Turkey and a side of Fa la la

Sundays always make me a little sad - especially Sundays at the end of really great weekends.

My parents came on Wednesday; it didn't take long for them to feel right at home.



Thanksgiving festivities began bright and early on Thursday morning.



In true Momma Sue fashion, there was more than enough food to go around.

24 pound turkey
Stuffing (2 bags)
Gravy (almost 1 gallon)
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Monkey bread
Cranberry relish
Broccoli





Did I mention there were four of us (and Memphis) to eat all that food?

The best part of Thanksgiving went undocument. . . we taught Mom to play the Wii. There was lots of screaming and flailing; it was pretty hilarious. But, in the end she did get pretty good.

After dinner (and digesting) we headed to Stephanie's to for dessert - a fab apple pie concocted by Karl's mom and a ginger pumpkin cheesecake constructed by yours truly.

I know Karl took some pictures of me hacking my way through the pumpkin cheesecake. The crust was rather much like cement. But, it sure did taste good.

Friday brought Natalie and Katelyn to make a gingerbread house.

Miss Katelyn worked diligently on decorating some snowman cookies.





Natalie made sure at least some of the candy made it on to the gingerbread house (instead of into her stomach). The final product was actually pretty cool.





Mom and I made it to the mall in the afternoon and a movie (Four Christmases) at night.

Saturday brought another trip to the mall (to get this which I found out is only available through the catalog) and goodbye to my parents and another movie (Quantam of Solace) with Brad.

Sunday the holiday season officially started with the annual "Tree Hunt." We packed up bright and early (red cups in in hand) to find, cut down, and haul home the perfect tree. We always go to the same place.

Katelyn was having a tough time walking. In her defense, the grass was kind of long, and she was really bundled up. It made for great entertainment.



Natalie and Memphis were BFFs. She kept saying hilarious things like, "Come here, big boy!" And, it was her mission for the day to look for a Charlie Brown tree.



We had to jump (and pose) when we finally found the tree.





Everyone was pretty exhausted in the end.



Tomorrow, we will decorate the tree.

And, I will share my December Daily with you.

Magical

It has been a magical day.

Some types of bewitched elves came and cleaned my house. When I say cleaned, I really mean cleaned. They vacuumed and did the dishes and picked up the clutter and made everything look sparkly.

I whipped up some magic in the kitchen, too.

I made a pumpkin cheesecake (a Babs's Thanksgiving tradition).

And Angie's cranberry relish (which makes me think about this).

And Josie's mashed potato recipe.

I always knew I loved Josie. . . and then I tried her mashed potato recipe. Seriously. I may need to ditch Brad and marry Josie.

These mashed potatoes are so good that I was afraid that my parents (who will be here at any moment) might arrive and find me sitting on the floor in my ruffled apron clutching a bowl and shoveling mashed potatoes into my mouth with a wooden spoon.

Happiest of Turkey Days to all of you.

Eating my way through San Antonio

I was in San Antonio for the annual meeting of the National Writing Project.
(All you teacher-readers: Learn about the NWP. It's a great professional development opportunity.)

Because of the conference I really only got to take advantage of all that is San Antonio in the evenings. Which is just a polite way of saying that I ate a lot while I was there.

So, here you have it, dear readers. My trip in food.

Dinner Wednesday night:
Paesano's Italian.
Totally delish--probably the best food of the trip.
Shrimp paesano as an appetizer and lemon-garlic salmon on mashed potatoes as an entree.

My traveling companions were completely perplexed when I busted out the camera to photography my food.





Dinner Thursday night:
County Line Barbeque.
Definitely not the best food of the trip.
But, the best margarita for sure (not pictured)





Dessert Friday afternoon:
Mi Tierra Restaurant and Bakery.
The enchiladas are not pictures, as they paled in comparison to the dessert.



Dinner Friday night:
Dolores Del Rio.
This place takes the prize for ambiance - think tiny, live jazz trio, and belly dancer.
Yup. I said belly dancer.

(By the final night my traveling companions stopped asked why I was taking pictures of my food.)





(In case you were wondering, those are giant gnocchi coated in an amazingly creamy sage sauce with chicken.)

Not pictured:
Lunch on Saturday. It just wasn't worth taking a picture of.

December 2008: Scrap-tastic Style

The Scrap-tastic December project kit contains everything you need to make a fun and colorful December Daily Album.

Here's mine. It's made from a painted Kaiser wood tabbed-album, lots of transparencies, and some Fancy Pants paper.



