Thankful

Today is the last day of Thanksgiving break. It's been a soggy seven days with wind stripping away what leaves remained on sagging branches. Without the benefit of bushy shrubs to the east, our new neighbor's windows have full view of our bedrooms leaving us with very little, if any, privacy. On this Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for window treatments.

This year, both of my rascals helped make Thanksgiving dinner! Hurray! Together, we made the stuffing. It was such a thrill to have my girls working by my side cutting, chopping, squeezing, mixing, and stirring -- they really did a fantastic job. Alex practically made the cranberry sauce all by herself.

I had planned to tell you a story about why I put orange slices in the water pitcher, but considering how uneventful the story really is, I decided against it. Perhaps another time.

This year, Thanksgiving fell on Jon's birthday.

Every year we celebrate Jon's birthday, and his sister's birthday, on Thanksgiving because they both have November birthdays. But this year it was extra special and so I made a Chocolate Mocha Cake. You can find the recipe {here}. I also made the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting which you can find, {here}.

My sister-in-law brought homemade mini donuts sprinkled with all kinds of goodness. And to balance out the sweets, she made this amazing salad to go along with dinner.

Now. Let's talk turkey.

Each year I make the same thing. Roasted turkey breasts, corn bread stuffing, Bourbon yams, etc. etc. I have the menu down to a science -- it always comes out pretty well. Only this year, my meat thermometer failed me. It stayed stuck at 155 degrees and would not go beyond that. After we realized the thermometer wasn't working, Jon tested the turkey with his high-tech digital thermometer that he uses for grilling and discovered that the turkey was more than done -- it was overcooked. Blargh!

By this time, my guests were hungry. They ate the dry turkey smothered in gravy and didn't complain once. They were super sweet to me despite the mishap. I am so incredibly thankful for their unconditional love.

Happenings

What is happening!? What does this mean?!?

I've been trying to get the self-cleaning oven system going and instead I get this message! I've checked the owners manual and it doesn't say anything about what to do if  'E 1 -F5-' should appear on the digital display. Needless to say, my oven is not clean. My guests will arrive on Thanksgiving afternoon with the smell of burnt pizza in the air. Dang it!!

Then if that wasn't trouble enough, I found a sink hole in my cornbread.

Just to give you a little background, I've been dealing with sink hole issues at work. I know it sounds strange, but trust me, you do not want to deal with sink holes -- they're a nuisance I tell you. A nuisance. And then, when one appears at home in your baked goods, it's particularly alarming. I've never seen cornbread do this before, so lets hope my stuffing comes out okay.

The girls are home from school this week enjoying their time with each other, and the computer. I think they've been in their jammie-jams for the entire time.

While the girls busy themselves with computer games {all learning games I can assure you -- aside from Webkinz which they do enjoy from time to time} I'm searching through new and old Sunset Magazines and blogs for recipes.

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm off to clean my oven, tend to numerous sink holes, and peel several pounds of potatoes and yams.

Snow Days

The forecast? Possible snow in Seattle. Not a blizzard or anything like that, just a little dusting to change the scenery.

I do hope it snows because I love how snow has a way of calming the city -- the cacophony of city living is muted, replaced by cars softly crunching down the road. Listen carefully and you'll hear the neighbor shoveling a walkway -- it almost sounds like an ice skater's skate cutting into the ice just before leaping into a triple Lutz. 

All this talk of snow has me thinking about my girls playing in the snow when they were a wee bit younger. Here's a picture from 2007 of Sammy proudly displaying her snow creations.

This next image just melts my heart. This is Alex seeing snow for the very first time. She's actually watching Sammy make a snow family.

While I'm typing this post, Alex said, "Wow, how old were you back then? You're wearing the same bathrobe that you're wearing right now."  That Alex never misses anything.

Jon's been asking me what I want for Christmas so you better believe 'bathrobe' will be at the top of my list. How embarrassing. 

Here are more snow day images...





 

I just love this image of Sammy because it says, "I love it out here in the snow, but I'm cold and my face is frozen. How do I stop smiling?"

My kids have grown so much since these pictures were taken, and I can't believe it. Where did the time go? But the one thing that hasn't changed is... they still enjoy eating snow. I'm glad some things haven't changed.





P.U.

It's moments like these that make me want to put on a HazMat suit. Alex came down with a nasty stomach bug early Sunday morning. This is her second day home from kindergarten which means I've been working like a maniac to remain well washing my hands every few seconds and doing my overall best to stay clear of germs. You know that I'm normally very attentive to my sweet little patients here at the infirmary, but this time, I just can't take any chances getting sick.

In just a few days I plan to spend a weekend away at a beautiful home on a nearby island with ladies from book club. This will be my very first recreational trip away from my family. I've been away before on business, but that doesn't count because business trips are no fun.

This  morning Alex appears to be much healthier and is even eating a hard boiled egg while watching cartoons. I asked her very nicely to make sure to keep the hard boiled egg in her mouth and in the bowl because if it gets messy, our entire TV room will smell like P.U. {pinch my nose}. Alex gobbled down the egg, and guess what? She had hard boiled egg bits all over the place and now our TV room is for sure going to have a P.U. smell.

I already know how the rest of my day will play out. Jon will come home from work, notice the foul odor wafting up from downstairs, and then he'll say, "What's that awful smell?" And I'll say, "It's the P.U. smell from the hard boiled egg I let Alex eat in the TV room." Jon will then look at me like, "Why in the heck (only he'll probably not say, heck) did you let her eat P.U. eggs downstairs?!?" I'll probably get a little tongue-tied and won't have a response; only technically, just between me and you, I do have a response but I don't want to say it out loud so here it is in a whisper. I let her watch cartoons in the TV room while eating a P.U. hard boiled egg because I wanted her as far away from me as possible so I wouldn't catch her stomach virus germs. And that's the whole truth -- nothing but.

I so desperately want to travel to this island and discuss books, play board games, eat lasagna and drink wine. Did I mention that I want to drink wine? In  my mind, my bags are packed and I'm on that ferry heading to luxuriate in the peacefulness that awaits me. Alex really needs to get back to school tomorrow, and that's. alls. I'm. say'n. Plus, who wants to stick around here with that nasty P.U. smell anyways. HA!

A Day In The Park

Today we went to the park where the girls, along with their friends, spent most of the afternoon collecting leaves to form a large pillowy pile. I on the other hand, used this beautiful clear autumn afternoon to practice photography using my new... er rather old lenses.. that were given to me by my uncle.

Being the klutz that I am, I was hesitant to use these otherwise flawlessly kept lenses afraid that I would either drop them or get them incredibly dirty. I used each lens with care and did my best to capture as many moments as possible. I've still got a lot of learning to do, but for a novice, I think these images came out nicely -- that is, if you don't fault me for the overexposed images.