thanksgiving 2014 in a nutshell.

I am awesome and the only pictures I have of this day are Zac filling up our flat tire and a naked, blurry Franz running around in an Indian headband I made out of construction paper.

We started the day off by driving up for breakfast at IHOP with my family, where Franz was only interested in walking around the restaurant. He fell asleep on the drive home, and Zac and I sat in the car for a good, long while, waiting for him to wake up. While Franz was sleeping, we realized that our tire was completely flat, so we drove to the car wash near our apartment, passing a cop on the way there who was trying to tell us that our tire was flat, and filled it up. Franz woke up, and we went inside and spent a few hours together, just the three of us, trying to watch the Macey's Thanksgiving Day Parade, but we were too late.

For dinner that night, we went to Zac's parents' house, but not before filling up our tire again. We ate some of the most delicious turkey I've ever eaten, and Franz played with his cousins who were here from out of town. Apparently he cried because they were too loud. I wouldn't know, I was too busy stuffing my face.

On the way home, we stopped at a gas station to fill up our tire yet again, but the air pump was broken, so we drove back to Zac's parents' house and filled it up with a manual pump (ha!), and then drove home.

The next day, Black Friday, instead of going shopping for fun things (like we were going to anyway... online shopping all the way), we went to Costco and bought ourselves a brand new set of tires! And I was so excited about them (I'm serious). My car has needed new tires for a while.

This was one of the most hilarious Thanksgivings yet. It was very memorable. :)

thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving this year was spent up in the mountains with my family. Zac, Franz, and I slept over the night before so we could get up more easily for breakfast early in the morning at our usual spot: Village Inn. And that Franzy boy of ours slept 5 hours straight that night, and hasn't since. It was nice while it lasted.

After breakfast, we went went to the movie theater and saw Frozen. It was hilarious! And Franz slept through almost the whole thing, and when he wasn't sleeping, he was either eating or staring at the movie screen. 

The rest of the day was spent making the last of the food, holding my baby boy while Zac played video games with Daniel, and eating a Thanksgiving feast with  grandparents and my aunt Marsha, her fiancee, and their two kids. It was a full house, but it always is these days.

And who knew that taking pictures with a baby is the hardest thing ever?! Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas! 

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turkey day.

Thanksgiving this year was exceptional. We woke up early and met my family at IHOP for breakfast. I made sure to get the lightest thing on the menu (a vegetable omelet) and drink lots of water beforehand, so I would have enough room for dinner that night. My family is the greatest. We talked about Jake using his megaphone for lousy drivers, and my dad stole my phone when we were leaving the restaurant (I almost had a heart attack). 

After breakfast, we drove over to the movie theater at the District to see Skyfall. It was pretty good, and now I want to live in London, because everyone is so classy there.

We made the long drive home (I was asleep for most of it), and started dinner right away. A Thanksgiving feast for two! I think our menu was fantastic. We had Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Honey Butter Rolls with Ginger-Orange Cranberry Sauce, some sides of corn, and leafy greens with raspberry walnut vinaigrette, and for dessert, Gingery Apple Crumb Pie with vanilla bean ice cream. Imagine my surprise when every single thing turned out divine. The turkey was perfectly juicy, and the rolls! I highly recommend these rolls--they were my favorite dish. And I didn't gain a pound. In fact, I woke up starving this morning. It was a Thanksgiving miracle!

We ended the night by watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving together in our pajamas on the couch, and falling asleep two seconds after it ended. 

This morning, we slept in, and had leftovers for breakfast. Today we're planning on getting the leftover Black Friday deals (like we did last year), and decorating our Christmas tree.

Happy Holidays!

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thanksgiving eve.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I've been looking forward to Thanksgiving all month, and work today was
slower than usual. But Thanksgiving weekend is finally here, and I don't have to go back to work for 4 days! 

I'm spending the evening cooking a few dishes ahead of time, like this blood-red cranberry sauce!
This year will be my very first time baking a turkey. I'm kind of nervous.

Tomorrow we have plans to go out for breakfast with my family, and have a quiet
Thanksgiving dinner at home--just the two of us! 

Let the bake off begin! 

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Zac and I spent Thanksgiving this year with my family. On Thanksgiving morning, we all woke up really early to go out to breakfast at Village Inn at 7:45 AM. We met my dad's entire side of the family there. We sat at a booth with Sara, her boyfriend, Josiah, Daniel, his girlfriend, Erika, and Rachel. Zac and I both got chicken fried steak, mostly because it's delicious. I also got a strawberry crepe for the two of us to share. It reminded me when we made crepes at home a few weeks ago, with raspberries, strawberries, bananas, and nutella. That was a good night.

When Thanksgiving dinner came around, we had quite a few people there. My entire family was there, as well as both sets of grandparents, and my aunt Marsha and cousin Parker. We had a table full of people, and such great food, like mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, and turkey, of course! I love feasts. And afterward, we had pie: apple pecan, pumpkin, and pumpkin cream cheese. My good mother even sent us home with a small little feast of leftovers. And the whole entire apple pie. Sweet.

Now Christmas is coming up. I've been listening to Christmas songs since early November, and I'm not even sick of them. We bought our first Christmas tree last night, and I was overly thrilled. I think we're going to decorate it tomorrow for Family Home Evening, so pictures will be up soon.