" so I couldn't resist. The ham, also, as most hams are, was precooked--so it just needed to be heated so I could slice it (which, the meat fell off the bone and came apart unbelievably easy anyway) and put it into a Pyrex container to be reheated and served tomorrow.

Suffice to say, it smells wonderful around here.

This, also, will probably be our last Thanksgiving in the condo. With the upcoming year holding the possibility of a starting a family, we've decided it's time to say "adios" to this place and make the jump into house-ownership. Boy, I bet that "starting a family" line scares many of you. ;)

Anyway, we've already been looking at homes, going to open houses and checking them out to get an idea. Of course, I want a historic Chicago brick bungalow, and I've sold Gina on the idea. We've seen some really shitty ones, where no amount of money could really be put into them to rightfully save them, and we've seen a couple that we'd have put an offer down on the spot if we were on the market. But we're not.

After the holidays pass, we'll put some serious work into getting this place ready to sell, hoping to get it out of our hands no later than March (though that's a REALLY hopeful estimation, and probably not necessarily likely). But we'll see.

At any rate, it's a long winter...and after the holidays, we'll definitely have this to keep us busy. More updates as warranted...there are other possibilities lurking, to be "reported" on later.

But for now, Happy Thanksgiving!