A busy and long day

There wasn't a whole lot out of the ordinary yesterday, so consequently, there wasn't anything really to write about.

Today, however, was a different story...

Elise went to work this morning, and spent the entire day there. It was mostly about learning the hospital procedures, becoming familiar with things there, and such. The actual clinical practice begins on the 26th. Once those 80 hours are completed, and additional paperwork gets passed around, Elise will really be able to work.

Because I would need to carry some things over to the church later in the day, I drove Elise to the hospital in the morning. She walked back home in the evening.

Yesterday, the children started making gingerbread cookie creations from scratch. Today, they continued their project. Shelley made a house, complete with a front porch, thought one side of the roof seems to keep sliding off. Amy made a christmas tree from multiple star-shaped pieces stacked on top of another. Our kitchen has been absolutely chaotic since yesterday.

I did some cleaning about the church this morning, and also worked on the church bulletin for a while. Gerry stopped by to improve the cosmetics of the roof leak in the church. The leak had caused some of the plaster and paint in the ceiling to start peeling and it just didn't look very good. So the piece hanging down was taken off and new plaster spread. It isn't quite as noticeable now.

I came back home and packed up ingredients and equipment for making a triple recipe of latkes, both the regular kind and an herb kind. I was originally planning a quadruple recipe, but after peeling (with a mediocre peeler), grating (with a food processor), washing and soaking (repeat multiple times to get rid of as much starch as possible) 10# of potatoes (which filled all three large bowls that I found), I decided enough was enough. I didn't want to, nor have room, for 3 more pounds.

Once that part was done, I started with the first bowl to further rinse and wash the potatoes, then wring dry a handful of potatoes at a time in a kitchen towel. After that add all the other ingredients. Heat up oil for deep-frying, form the potatoes into little patties, and fry. And then while the frying is going on, prepare the next bowl of potatoes in like manner.

After 3-1/2 hours, half the batch was fried and done. I went back home for supper, then with Elise in tow (to decorate the church), I finished frying the remaining half. When it was all done, I smelled like hot oil, and so did the church. I aired out the building for a while, and hopefully most of it will dissipate over the next 1-1/2 days. That was one of the main reasons for getting all this ready early.

I don't know how many people will show up. I think it will be more than the usual crowd. I think it would be great to see the building full, but there's a bit of trepidation when I think about that actually happening. We won't have to wait too much longer to see how things go.