Thanksgiving 2010

This was officially the second Thanksgiving dinner I have ever cooked and with that said I think it was successful. Since we couldn't make it home to North Carolina for the holiday we cooked a small feast for ourselves and our friends Steven and Taylor who are also celebrating their first Thanksgiving in California. Here is our day in pictures...with a few captions.

This  is my moment of panic when I realized that the gizzards were frozen solid inside the bird. 

14 pound bird + roasting pan + oranges + onions = really heavy

Once the Turkey was in the oven I took a little cat nap and a shower. Thank you to my husband for NOT taking pictures of me during either of those activities. 

Carl bought me this apron a few months ago and this  was my first chance to try it out. 

Also so note that this is my kitchen...yup, that's it. No dishwasher and little counter space. 

Our impromptu dinning room. We borrowed a dinning room table and chairs from Carl's work  and I covered it with a table clothe. I had to put away our coffee pot and toaster to make room for the food severed buffet style.  

Can you tell that Carl LOVES it when I make him wait to eat so I can get pictures. He piled almost everything on his plate with the exception of stuffing and cranberry sauce. He even tried my green bean casserole...which means he took one bite and then left the rest on the edge of  his plate. 

This was the aftermath. It wasn't too bad since I tried to wash as I went through out the day. I washed all the dinner dishes, pots, pans, and silverware before moving on to these... 

Steven and Taylor brought a Pumpkin Pie and Strawberry & Chocolate Cake. I made Apple Dumplings. I know what your thinking,  "There were only 4 of you and there are 3 desserts?".

Of course! I could have skipped dinner all together and just eaten these treats!

And the only way  to end the evening was to break the wishbone and have a good laugh. 

Although we are 1000+ miles from our family we got to see and talk to most of them today through the conveniences of technology and for that  we are thankful. 

We broke bread and ate hot food in a warm house with friends today and for that we are thankful. 

There will be no Black Friday shopping for us tomorrow because Carl has to go to work at a job that he loves and for that we are Thankful.  

Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Thank you for reading. 

This is just a test..but it might be funny too

Wednesday Wonderisms

It is noon on the day before Thanksgiving and I have just returned from a couple of stores where I grabbed a few last minute items (roasting pan, turkey baster, ice cream). It was relatively quiet and calm out which got me wondering a little so I thought I'd join in with Angela from Sew Loquacious for her Wonderisms Wednesday. The following are completely random questions that have popped in my head through the week.

1.) Since when did Black Friday start turning into Black Thanksgiving Thursday Night? Several of the stores in our area have been bombarding the TV and Newspaper ads with "Special Deals" starting at 5PM Thanksgiving night. Why? And one particular  department store will be opening it's doors at 3AM Friday morning...unless you are selling everything for a penny a piece I will NOT be there.

2.) How much do people really save by shopping on Black Friday? I don't know because I've never shopped on that day..I actually prefer not to leave the house that day at all.

3.) THIS ONE IS COMPLETELY RANDOM: How do male gynecologists go home to their wives and "get in the mood"? Here's how I see it-my brother use to work at Dunkin Donuts and after about a week he didn't want to look, touch, or smell a donut outside of work.Wouldn't you think the same rule applies to gynecologists?

4.)  How is it possible to clean the house one night and by the next morning new cobwebs have appeared where you just dusted/cleaned?

If  you'd like to participate in Wednesday Wonderisms visit Angela at Se Loquacious. And please feel free to help answer my wonderisms above. I assume that of my 2 male readers that neither of them are gynecologists, but maybe one of my lady readers is married to a gyno and can help answer this bizarre wonderism?

Feeling Nostalgic

WARNING: Mom and Bobbi if you are reading this go grab  some tissues because I know you two, and you're probably going to cry. 


I was inspired by my aunt Bobbi (better known in blog land as Roberta) the other day when she wrote about some of her childhood clothing that she has kept over the years. She is working on a 21-Day Purge to de-clutter and organize her home and she shared some of the pieces that remain nostalgic too her.  You can catch up on her 21-Day Purge and see her nostalgia by visiting her at Con-tain-it.

