Thankful

Alright, here is the Thanksgiving post.  I know, it's almost Christmas, but sheesh, it sneaks up on you.

After snopocalipse 2010 we braved the roads to Oregon.  After leaving the peninsula the roads were great!  However, trying to travel the day before Thanksgiving on the I-5 corridor was a mistake.  What usually takes 4 1/2 hours took us 8 hours!!!  Everybody and their brother had the same idea as us.  Oh the terror of 8 hours in the car with 2 teenagers, a tween, and an ALMOST 5 year old!  Plus you throw me in the mix, the one who has a bladder smaller than an acorn and whose husband bought her a red bull and a cup of coffee.  Well let's just say the drive was, uh, interesting.

Isn't Thanksgiving all about the food?  I think so.  Well not really, but mostly.  Needless to say a good portion of the photos I took were of food.  I must be obsessed or something.

The bird before she went in the oven.



We had a huge spread of hors d'oeuvres. I'm surprised we could actually eat dinner!







Meanwhile, as my Mom and I prepared food, this guy ransacked the bird feeder.



We fed the ladies leftover veggie scraps and cracked corn.



I love this photo Marty took!



We got to visit with my Brother and Sister-in-Law and our nephews!








We had a wonderful time, ate until we almost burst, played Bingo and Mafia, and were crazy enough to brave Black Friday.  With kids in tow! 

I am so thankful to have my Family!

Note: there are no pictures of the actual meal because, apparently I was so ravenous with hunger I didn't take any.  Oops.

11 and all grown up

Friday came and went in a flash and our darling little Woody turned 11. It's hard to imagine just 5 short years ago, I was meeting this cautious, but curious 6 year old boy, who stole my heart just like his Dad did.

Not much has changed with the curiousness, but the caution has begun to wear thin. Bolder and bolder he becomes as the days pass. And the questions come and come. In fact they never end.

As always I oblige the boys with their favorite dinner on their birthday, and no surprises here, Julian picked Chicken Pot Pie. The weather was actually lovely, so we ate outside. Thank you to my wonderful Mother in Law who gifted us with a generous donation to our new patio table and umbrella. Every moment the sun is out we've been out there enjoying it.

Saturday was party day. The weather couldn't have been better, sunny, warm, no wind, it was glorious. We had a small gathering with a few of Julian's friends and our family. We BBQ'd, played bingo, badminton, had a great penguin pinata, and the kids played in the sandbox for what seemed like forever.

I'll let the photos do the talking....

Happy Halloween!

Ahhh, the leaves have changed, the air is damp, and it’s cool and foggy in the morning. Fall is here, and that means HALLOWEEN! Jack-o-lanterns, haunted houses, tricker-treating, candy! What more could you want?!

My wonderful Husband bought candy last week and I’ve only consumed 25 pounds, 2 pieces! He bought those good mixed bags that just happen to have heath bars in them. I love heath bars, SERIOUSLY. They are probably one of my all time favorite candies. Which is why I love Ben and Jerry’s Vanilla Heath Bar Crunch. SO. GOOD. Whoa, back on track, sorry.

We had a * spooktacular * evening the night before halloween! (Sorry for being corny) The Elk’s put on a GREAT haunted house this year. The Naval lodge is downtown in an old, very creepy building. It has one of those old time elevators with the metal grate across the door. So it was very spooky! They did a fabulous job making it authentic and incorporating all kinds of elements. The ticket taker even played along.

After we returned from having some scare induced heart failure we carved our pumpkins! As you can see we ended up with three very different carvings. Reuben, who earlier in the year suffered the “red ring of death” on his xbox 360, paid tribute to it. Basically something happened with the thing and it wouldn’t work. We sent it to Microsoft and they fixed ‘er all up! Julian wanted an ole’ fashion spooky skeleton! He drew and carved most of it by himself. I carved Solomon’s for him with a cat that resembles our Louie very much. I did use a pattern from a carving book…. So yes, I cheated a little, but I still had to cut all of it out and that was tough!

Costumes were another story.... Marty worked very hard at getting all the pieces together for Julian to be a Knight! I think it turned out fantastic!

Solomon decided to dress up as someone from the 80's. Yes, he is wearing a VINTAGE Oingo Boingo sweatshirt that belonged to my husband from his first concert! Sol had his buddies over, so I took and 80's kid, a nerd, and a scary ghost out on the town for some tricker treating!

Marty spent most of the day decorating the house.... He fashioned a "zombie" in the window via a cardboard cut out and some green light bulbs. He also managed to rig up a driver for the old car parked in front of the house. He set up a red light and hooked up and amplifier with a wireless microphone. While the boys and I were out he was scaring tricker treaters with screaming coming from the car!






