December 4, 2009

• Post-Thanksgiving Catch Up

  I've been meaning to write a post ever since Thanksgiving, but time just keeps slipping by. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.

  Our Thanksgiving was great. My first holiday meal turned out to be a success, although I did make one big blunder in putting the turkey in the oven way too early. Luckily, our guests were very flexible about when the meal should start -- we ended up eating around 3 p.m. instead of the 5 p.m. we originally intended. Lesson learned! Other than that and my snapping at Johnny once, the day went smoothly, and we had a fun time being with family. The chef stressing out on Thanksgiving is practically required, right?  

  Unfortunately, our camera ran out of battery power, so I don't have pictures of my finished products, but I made (links are to the fabulous recipes) turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce with vodka and Grand Marnier, green beans, mashed potatoes, wild rice and quinoa pilaf, and a pumpkin pie (I skipped the topping on the pie). I may not have pictures, but I do have practice for the next time we host. Nerd that I am, I even wrote down notes on what to do to make it run smoother next time. I need to learn how to transfer a heavy turkey from the roasting pan to the serving platter -- thank goodness Victoria was around this time to help me with it, otherwise I may have dropped the beautiful turkey onto the floor. I didn't have those handy-dandy turkey handlers, and try as I might, I could not manage to lift it by inserting a metal serving spoon into the main cavity, as the recipe suggested.

  On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Johnny and I had a very rare, greatly appreciated treat of a whole 24 hours to ourselves. Johnny's parents babysat the boys while Johnny and I spent a night at the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach. We left our house shortly after noon on Saturday, enjoyed a seaside lunch in Redondo Beach, then went to the mall for a little Christmas shopping sans kids -- it felt so luxurious to wander the mall together (something we used to do a lot pre-children) without strollers! We then took a leisurely drive down PCH to the resort. We ate at an amazing restaurant, and managed to sleep in until 9 a.m. the next day. I don't remember the last time we slept until 9 a.m. It sure was nice not to have to climb out of bed at 6 a.m.  As refreshing as the day away felt, though, we did miss the boys a lot and spent much time talking about them.

  The "twin dolphin" fountain at athe resort. Beyond it is the ocean.

  

  Lovely pool/spa area

  

  They were all decked out for the holidays. We had intended for the effect here to be Johnny fondling a ball, but alas, I didn't have the right angle. See, now you know how immature we are!

  

  On the balcony of our room

  

  We had such a great time that we almost didn't want to come back, but who can resist coming home when you have two adorable rascals waiting at home for you?

  Derek, lounging in our bed

  

  Brotherly love

  

  Derek: "Please make Jack stop reading to me." Jack really was "reading," too. He was telling some story about Thomas the Tank Engine.

  

  Forget board books. We'd rather read about a how to recover from a zombie war.

  

  SO CUTE!

  

  We spent the rest of the weekend decking out our home for Christmas. A few weeks ago I shopped the Christmas sale at Jo-Ann, and also picked up some stocking hangers at Target. We have five stockings this year: One for my mom, and an embroidered one for each of the rest of us. Behold our fireplace!

  

  Our 2007 Christmas Godiva bear, and a Christmas-tree-shaped jar filled with candy.

  

  Johnny and his dad working on the icicle lights outside our house.

  

  I have pictures of the lit-up house, but I have to blur out the house numbers first. Will post those next week!

  Tuesday morning, we trimmed the tree before Johnny left for work. There was a little drama with the adorable Thomas ornament that Nana and Papa got for Jack (it features Thomas, Percy and James in Tidmouth Sheds), but Johnny calmed Jack down and got him to understand that the trains in the ornament weren't for playing with. After that, Jack had a lot of fun hanging ornaments on the tree. There's a big cluster of ball-shaped ornaments at Jack's height on one area of the tree -- it's so cute and heartwarming to see. Jack's just getting to the age where Christmas can be really fun for him. I can't wait until Derek can join in the festivities, too.

  Hanging "wo-ments"

  

  

  That's about it. I'm just about done with Christmas shopping. Have a few more items to get ... thank goodness for Amazon Prime! Free two-day shipping saves me a lot of trips to the stores. I love shopping, but with two little kids, I just can't get out like I used to.

  Have a great weekend!

  • 6:42 pm
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