Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a great Thanksgiving and so much to be thankful for this year.  We had my parents, Anthony and Laura, Grandpa, and my Uncle Lionel over this year.  Everything was just about ready at the same time and was delicious :)  It was such a pleasant meal and everyone seemed to have a really nice time.

 Jamie and I started cooking early and the Turkey took just over 4 hours to cook.  Of course we completely devoured everything in under 30minutes,  lol.  Here we are digesting before desert.

Of course my Mom made her famous Cherry Pie and we made a very deep dish pumpkin.  Anthony and Laura stayed after dinner and we played a game called Origins.  It was so much fun, I don't think any of us have laughed that much in a long time.

With the long weekend, we decided to go out for the day.  We went to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to see the illuminated manuscripts exhibit.  It was such a beautiful autumn day, a bit chilly with the wind but the sun felt pretty good.

The museum is located on the hills overlooking the ocean which makes a great view.  The manuscripts were pretty spectacular.  They had books from Belgium, The Netherlands, France and a few English ones as well.

It was a really nice day out, we had a good time at the museum and enjoyed being outside.  It was so nice to not be at work on a Friday.

Saturday we went to Pasadena to see the Gamble House.  It's now part of the USC Architectural School and is located very close to the Rose Bowl.  The home was owned by the Gamble's as in "Proctor and Gamble" and they donated the property to the City of Pasadena and USC to maintain.   

We've seen a lot of houses and stately homes over the years and this one definitely is one of the top houses we have seen.  It's a classic Craftsman house and every detail of the house was thought out.  The wood throughout the house was just beautiful, it's really amazing how the other half lives.  Afterwards, we went to Colorado Blvd for lunch.  The weather has been pretty cold the last couple of days.  It's definitely starting to feel like the Holiday Season :) 

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving dinner was perfect. Jamie and I cooked for most of the day and only made it outside for a brief walk around the park and watched the football pick up games going on. My parents, brother, Grandpa, Aunt Milissa, Val, Aaron, and their foreign exchange student, Minji from Korea, joined us for Thanksgiving. The turkey came out amazing, it was so moist and fell apart when you cut it with a fork. Jamie and I were pretty impressed with ourselves.

Desert was amazing as well. Both the pumpkin and cherry were so good and they taste so good together. It's not Thanksgiving without them.

Here we are, all sitting at the table, a difficult picture to take. We all had a great holiday together. This was our third year cooking Thanksgiving dinner and I think we've finally got it down. We had plenty of food and plenty of left-overs. We had turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwiches all weekend. It was fantastic!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving and we'll be cooking up a feast for this afternoon. While we have Turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, veggies, dinner rolls, and desert of pumpkin pie and my mom's famous cherry pie, the holiday is really about more than just food. According to here it all started in 1621:

"In 1621, the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Indians shared an autumn harvest feast which is acknowledged today as one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations in the colonies. This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America."

It was more than 200 years later that President Abraham Lincoln declared the final Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving and Congress finally made Thanksgiving Day an official national holiday in 1941.

As food is plentiful and the winters aren't really that harsh (especially in California) here is what I am thankful for:

I'm thankful for shelter. I still come home every night and can't believe our house is really ours.

I'm thankul for work. Jamie and I are so lucky not just to be employed but to really enjoy what we do, where we work, and who we work with.

I'm thankful for friends. We have such a diverse group of friends who are all different and great in their own ways. They've shown us so many different perspectives and are always there for us.

I'm thankful for my amazing husband. He is far too good to me and life is so much better when he is around :)

I'm thankful for family. It's been a happy year with two new babies coming into the family and yet a difficult year for both sides of our families, having lost loved ones. I'm happy we don't have to go through it alone and can count on each other for support, guidance, and friendship.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING