Hours of hard work, and here are the mouth-watering results: scrumptious!
Did we mention that the Hanlons are great cooks? Well, if not we should have, and they are! We had not a moment’s hesitation when they invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner in 2005. Above is one of the plates we were served, and below the table before the ravenous hordes were released.
You can feel the amount of effort on the part of our hosts that went into this one meal. And this was far from the only meal we shared with the Hanlons at their place.
Annie always put a lot of effort into making a special dinner special. Here’s her table before the guests were seated.
Finally to capture the feast, some of the serving bowls lined up on the kitchen counter, waiting for the rest to be ready.
Annie and Russ had renovated their home over the preceding years: the contractor’s work had almost literally taken that long. They had moved out for six months, maybe nine, when the major work was being done, and then returned, I think in 2005.
It was an amazing renovation, turning about 1800 square feet into about 3100, a modest home into an equipped (but still human) mansion, and all a couple of hundred yards from the beach! This Thanksgiving was an opportunity to show off their new home. You can glimpse the charm of their renovations in some of these pictures.
Food and decor are obviously key to Thanksgiving dinner. But people count too! We had almost the entire family (Tom was with his maternal grandparents), and the Hanlons had other friends of theirs.
Brendan, Alex and Charlie, more or less in their Sunday best for Thanksgiving, and clearly raring to go, back upstairs to their video games!
Brendan, Alex and Charlie as yet appreciate the food aspect of such gatherings a little less, and the look on Charlie’s face probably reflects being forced to sit with us at the table. Boring! Brendan has a LOT of INTERESTING things to do at his house!
If you check out the photo above carefully, you can see the portion enlarged below. It is the mirror in the buffet, below the hutch, in the upper left part of the upper photo. Alban, Daphné and Nick were opposite the little guys, watching them as the photo was taken. A full frontal photo of the three of them can be found here.
The admiring older siblings, caught unawares in the mirror.
There’s a great shot of the five women at dinner here, and a cute one of Nick and Alex here.
Russ in his apron fooling around with his mom in the recently expanded kitchen.
But pride of place here must go to the hard-working chef, on the right with his mom, visiting from Florida for Thanksgiving. That’s another thing that the Hanlons are known for, by the way, an appreciation of fine wine!
Thanks Russ! Thanks Annie! As ever at your place, a great time, a great meal!