Thanksgiving...

We spent Thanksgiving this year nice and cozy next to my parents' wood stove. The plan was to have Thanksgiving dinner at our house since we have a lot more room but on Monday night a big wind and snowstorm blew in and knocked out our power. Daisy, Daniel, Starbuck (the dog) and I went and stayed at my parents' since they had power still and a wood stove. They also have a generator if their power goes out. Ruh wanted to stay at the house to keep an eye on things. The temperature at one point got down into the teens so we were really happy to have that wood stove. My brother, his wife and their 2 month old Charlie live at my parents but they sleep in the little cabin down by the pond so there were plenty of places for us to sleep in the house. Daniel and I took the spare room and Daisy crashed on the couch. We really had a fun time. I loved waking up in the morning and having breakfast with everyone. One morning I had to work at 5:30am and my dad drove me because the roads were so bad. Dad and I got all bundled up and headed to my Starbucks. When we got there my shift supervisor told me that they had been trying to call me all day the day before to tell me my shift had been canceled because all the ice had slowed business down quite a bit so they didn't need me. So Dad and I got some coffee, Dad an Americano and me an Eggnog Latte, and we headed back home. I spent the morning cleaning my parents' house to keep me busy so I wouldn't get bored.

Our power finally came back on Thanksgiving morning but it just wasn't enough time for me to get home, get the house cleaned and do all the cooking so we decided to stay. My in-laws and my brother-in-law Rahmat joined us and we all had a wonderful time. Daniel and little Charlie were the entertainment.







I made Martha Stewart's Turkey 101 like I did last year. I highly recommend it! (My sister-in-law Mai made the pretty roses from tomatoes!) It comes out moist and tender, even the white meat! I also made her Parker House Rolls, I highly recommend these as well.
















This is a picture of some of the damage from the storm. The wind knocked a tree down over my parents' neighbor's driveway. A tree also fell on their house! They are an elderly couple and they are both okay and the house didn't have too much damage. Even our house sustained a little bit of damage. Ruh climbed up oin the roof yesterday to clear off fallen branches and found one had punched a fist sized hole in the roof! There is now a tarp covering the hole and it will be fixed sometime next week. That sure was some crazy weather but it was also very exciting too! Our plans sure did change for the week but they were fun changes. I am very thankful for my wonderful family. :)

Cute, but also very true right now...

Snow!!...and cranberry sauce...

Yesterday it started snowing and this morning I woke up to more snow coming down. At the moment it is still snowing and we have about 4 inches. I am so glad I have the Christmas decorations up. Everything is so pretty and cozy. Ruh has the day off and we pulled out Daniel's hiking backpack and we went on a little walk before lunch with the dog. I bundled Daniel up and he really enjoyed being out in the snow.

This morning I decided to go ahead and make the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving and put it in some canning jars. It made 5 jars of sauce so I think I am going to have to send a jar home with my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and my mom. It was so nice cooking up the sauce while there was snow falling outside my kitchen window. I have a pot roast in the crockpot for a meal tomorrow and I am making a chili for this evening. I am just amazed that it has not stopped snowing all day! If it keeps this up we will have 6 or more inches by the time we go to bed.

It's that time of year again!

I know I jumped the gun a little bit but my husband requested that I decorate for Christmas early this year. He didn't have to try very hard to talk me into it. My sister-in-law Mai is from Vietnam and they do not celebrate Christmas like we do here in the States so she has really been looking forward to the holidays. She asked if she could come over and help me decorate. And of course she brought over little Charlie! In the picture she is hanging up the little bird ornaments I sewed last week. Here are a couple hanging on the Christmas tree.













This is a little video of a couple of very cute boys!


I can't believe Thanksgiving is this Thursday! I am very excited to be hosting again this year. I will be making Martha Stewart's Turkey 101 like I did last year. It got rave reviews and everyone keeps telling me how excited they are to have it again this year. I already got all of my grocery shopping done. There is no way I want to fight those crowds at the grocery store! Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow and Monday. It's not suppose to be a lot but it will still be fun. It would be really fun if there is snow on Thanksgiving but so far the forecast isn't calling for it. It is going to be COLD though!

Happy Thanksgiving!

He's walking!

Time flies by so fast! My little guy is now walking! For a while he was just standing up on his own without holding onto anything but he wouldn't try to take any steps. Then this past week he finally took a couple steps towards Daddy but didn't try to take anymore steps after that. Yesterday I took Daniel with me to my friend Hannah's house and she and I visited while Daniel played with his buddy Billy. Billy is 3 months older than Daniel and has been walking for quite a while now. While we were in her kitchen Daniel stood up and we cheered him on and he proceeded to walk across her kitchen! We cheered and praised him. Hannah said it must have been peer pressure from Billy that finally got him walking! :) Here is a little video of him walking at home. I would have gotten more but my camera batteries died. I will make sure to get more video soon for all my SoCal family!



Here is a picture for my mother-in-law Bonita! She bought Daniel some cute little bath toys so I took a picture for her. He really has a lot of fun with them Bonita and I am trying to teach him how to squeeze them under water and then bring them up and squirt the water out.



And here are a couple pictures for my Gramma, Daniel's Great-Gramma! When she visited this summer she brought Daniel this little cup with a fun straw. He loves having his afternoon cup of water/juice in it. :)

From old capris to a cute skirt...

The other day I was browsing through the sewing blogs I like to look at and I came across this skirt tutorial on Homemade by Jill. She turned a pair of old pants into a maternity skirt! I wanted to try it. I had a bag of clothes waiting to be dropped off at the Goodwill so I dug through it and found an old pair of denim capris. She had taken the waist band out of her pants and sewn in an old t-shirt to make it a maternity skirt. (An idea I plan to try when I get pregnant again!) I left the waist band in. After I was done I tried the skirt on but it was like a pencil skirt and I could barely move my legs. So I decided to take some pretty fabric and add it to make the skirt more open. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. But I think all in all I am happy with how it looks. I had a lot of fun and I have pulled out a couple more pairs of pants to make some more. One pair is khaki capris.