What to do with a rotisserie chicken & other Saturday things

 I must use a chicken I picked up earlier this week, with grand plans & haven't done anything with yet. I'd love to make chicken noodle soup with some of it, so that might happen.

We have to be up early tomorrow to take Nick to the airport for his flight, so perhaps an easy prepped dish for tomorrow as well. Who knows, but I welcome ideas!

M & I did a 9 mile hike yesterday, and we are slowly building up our miles for our New Zealand hiking trip. Then we came home, made piles of all the things we need to bring, and tried the multiple backpacks we had ordered. Our goal was to keep the lightest/smallest backpack we could reasonably bring on a four night hiking trip. We did pretty well, managing to keep to the 36L backpacks, when the hiking company recommended 40L. The size difference felt pretty significant between the two, so we opted to pack lightly & stick with the 36Ls. We then returned 3 of the other packs we had ordered. I will return the rest to REI, who was closed yesterday for "Opt Outside" day. We fulfilled that goal for sure.

I will say that M & I have had so much fun with this trip. The prep, the training, the discussions of what to bring, it has already brought so much fun into our lives. We will absolutely be doing more active trips in the future, and are looking at a really fun option for Camino de Santiago or Iceland in the future. 

The teens both worked yesterday, and once again I heard a lot of giggling after I was in bed. (Nick has one friend who is such a giggler. I always know when she's over. ;-)) I woke up to a bit of aftermath from whatever they got up to last night - our pantry is looking almost bare again!

M & I had the last of the leftover steak, I had many Thanksgiving leftovers & he had soup to round out the last piece of shared steak. It was delicious. Mashed potatoes + stuffing + cranberry sauce is one of my top favorites. 

As for today:

• I needed a strength training class, but couldn't get off the wait list for the only one that worked for my schedule. I will likely do an easy walk instead today, maybe with some yoga at home.
• We are all going to a party at one of Nick's friend's parents houses. Their daughter also goes to Boulder, so Nick spends a lot of time with her. Her parents are both Persian, so M will get a lot of chances to practice his Farsi.
• I am hoping to roast some veggies & chicken sausage for lunches next week.
• Figure out a dinner menu & a plan for the rotisserie chicken
• Make sure all of Nick's clothes are washed & packed for tomorrow

I'm sure there's more, but that's all that I can think of for now.

What about you? What's on your list for today?