I got there just after lunch. They had finished making all the sopresse and salami, and were working on the musetti (or Cotechino).

Chad was in charge of stuffing the meat cannon with musetto goodness (if you like boiled pig parts).

Darios Dad & Godfather are in charge of tying up the musetti. That is a very senior position in the hierarchy of Pig Processing.

On the table next to the musetto station the men were grinding up some pork that had been seasoned in preparation for sausage stuffing.

I don’t know if these boys are really working very hard.

This is why you never throw anything out, because long after the kids are grown you can still use their baby bath tub to bathe pork products.

Vintage Love

Gina got the exciting task of soaking and reconstituting the dried intestines for the sausages!

Sausage Delight!

I’ve missed the last couple of Pig Processing Days, but I’m glad I made it out to this one. Next year I need to go even earlier so I can catch the butchering of it all. Darios Mom posted a picture of the pigs hanging in their garage waiting to be sliced an diced and it got me so excited! I definitely want to venture into butchering next, learning all the different cuts of meat and how to carve them.

Such a great tradition that is slowly being pass on through the generations!

Sunday we made crostoli. We are a little early this year but our gracious hosts will be in Italy when the time comes to make them so we jumped the gun and got it done early.

Every year it gets a little more fun and little more crazy. White wine drinking, sugar pouring, deep fried, lard melting good times.

This year we decided that my Mom and Darios Mom should start a show call the Comares Kitchen (The Godmothers Kitchen) because the two of them together with a little wine and an Italian Man Servant is friggin priceless. And these days, every Tom, Dick and Harry has their own cooking show so why not these two!?

Tomorrow we are back again at the Perizzolo Compound for Sausage & Salami making. The men will be up early and get to spend the whole day with their hands in pig guts. And of course, I will be there to document the whole thing.

Yummm…fresh Italian sausages. I can’t wait!

So, I never really got into the Christmas spirit this year. Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky. Or maybe I need some kids to make it exciting again.

We started off the festivities on Friday night with Ryan and Elise. We’ve been meaning to get together for dinner at the Pear Tree (where Colin works) for some time now and when I saw a Groupon for dinner for 4 I snatched it right up! Elise is going away for 2 weeks to the Philippines with her school, and both of them have been so busy that we really haven’t seen them since Vegas. Friday was literally the only day we could do it, and despite Elise not feeling well we had an amazing meal. It was so nice to catch up!

Christmas Eve we had dinner with my Moms side of the family.

This should totally be our Christmas Card for next year.

After dinner we went back to my parents house to open pressies.

Christmas Day we got up early go to Mass. We went to a Church in Surrey since we had to be out that way anyways. Mass was a bit of a gong show. Chad and I are very traditional when it comes to the Churches we like. My Uncles Church is very tradition which is why we love it, but there is this kind of evangelical movement that a lot of Philippinos like, and since they make up a large part of the Catholic community in Vanoucver, some of the Churches have gone along with that style. Personally, Chad and I can’t stand it. Power point presentations, Boney M songs, synthesizers. It felt like we were at a Christmas Concert, not Christmas Mass. Sorry, I know, Chad and I are snobs.

After Mass we headed over to the In-Laws for the tradition Christmas Breakfast.

My first experience with having to stir natural peanut butter.

I am the unofficial gift giver outer so there was no time for pictures.

After breakfast we helped clean up. Then I played with the cat, desipte my allergies, and Chad worked on the computer. Then we took a nap and I watched TV.

Christmas Dinner was at the Heagles, Chads Moms side of the family. I was exhausted so I didn’t take my camera out.

Kitchen Stuff was the big theme this year. Apparently most of my requests were quite difficult to find. Sorry! I was very happy with everything I got though. Got some other goodies in the form of yoga clothes and Chad got me the pasta attachments for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer, which will be arriving in the New Year.

Boxing Day we got up early for our traditional shopping experience but I didn’t buy anything. We had lunch at Jim & Marisas which is tradition, and then dinner at the In-Laws with Chads Dads side of the family.

Boxing Day + 1 was busy again. Chad and I decided to go shopping. He pick up a wack load of clothes at 50% off, and I got my Le Creuset Utensil Crock. We came home and rested for a bit before heading out for dinner number 5. Boxing Day Dinner with the Rossis (Dads side of the family).

We covered all our bases and saw everyone we could ever be related to. I’m thankful for our big families and all our family dinners, but I do kind of wish Christmas could be a LITTLE more relaxing. At the same time, it’s only once a year!

Hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas!

We leave for Vegas tomorrow. Don’t bother trying to break into our apartment to steal stuff, everything is already in the storage locker, suckas.

We head over to the In-Laws after for  dinners and sleepytime. Since they live close to the border and we are flying out of Bellingham it makes sense to stay there over night and then get up early to drive down. Originally we were trying to get a flight out in the morning but while looking at the flights and discussing our plan of action the clock struck 9pm and the bastards at Allegiant Air upped the prices of the flights WHILE WE WERE LOOKING AT THEM TO BOOK. Not impress. So we decided to save a little money and booked the 1pm flight. That way we don’t have to get up SO early tomorrow morning and have more time to get drunk in the airport before we leave.

I have had no time to really look into anything or plan anything. Thankfully Elise sent me a link about things to do in Vegas. This is about the extent of my plans.

1. Check out the fountains at the Bellagio
2. See LOVE at the Mirage
3. Breakfast Buffet at the Wynn
4. Shark Reed Aquarium at Mandalay Bay
5. Ride the Coaster at New York New York
6. Check out the Eiffel Tower at Paris
7. Walk along the streets of Down Town

I do want to check out as many hotels as humanly possible and there is talk of maybe stopping by the Pawn Stars Pawn Shop. I’ll leave those plans up to Ryan.

I’m going into this trip with no plans and no expectations. OK, that’s kind of a lie, I do have a list of things I would like to see (as I just mentioned) but if we don’t get around to it, there is always next time. My only expectations are that we are going to have a lot of fun and we are going to come home exhausted. It is going to be awesome.

We are staying at Planet Hollywood in a Resort Room. Oh La La. I don’t even know what that means but apparently it is better then their cheapest room.

Shockingly the only thing I haven’t looked into is restaurants. I know, what is wrong with me? I think we will definitely play this by ear. Like I said, I haven’t had any time to do research so we will just see what is around and what is suggested to us.

You have 24 hours to give me some suggestions.

I really hope I come back with some amazing photos.

We went to Hazelmere Pumpkin Patch on Saturday. The weather was perfect and we found some very adorable pumpkins and gourds. Truth be told we were more excited about the mini gourds then we were about the pumpkins! I should have taken a picture of all our little goodies together. 3 baby pumpkins for us  and 5 funny little gourds. Emily got the white albino pumpkin and Jonas got a little orange one plus a bunch of gourds. We couldn’t get enough of the gourds.

$3 admission got us into the farm. There we played with the goats, took pictures, went on a hay ride, walked through the corn maze, and searched for our pumpkins. The small pumpkins cost us $3 each and the gourds were $.50 which wasn’t so bad. I hear pumpkin prices have gone up, but it’s been so long I can’t really remember.

It was the perfect day in every way. I felt like a kid again! I told Chad we now had to carry on this tradition every single year for the rest of our lives. You can tell how happy he is about it. Poor boo boos had a head ache and was a little cranky. Oh well, we had pumpkins to find!

I can’t wait to go back next year ;)