Thanksgiving this year.

For the first time in 2 years I got to spend Thanksgiving in the U.S. I love this holiday. Something I really don't like about Christmas is that I feel like Thanksgiving gets bullied by it every year. And this year was bad, I saw Christmas decorations out before November even started. I went to find some Thanksgiving cookie cutters and it was hard to find any because of the overwhelming Christmas displays.

Thanksgiving ANYTHING in the midst of CHRISTMAS EVERYWHERE.
I mean Hanukkah doesn't bully Thanksgiving. And if you see Hanukkah decorations out early it's because the Christmas people put them out to be politically correct.

So yes, it is now ok to bring out the Christmas music and decorations.


Our Thanksgiving '08

Jared and his perfect fire.

My Aunt Cynthia carving the juicy Turkey.

My cousin Peter, his fiancée Megan and their baby....I mean dog. The cutest best dog ever.

Delicious pies made from scratch (well except the minced meat, it is gross) pumpkin (roasted pumpkin) and apple.

Oh Grandma's rolls. I think I have now mastered these.

A nicely set table with my mother's china and silver set under her chandelier from Murano, Italy.

Napkin's from Lyon, France my mother picked up in October indicating the direction you were sitting in.

Pomegranate, clementine, walnut and toasted goat cheese with homemade dressing courtesy of my cousin Emily salad.

Yams, which I might have added a bit too much cayenne pepper. We put in, CP, orange juice, a bit of maple syrup and brown sugar and don't forget the butter.

Road trip to L.A.

How does a pregnant woman prepare for a road trip?

Lots of SNACKS! No one likes a cranky pregnant woman, especially one who gets cranky when she's hungry even when she's not pregnant.

Sam, my mom, Jared and I hopped in the car early Friday morning and headed out to I-5 to head down to my cousin Keith's wedding.

Did I ever mention how much I love telephone lines?

A family event!

Here's my family minus my sister's husband Lee and her kids. (She sure was having a blast being kid-less for the weekend.)

Newlyweds. My brother Jeremy and his new wife Constance.

Newly - wed. Keith and Leslie dancing for the first time as husband and wife.

Constance's baptism

The day after the wedding we had a wonderful opportunity to witness my brother Jeremy baptize his new wife Constance and her son Kelvin.

There was quite a crowd.

Disneyland while pregnant is not very fun!

Disneyland is not fun when you're pregnant, tired, have a headache that won't go away and everything smells really bad....especially the cotton candy machine. However, I managed to smile...occasionally.

I didn't get to do much. It was fun seeing all of my cousin's but everyone was running about that I didn't really get to spend any time with them. I did get to go on the haunted machine ride with Jared. It was all decked out in Christmas gear from "The Nightmare Before Christmas."
I did drag everyone onto the Buzz Lightyear Ride, which they thanked me for because it's the coolest. Remember this? Well we emailed ourselves the photos but sadly they never came through. Too bad because Jared's spaced out look was awesome.

Jared had my sister Emma as a ride buddy most of the time since I couldn't go on the fun ones.


Here's a bunch of the clan. My Aunt counted that there were 33 of us total. We only stuck together for a few rides though.



Kelvin and his new pirate hat. This kid is hilarious. We get to see him and his sisters again this weekend.


My cousin George taking shots.


We've been to the real one.

Walking back to our car via Downtown Disney at night. We wanted to wait to watch the fireworks (my favorite) however, my sister being on east coast time and me being pregnant, living on 4 hrs of sleep and not really liking Disneyland so much anymore, were all factors of us not lasting very long.

Guess what's arriving...

NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!

Just kidding. Not until the end of May:)

Beverages we like

Remember how I really like hot chocolate? I've always wanted a hot chocolate maker. My friend Meredith tipped me off to a good one. We tried it out for the first time last night and it was a success. It heats, mixes and froths. SO GREAT! I'm in heaven.




While we were in Switzerland Jared and I got addicted to sparkling water or "wasser mit gas" (water with gas.) For my birthday he got me this carbonation machine so I didn't have to lug the heavy bottles of sparkling water up 6 flights of stairs. Plus, we wanted to use the delicious Swiss tap water and save on plastic bottles. We sent it home with our shipment and are still enjoying our sparkling water. (It was hard waiting the 2 months for the sea shipment to arrive.)

All dressed up

We had a wedding to go to and Jared had too much work to do. So, I called up my good friends Emily and Amanda to see if I could ride with them. Oh it's always a blast.

Notice how I'm wearing one of my new headpieces:)

Notice how I'm standing on my toes? Well, Amanda is 6 ft plus heals. The fabulous blonde bombshell.

Photo booth fun!

There was a photo booth at the wedding. We had some fun with it:)

Hair Bandos

I saw this sight a few months ago and thought that these were so cute, but way too expensive. Then I contacted Emily thinking, oh she'll be of great assistance and inspiration on making our own. She gathered a few of us tonight and we created away. We pulled together our resources: feathers, buttons, hot glue guns, sparkly vintage jewelry and much more and this is how mine turned out.

I hope my friend Katie likes them.

Date night requires sparkles!

Chili and guac!

I made a delicious pot of chili and homemade guacamole to top it off.

Chili:
ground turkey sauteed with crushed garlic s/p and some mushrooms (mince them.)
add:
cans of diced tomatoes and halved or whole tomatoes (fresh if you've got them but since the season is over this is my resort)
corn
kidney beans
black beans
shredded carrots
cilantro (chopped)

spices:
chili powder
cayenne pepper
red pepper flakes
cumin

I add dashes and taste. Wait a moment because the spice comes out after a minute or so. Simmer for about and hour and then taste and add more spices if you like.

Simmer for several hours stirring occasionally to let the flavors fuse.

Guacamole:

I usually like it chunky but this time I was lazy and threw it all in the food processor and having the cilantro blended really well really created this delicious flavor.

throw in onion and cilantro
chop
then avocado
lime juice
s/p
dash of chili powder
add the tomato last so that can be chunky

We Voted!

We are happy with the outcome:)

The best can opener EVER

OK this is the best can opener ever. My mother introduced it to me. Made by OXO. No sharp edges. You don't even have to pick up the lid or dig around for it. You just do the opening and then pick it up with the opener. When you first use it, it doesn't look like you did anything, then you try to pick it up and voila, it worked. it came in handy when I was opening canned beans and corn for the chili I'm making right now. Go buy one, it's worth it.

Ride to Hayward

I drove over to Hayward last week to hang out with my mom and make pumpkin bread. It started out cloudy and a bit drizzly when I left and headed over the bridge in a blanket of fog.

Then through the woods and up the super steep hill the clouds broke apart and I rose above them.

Up through the trees and past 6 stop signs.

Finally the last stop sign and then...

I'm home.