Dinner With Friends

[Grandma Anne, Ethan, Lauren and Diego]


Last night we had dinner with colleagues and friends at home. My mom and I prepared food. Mom cooked honey glazed (mini) Cornish hens, while I made my sweet pork roast. We had mashed potatoes with mashed sweet potatoes. Our freshly tossed salad had mangoes, avocado, Gala apples, tossed greens, cherry tomatoes, and shredded carrots. For dessert, mom made her famous apple crumble with Bryers double-churned, extra creamy, vanilla ice cream. :-D


Emil was first to arrive. This is also his last year at Duke. Emil is in his final half year of internal medicine residency and is going to continue his training sub-specializing in adult hem/onc (cancer) at Sloan Kettering in NYC.

Krishelle came over next, coming straight from work and still in her scrubs. She brought with her a lot of drinks and desserts when we explicitly said 'no need to bring anything'. :-D Oh well. That's Krishelle for ya. And we did kinda think alike with the drinks - I had bought sparkling apple cider, and she, sparkling pear and peach. So good times. And reminiscent more of Thanksgiving, Krishelle's dessert options included Ede's pumpkin ice cream as well as sweet potato pie. Yum! (oh and we ate this for breakfast this morning too) :-p

The Ramers graced us with a visit too. They had just finished Christmas dinner, and decided to drop by and it was a lot of fun to have them hang out with us. Lauren's mom, Anne, was also in town, and was quick to snatch up Ethan (as grandmas do of course). Diego was in his holiday best festive attire in his bright red knit sweater (matching mom, Lauren). The fam had to rush off to their church for Christmas service at 8pm. Ethan had been a bit fussy during this time, and Diego was in no hurry to leave for church as he was quite concerned for his friend, Ethan. But with a bit of love and tenderness, they were off, and imparted some joy and smiles to our evening.



Natalie and Davar arrived with their new bundle of joy - baby girl, Emily! This had been the much anticipated meeting between Emily and Ethan. Dressed in a very festive red dress with white fur trim, Emily was the star of the night. Her big, beautiful eyes and huge lashes just captivated everyone. Such a cutie. I think Emily looks more like her daddy, Davar, although in some pictures, she really takes on mom's features.



A la Grey's Anatomy, Natalie, our "world renowned ophtho doctor" (eye doctor) - because everyone on this show is "world renowned and super achieved in their field of medicine" - brought two dishes: (1) eggplant parmesan and (2) vegetarian lasagna. Actually, our very own Natalie is consitently voted one of America's "Best Doctors" and is a leader in the field of Corneal transplant surgery and laser eye surgery. Many friends have had their eyes done through Natalie :-D

As expected, we took a ton of pictures of the noomies, Emily and Ethan. Girl and Boy. Pink and Blue. Yup, we had a field day with this one. And there are so many similarities with both of them: (1) both were born 5 weeks premature of their expected due date, (2) both weighed exactly 5 lbs at birth, (3) both have names that start with 'E' :-D

Rabi, a colleague of Kelly's and Krishelle's also dropped by for a few minutes. Rabi was very good with Ethan! And in fact, almost all of the pictures I took of him with Ethan are fantastic (but I should only really post a couple!). Rabi is an a tour of the country it seems, for the holidays, since he has stops in DC (Washington), New Jersey, Pittsburg, is that is (?) ... I may have forgotten just all the places he is going to visit in the next few days. Rabi is a pediatrician, and is also on his final home stretch of residency. Originally from Syria, Rabi takes his training next to Seattle (U of Washington, or U-dub) where he will commence a fellowship in pediatric hem/onc (cancer) - like Emil, but babies instead of adults. Good luck! And now, Christmas day, it is pouring, and so I hope your road travels are not too difficult or there aren't too many delays.


So many dinners... tonight we are going to Fariba and Payam's home for dinner. Dinner is for Glen and Isik, two dear friends who are leaving the Triangle and moving to Turkey (where Isik is from) in a few days for a couple of years. It was Glen's birthday yesterday (12/24) - HAPPY BIRTHDAY GLEN - and I heard they had a marathon showing of The Lord of The Rings the past few days at their home. You guys will be so missed!!! Ahhhh! Love you! :-D I'm going to bring my laptop with me tonight, so that I can burn CDs for you guys of pictures of some of the things we did over the past three years or so. (not to mention I have promised Fariba wedding pictures for some months now!)

And Tuesday night another dinner, this time at Natalie, Davar and Emily's home. And Wednesday, Thursday... what timing for Adeline, all these fantastic dinner dates.