The One with Thanksgiving Traditions

I have been realizing lately that I have a few personal traditions that surround this wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving. These are of course exclusive to the obvious ones, such as consuming a ridiculous amount of Turkey and pumpkin pie.

1) I run a lot. The past three years I have run the Seattle half marathon right after Thanksgiving. So right before it I am training a ton! This year I am not running since I did a race a couple of weeks ago. But I am still trying to keep up my mileage.

2) I start to think about things that I'm thankful for. This time of year is great for that. In the past I've usually made lists and scrapbook pages and blog posts. Here is a post from 2009 that I particularly like.

3) I drink lots of Thanksgiving blend coffee!

4) I play more games than usual. This started in 2009 with poker and every year around this time I get excited about playing games. When I was a kid, we used to play scrabble after Thanksgiving dinner.

5) I love watching Thanksgiving Friends episodes.

6) I make place tags for the table. This is one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions. Here is a blog post from 2011 where you can see those place tags.

This year we are heading over to the East side for Thanksgiving! I am excited that I don't have to cook this year. I just get to eat!

The one with the Guppy

Yesterday we had a little adventure. On the way to our family reunion we stopped at Boeing Field for a view of the Super Guppy landing. It was awesome and massive! My sister in law Hannah is really into plane-stuff and she had been tracking it all week. I am so glad we had the opportunity to see it land! I'm pretty sure its the biggest plane I will ever see.

 Even the Engineers in that train stopped and watched. There was quite the crowd outside the fence at Boeing Field.

 After the plane buzzed by it flew a loop back to Lake Washington and finally landed right outside the Air & Space museum. It looked so massive next to the museum and all the other planes.

Thank you Hannah for convincing us to go on this little adventure!!

Crazy week

Here I am eating Irish Soda bread (don't worry...counting these calories!), watching Crossing Jordan on Netflix, and uploading photos from my week!

Its been a little nuts around here.

Over the weekend Matty and I were on Whidbey Island cooking for a high school church retreat.

We stopped for a little clam chowder and fish and chips on our way...
It was a fun and different experience cooking in an industrial kitchen! I got to use an enormous mixer to make biscuits...
The photos I took were few over the weekend, but I did manage to capture a few fun details. The first photo is a blurry shot in the reflection of the window, just shows what the kitchen looks like. The people around me were like "what is this crazy person doing taking a photo out of the dark window?" Ha. ;)
(See that awesome cheesecake and Martinelli's? We got to have some too. :) I guess you saw that other photos. :) )

We had so much fun at the retreat, but we were crazy tired when we got home. The time change has completely NOT helped.

We got to see Pippa a couple of times. She is sure cute. 4 weeks old today!

James and Josie visited this week! It was super fun to have them around! I loved cooking lots of meals at home and we sat at the table to eat...something rare in our house.

I made carna asada and pica de gallo...Matt's favorite meal. He gobbed it up. ;)

I got the chance to break out the old espresso maker and made lattes for my bro and sis. I am totally going to use that more often.

We went over to Josh and Ellen's and James got to hold Pippa for the first time. He looked so cute with a little baby!
We finished up the evening last night with a fun fairy tale show and I braided Josie's hair...a good way to end their visit.

Well those were all the juicy details of my week! Not exactly the most exciting in the world, but its been fun and definitely busy. I am so glad J and J are back in Washington!

Happy almost St. Patty's Day!

Another Amazing Holiday

My favorite holiday came and went to quickly this year! It may have had something to do with all the food I prepared and the many, many dishes that I washed. Those things made the day just fly by!

My husband Matty helped me with the turkey because all the giblets really gross me out. Flash and Leo got to meet the turkey (but no touching of course!!!)



I like things to look pretty on Thanksgiving! I made some fancy napkin holders and everyone got to use a unique glass. (Perfect since I don't have ACTUAL fancy glasses.)





I didn't get very many photos of my guests this year, nor any epic photos of the turkey or the spread of food. Still, I think its more important to enjoy the day than to obsess about photography!

We went to Josh & Ellen's for dessert.



The boys had a little ugly sweater contest, complete with a mustache from Josh! We may have a clear winner here!



I wore my turkey earrings:



A really fun time was had by all! Here we are all playing mafia!



And it would not be Thanksgiving without a few leftovers...



It was a wonderful holiday! I am so glad I got to spend so much time eating delicious food with some of my favorite people in the world.

Now less than 24 hours before I kill myself in a half marathon! Update coming soon...

Thankgiving!

My favorite holiday is almost upon us! I am up a little too late because I have to get up bright and early to start COOKING! I tried to cook a bunch today, but really everything is pretty much last minute. Never-the-less, I made a big mess in the kitchen!



Today I made a paleo pumpkin pie!

I made some cranberry sauce (also Paleo.)

I made blueberry salad, which was Matt's request. We learned about it last year from Josie. Its NOT Paleo, but is delicious!

I made some pumpkin pie cups to bring to Matt's work today!



I also reorganized the living room to make room for everyone. This photo explains why I will not be washing or setting the table until tomorrow!



Tomorrow will be so much fun...I can't wait! I am trying to take photos of course, but also incorporate a little video this year which is something new.

More photos to come!

Photos from my weekend: May 6-8

Its been awhile since I uploaded any photos...I am pretty behind. I am also behind on scrapbooking since I have not done it in a few weeks! Actually tonight I managed to make one page and I am so proud and happy about that. :)

Sometimes when my life gets crazy and stressful I forget to be creative. Only it turns out that creativity is actually an OUTLET for my stress. I feel much better after playing with paper, paint, ink, stamps and stickers.

So quickly I thought I would share a few photos from my weekend. Matty and I traveled to Pullman where we watched my wonderful brother and his wonderful wife GRADUATE from college. Even though we sat through TWO graduation ceremonies, we actually had a great time. Here is me with James' awesome hat! He got the idea when Josie was bedazzling her own hat with a sequin shaped cougar footprint...and then he went crazy engineer on the hat and made a "Tassel-Castle."
And here is another shot of the hat as I also capture James downloading his air horn application. Funny guy!
Congratulations James and Josie!
And meanwhile Matty is filling up on stale pretzel! I shouldn't give him a hard time...he deserves a break. This is what happened to him on Friday...
Yes, that is right. My poor husband rolled his ankle at Cross fit and it swelled to twice the size.

But on a happier note to end this post...a mother's day photo!
Here we all are at James and Josie's graduation party. We thought we would give Mom the spot light for about 2 minutes. ;) I love how we are all wearing pink.

Random things to say + Memories of Grandma

Some random things...

1) Today I was totally beat from our 24 hour trip to Spokane. I felt like I hadn't drank coffee even though I had.
2) Leo and I have been playing together a lot recently. I realize he whines because he's bored.
3) I have been SO inspired by creative people and other people's scrapbook pages lately but haven't been scrapbooking myself very much.
4) I am glad summer is here! A little sunlight is always nice. :)
5) I really had fun running with my brother and sis in Spokane on Thursday.
6) I miss Joy but she will be returning soon, if only for a little while.

7) I recently lost my grandma but I have so many great memories...my favorites being...

-She ate pie with her hands last Thanksgiving (very unusual for a Southern Belle)
-She made me my own cookbook (I have to find that!)
-She sewed clothes for my doll
-She collected stamps for me for YEARS.
-She would make her pie crusts into little cinnamon "cookies" which were AMAZING.

And there are so many more things. I am lucky that although I have lost her, I was a blessed girl to have so many great memories with such a great Grandma.

Here is a picture on one of the last days that I saw her...(I may have posted this before.)