Having the Viking Expeditionary Force from Sweden fulfilled one of my great dreams as the founder and manager of de-I Sandia Outfitters Albuquerque Resort and Penal Colony. Namely having an Entire Family at my beck and call! How Cool Is That! The Elders knew they had to get up early every morning and have my coffee prepared for me. The Youngers were sent into the kitchen to do all kinds of labor intensive food preparation. The Elders were commanded by Wife to replant an ENTIRE GROWN TREE. Finally the Norse Warriors had had enough and tried to escape, only to find that de-I had conspired with the Magical Unicorn Pony God of Travel to have their plane delayed. They had to remain another whole day and thoroughly clean the facility before we allowed them to finally go. Of course, I asked if they had had a good time despite having been put into virtual slavery and reminded them to put a good review up on Google. As 3.2 said, "No problem de-I, we Vikings are used to being slaves." These are the kind of guests that make running Sandia Outfitters worthwhile.
Okay...Now the Serious Part
It was totally lovely having family with us. I was really quite amazed at how well we all got along. Anytime you have family groups together for long periods it can be difficult. Different habits. Different patterns, But all-in-all, it worked out just fine. I think it helps that the house is large enough that everyone can have a place to be alone.
And we got to have family for the holiday. We even did our whole holiday festivities early to take advantage of everyone being here. The #3's were a huge help, doing all kinds of work helping set-up and take down Christmas decorations, helping us with things that needed to be done around the house.
Seriously 3.1 and 3.2 did major work in the kitchen. 3.1 did a ton of the work for the Christmas goodie making as 3.2 got sick and the adults all had other things that needed to be done that day.
Then there was the 'RAVIOLI EPISODE'. The one thing 3.1 and 3.2 said they wanted to try was making Ravioli from scratch. So that we did.
Viking Warriors Realizing the Reality of the Their Captivity
Making the sheets for filled requires more precision that regular homemade pasta
Not so good
Better
Seeking perfection despite harassment
Aftermath
They cooked up fine. We discovered that despite all the effort, there were not enough to feed everyone so we made additional pasta and sauced it with the filling material of which we had a lot leftover. The general consensus...they were okay, not great. Even though we rolled out the pasta sheets to the thinnest setting, the pasta still seemed to overpower the filling. And, as a number of us commented (me included), we don't actually like ravioli that much. An interesting experiment that will not be repeated.
Being gluttons for punishment, only days later we were at it again making Lasagna for our 'early Christmas' dinner. I totally stuck to my traditional recipe devised decades ago in the 70's.
It came out extremely good.
It was finally time to release the VEFS. We need them to be strong next year to continue the Re-reconquista.
3.2 giving me a goodbye squeeze, asking me to explain the Stockholm Syndrome as she is looking forward to returning.
And I look mournfully at the place where my coffee has been made for over 10 days and realize I am going to have to make my own.
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