We hope you had a safe and SCARY Halloween!

I could have just dyed.

It seemed like an ordinary thing to do. I boiled some eggs, prepared the glasses with the vinegar, water and the little dye pellets. They fizzed and bubbled and then it was time. All the boys helped, even Marty. Everything seemed to be going just fine. They each dyed one and the colors were turning out so bright.


I left the room for a moment and this is what I came back to...

THEY WERE ALL DYING THEIR FINGERS! I couldn't believe my eyes. Even Marty!

And now for the finished product. Marty's blue finger looked like he was suffering from a case of frost bite, and Julian looked like he had Jaundice. The rest of them... well, you can see.

After all the finger dying was over, the eggs ended up turning out great! Now, it was time to wait for the bunny!

The season was good to us

As Marty and I headed to bed on Christmas Eve we took one last look at the tree and knew Santa was good to us this year. As I turned out the lights I knew the next day would be a whirlwind of excitement and torn up wrapping paper. The boys were reluctant to go to bed... one, because they wanted to stay up play guitar hero III... their gift from Santa earlier in the evening, and two, well, because it was Christmas eve and Santa was coming... but we knew they needed to lay their sweet heads down and begin their visions of sugar plum fairies.

Morning came quickly, 5 a.m. to be exact, we could hear them rush down the stairs and scurry around the tree to spy which gifts Santa had left them. They woke us up, or I should say got us out of bed at 7:30 with anticipation busting at the seams.

After a delicious breakfast and at least one cup of coffee for Marty and I the festivities began. We enjoyed the day, the smiles and the excitement of Christmas with each other.

A Special Visitor

Santa made a special stop on Christmas Eve... He dropped by to give a few packages to the boys and read them a story. It was such a treat for them and us... who enjoyed watching their faces as he came through the door! P.S. that is a REAL beard. And that is Santa Clause!

CAUTION: A tree

We picked up our tree this weekend...

Let me begin from the BEGINNING. Last year when it came time to select the perfect tree it seems all the trees were snagged up. You know the only ones left are lop sided, or missing a bunch of branches at the top. We did end up with a pretty good tree last year that had to be positioned just right so you couldn't see the bald spot on one side.

So this year we got smart. We went to the tree farm early and tagged our tree! This way we didn't have to pick it up too early and we still got a perfect looking tree. (and I say looking, because a PERFECT tree would be one that didn't come home with spiders. AHHH! ewwwwwwwwww) Now, the gentleman whom I spoke with on the phone said you could bring your own tagging material and the better you tagged your tree the greater chance you had of it still being there. So having said that, we tagged our tree REALLY well.

Saturday afternoon we packed up the crumbs and headed to the tree farm. Let's just say after 99 atempts to take a photo of the kids all smiling at the same time, Marty and I were both ready to pull our hair out. So we found our tree (which wasn't hard, it stuck out like a sore thumb) and joyfully, while whistling the song O' Christmas tree, sawed it down.

I must tell you after getting the lights on it, a task which is never fun, it looked perfect! Nice and full... and the smell was AMAZING.

It's never too late...

Okay, I know what you are thinking, Uh Thanksgiving was last week. Well, you see, it's taken me this long to recover from the food induced coma I slipped into on Thursday. We had a glorious feast... We packed up and headed over to Marty's mom's for all the turkey goodness. It was a spread of biblical proportions.... and we ate in much merriment.

The boys slipped into a coma as well and I swear were quieter than I have heard them in a long time... we ate pie afterwards. I seriously don't know how, but we did and enjoyed good fellowship with family.

Later that evening, at home, I thought about what I am thankful for and realized I don't say thank you nearly enough to those who do so much for me. Marty, for his constant love. The boys, for being such good, wonderful, amazing kids. My friends, for always being there for me. My Mom, for remembering the important things. And lastly, for coffee, I don't know how I'd make it through the day without my all important cup of coffee!

So, what I am really getting around to saying is Happy belated Thanksgiving to you all! I hope you all enjoyed food, fellowship, and the opportunity to reflect on what you are thankful for.

Tricks and Treats.

It's that day... Halloween. The thrill of dressing up, walking house to house, getting a bag full of delicious goodies and then coming down off the sugar high and falling asleep with dreams of another sugar high the next afternoon!

The Boys' Halloween costumes have been in the making for a month now. We have schemed and searched and found just what they wanted. Goodwill, Serenity House thrift store, RiteAid, Wal-Mart... we've been everywhere! I can remember how infatuated I was with my costume when I was young. I would plan with so much anticipation that I thought I would explode! I can only imagine they feel the same way!



Tonight we had pizza, watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, headed out for some tricker treating, and finished up with a trip through the Haunted House! It was a perfect Halloween celebration!