And the best part is. . . I'm giving it away.
Enter here.

Here are my creations with the Scrap-tastic December kit.







And because I love the mini. . . made this from a Priority Mail box covered with KI lace cardstock and white paint. Finished it off with the Bind-it-All.



More to come soon. . .
pictures from San Antonio (mostly of food).
another December Daily (Ali Edwards style).
our Thanksgiving menu and table.

Hi from

San Antonio.

If I was a good blogger (and there had been a wireless connection in my hotel room) I would have filled you in earlier in the week about my adventures in San Antonio.

This place is a foodie paradise.

Seriously.

There isn't much to see or do, but there is lots and lots to eat.

More later. Have a plane to catch.

Awfully Dumb for a Smart Girl (part deux)

Yesterday was not a good day.

I have a cold - runny nose, cough, sneezing, the works. It is not pretty. I took one for the team and went to work anyway.

I live about 25 minutes from work and carpool (doing my part to save the planet and keep Al Gore happy).

I made it through the day, was back at my own car, and was preoccupied with thinking about buying some Vicks-scented Kleenex (which I found out later Walgreens no longer carries), putting on my pajamas, and logging some serious couch time.

I went to grab my keys out of my purse. . .

nothing. . .

iPod, sunglasses, gum, plenty of tampons, wallet, school ID. . .

no keys. . .

no keys anywhere in the carpool car. . .

seriously. . .

no keys. . .

No car keys. No house keys. No keys.

CRAP (followed by a few other words).

Now this all would have been completely fine if - when I locked myself out of my house about six weeks ago - I had strategically placed a few keys to my house in different locations. Then a carpool buddy could have driven me home, I could have let myself in with a hidden key, gotten my spare car key, and all would have been well with the world.

But, did I learn from my mistakes and make sure there were extra keys to my house in strategic locations?

No. I most certainly did not.

Ended up that one of the carpool buddies had to drive me to Brad's work where I picked up his car keys, drove to my work, located my own keys on the middle of my desk, drove back to work and picked up Brad, drove to pick up my car, and returned home to immediately put on my pajamas.

Week in the Life

I've been thinking about the Week in the Life project since I saw it on Ali's blog a few weeks ago.

Last Sunday I decided to start document. Here are the best of the results.

My feet on Sunday:


Sunday is grocery shopping day. Which means I have to shop today. So not looking forward to that.


A quick shot from my commute on Monday morning.


My Monday outfit.


Tuesday: Cause


Tuesday: Effect


Wednesday: Listened to the Twilight soundtrack on the way to work. Can't wait for that movie.


Wednesday: Night class. Home at 11:25 p.m..


Thursday: I was more than pumped to come home, take off my jewelry and work clothes, and put on my pajamas.


Thursday: Downloading pictures and watching Grey's.


Friday: My first red cup!


Friday: Saw this guy playing the accordion to collect money for Salvation Army at the grocery store on Friday night.


Saturday: Morning


Saturday: Night


I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I thought I would! And, I took lots of the same shots each day. I have lots of pictures of my shoes and my food and myself in the mirror. If I had it to do again I would take more pictures of people, take more pictures when the light is good, and not be embarrassed to take my camera out in public and take pictures.

Stay tuned for an album sometime soon.

Some Scrapping

Reading chapters of textbooks and writing papers is not nearly as satisfying as making stuff. I miss making stuff and am so glad that the Scrap-tastic November kits gave me an excuse to make stuff instead of doing laundry or studying or cleaning the house.

Here are a few lay-outs from this month's kit.

The journaling on this is inspired by one of Em's layouts.



This one is inspired by a Nicole Harper layout in this month's Scrapbooks, Etc..





And a mini made with the main kit. Totally love this one! It's a complete lift of an Ali Edwards mini, but I love the concept and the colors and the album made from balsa wood.



And a mini made with one of the project kits.



And another mini made with another project kit.
(Photos by In This Moment Photography)

Little Man Gets Baptized

Luke's baptism was yesterday.

Angie did a great job with all the details. (Martha Stewart-esque floral arrangements made by Ang and yours-truly)





The Little Man looked especially handsome in an outfit made especially for him. No "off-the-rack" for Luke - he's a fashionista in the making.





The church Mike and Angie picked is beautiful, and the baptism was really personalized. Luke totally stole the show, too. He didn't cry at all and was completely enthralled by the priest. He even smiled at him. All this with many, many cameras flashing and family and friends looking on.