It just so happens that I had been looking through my own memory box the other day searching for old Christmas photo's when I rediscovered some of my own childhood clothing items. I was then inspired to look through the photo albums my mom has made for me over the years to see if I could find photo's of me wearing the clothes. Surprise, surprise...I found just what I was looking for.

First up is what I call my "Piano Outfit". I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the outfit is quite small-size T-3. It is still in good condition with only minor wear at the collar. It's made out of that really soft velour material.

I call it my "Piano Outfit" because I received this little set on my 2nd birthday, the same year I also received a little piano. 

My big brother Wes helped me open my presents as my Bumpa (that's what we called my grand-dad) watched from the couch. 

Next up is my Prairie dress. I always thought that this outfit had been for one of my dolls because it is also very small, but apparently it fit me at one time. This dress is in near perfect condition and the colors are still as bright as ever!

My Nana and Bumpa picked this little dress up or me on a trip to Tennessee. 

That's my cousin Mitchel helping me with my gifts. 

Last, but certainly not least is what I call my "Doll house Dress". 

I call it my Doll house Dress because I wore it on my 5th birthday, the year that my Bumpa gave me a handmade doll house that he built himself. 

It was beautiful and had all kinds of miniature furniture, decorations, and people.  I still have the doll house but it is being stored back home in North Carolina until we have the space to bring it here. It also needs a little restoration work done to  it which I would like to do eventually. 

Even  the boys got into playing with it. That's my cousin Mitchel, my brother Wesley, and my dad. 

When I was searching through the photo album for pictures of me in my doll house dress I also came across this photo...

And low and behold  guess what I found in my memory box?

It's that very special card that my cousin Mitchel made me! It's in excellent condition despite being 22 years old!

I have to thank my mom for saving all these things for me until I was old enough to take care of them myself. Everything in my memory box is good condition and I hope to keep it that way.  I have a lot more nostalgia in the box and I  hope to share it with you again soon!

Do you have a memory box? What nostalgia do you have in it?

School Pictures

A few weeks ago our school held Picture Day. I thought it was just for the kiddo's, but apparently teachers have to get their portraits done as well...for the yearbook I guess.  So I sucked it up, pulled my hair into as neat of a pony tail as I could, wiped kiddie drool of my shirt, and tried to ignore the fact that I hadn't plucked my eyebrows in weeks and took the photo.

On Friday the kid's portraits arrived. My kids photo's all looked beautiful! You would never have been able to tell that I was in the background making stupid faces, clapping my hands, holding up bags of gummy bears as bribes to make them smile, or that in a few photo's I was actually ducked behind kids holding them. The photographers were excellent and took multiple photo's of each child until I thought they had captured the "essence" of each child's personality. When it was my turn I just took one photo and said, "that is fine". Then we moved onto the class photo which was not easy to capture. It was hard enough getting 1 kiddo at a time to stand still and smile and now they wanted all 10 kid's to sit and smile at the same time. I just told the photographer, "just  keep clicking...don't count or wait, just click away and you'll get one." It's not a great class photo, but it sure does illustrate the ciaos that is my class.

So when the photo's arrived I looked through them all and was surprised to find an envelope with pictures of me.   Apparently,  one of the "perks" of being a teacher is that you get a FREE photo package of yourself. I am thankful for this perk, but what am I going to do with 36 of these...

Yes, my package included 36 wallet sized photo's, 2- 5x7's, and 4- 3x5's. You know what it didn't include? A class photo! One of my assistants was nice enough to give me her copy. Then, when I was looking at the class photo last night I realized that my assistant Sofia is listed on the bottom of the photo as 'Soffa'! Which is HILARIOUS because one of our kid's can't pronounce her name and always calls her Sofa and she's always trying to correct them!

So, in the spirit of my school photo theme today I though I would share an old school portrait of mine with you. After looking through all of my photo's, this is the only school portrait that I have. Enjoy!

Holiday in the Park

Last night Carl and I bundled up and headed down the street for Burbank's 

Carl had heard that Magnolia Park (not an actual park, it's a stretch of road) was preparing for their annual holiday festival in which the town shuts down a 40-block section of Magnolia Boulevard. He heard there would be food, classic cars, street vendors, and music. It sounded like a holiday version of the Be-Boppin' In the Park that we attended in August which was a lot off fun. 

We walked from our house up  the road to the festivities. There were  a lot of people heading that way and we were pretty excited. One of our favorite bakery's had set up a tent on the strip and they had quite a long line for the free food samples and coffee. We continued walking, and walking, and walking. There were no classic cars. There were no street vendors. There were no food stands. 

We did see an ice sculptor. 

What you can't see in the photo is that directly to the right of the chainsaw wielding ice sculptor is a kid's play area. Yup, tons of little children tumbling on mats, climbing on play equipment, and running around. Who thought  that would be a good idea? Kids and Chainsaws go perfect together! Not to mention that fact that ice if flying all over the place and the ground is wet and slippery. 

There were a few street performers like jugglers, elves on stilts, and actors dressed as characters from the story 'Scrooge'. And of course the highlight of the festival was the 18-wheeler tractor truck decked out with lights, carolers, dancers, and music. It was a one vehicle parade. 

Apparently no one put much consideration into how this GIANT caroling truck was going to turn around once it reached the end of the 40-block stretch. It managed to turn around some how without running over any small children  or lackadaisical adults. 

We walked about 4 miles in an hour so at least I feel like I got my daily  exercise in and  worked up an appetite. When we got back to the house we hoped in the car and headed to downtown Burbank to grab a bite to  eat. Thankfully we were not in a hurry because we got stuck in  parking garage for 20+ minutes driving up 8 flights only to drive back down 8 flights because there were NO parking spots available. After we finally did get a parking spot in another parking deck we headed to a restaurant called Pomodoro. We thought there would be a wait  on a Friday night at 8PM, but we got seated right away. The food was excellent and they had perfect portions. 

After eating we  thought we would walk through the mall to get to our car and avoid the chill of walking outside around the mall. However, we soon realized that almost all of the stores were closed, including the one we had to walk through to get to our car. I have never heard of a mall cosing at 9PM especially on a weekend night and especially with the holidays close by. It's not like we wanted to go shopping, we just didn't want to walk all the way around the mall to get to the car. 

We were home by 9:30 and in bed by 10:00. And on the first day of my week off for Thanksgiving Break I couldn't sleep in past 7:00 AM this morning. It's raining. And for the first time in the 10 months the gardeners did not come at 8 AM this morning which means I could have slept in without being woken up by leaf blowers.  Go figure!

It's okay though, I have big  plans today. Clean. Read. Nap. Write. Cook. Laundry. And I will probably do them in that order. 

What are your plans for today? Do you get extra time off this week? Are you a Black Friday shopper? Why is the sky blue?

Professional Nap Taker

I am a self proclaimed Professional Nap Taker. Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner and many of us will find ourselves in Turkey Coma's shortly after the table  is clear, I thought I would share my wealth of nap taking knowledge with everyone.

Here are some basic guidelines that always help me take the perfect snooze.

#1- Nap on a couch or comfy chair. Some of the best naps I have ever taken were on my mother-in-laws' couch. My husband and I argue over who gets to sit/lay on the couch first  when we visit. Thankfully, she has an over sized chair that matches the couch and is equally as nap inducing.

#2- Do NOT nap in bed unless you are sick. My body knows the difference between the bed and the couch and if  I attempt to nap in bed I will sleep way too long.

#3- Get a comfy pillow. A bad pillow will result in a bad nap.

#4- Cover up with a blanket. It's important to feel cozy like a baby.

#5- Don't set an alarm, your body knows how much sleep  it needs. When I set an alarm I spend most of my nap time worrying how much longer until it goes off.

#6- Nap with the lights on. It is much easier to wake up from a nap when the lights are on than when it is dark. This is especially true now that it gets dark earlier.

#7- Don't try to take a nap if anyone in close proximity to you has a camera or you may end up with an unflattering photo like this...

Happy Napping!