On the Menu

Scott cooked our Thanksgiving dinner today, entirely by himself, and he never even broke a sweat. My mom and I sat around and watched him, napped, took the kids to the park, did a few dishes and that was it. It was just the three of us, plus the kids for dinner. My dad is enjoying his Turkey in Napa Valley with his sister Bobby, Ross, Niki and Baby Kieran. I have to say, it was the best Thanksgiving dinner "we" ever cooked. The best part was that we deviated from the traditional side dishes.


On the menu:
Organic Turkey, brined and roasted to perfection
Harvest stuffing with apricots, pine nuts, cranberries, apples and plums
Green beens with shallots and clementine zest
Mustardy Kale and bacon salad (this was AMAZING)
Roasted sweet potato rounds with crispy sage (PHENOMENAL)
And a can of cranberry sauce, rings still visible.

sweet potatoes

5 years later

Engagement party, 2003

Scott and I celebrate five years together this Friday. It's a special one because our anniversary is going to be the day after Thanksgiving, exactly like it was when we got married.

It's amazing to think about how our life together has changed in those five years. The biggest two changes are obvious - Sawyer and Arden. I had a little laugh looking over their birth certificates the other day and realizing that I was 33 when I had Sawyer and 34 when I had Arden. I have literally been either pregnant or nursing since October 2005.

The other major change is that when I got married I thought I was saying goodbye to certain things, like not being able to get the lid off a jar of pasta sauce when I'm by myself, or setting mousetraps. or taking the garbage to the dump. (I realize that these last few may baffle some of you city folk). But, here I am happily married and back at a point where I have do all these things by myself. Okay, I don't set the mousetraps but I've had to remove a few 'used' ones. It's so easy to become dependent on a spouse, so it's good for me to bust out some of my old survival skills and to remember that I can do these things (with the help of a jar opener, large tongs and a thick pair of work gloves). I'm so proud of Scott that it makes it all worthwhile.

In these last five years, we've been better than I ever anticipated, even when things were worse. And we've been richer than I ever dreamed, even though we were poor.

Here's to many future years of health and happiness honey. The best is yet to come.

Notes

Too cute to correct:
Sawyer when he finds something he was looking for, like his cup or his coat:
Here it are! Here it are!

Reasons to suspect Sawyer might make a good reporter:
What's that? Why? What doing? Why? Where it go? Whyyyy?

Go Big

Scott and I have always been big believers in the "Go Big Or Go Home" mantra. While it may have originated as a bumper sticker stuck cockeyed on the tailgate of a snowboarder's Pathfinder, we tend to apply it to all aspects of life - for better or worse. Taking Sawyer to see his first movie was no exception.

I really hadn't planned to take Sawyer to see his first movie this year, or even next year for that matter. We live more than an hour away from the closest movie theater, and I figured we'd wait until Sawyer was old enough to appreciate the movie, or at least sit still through it.

I have distinct memories of my first-ever movie "Star Wars," which I saw with my dad and my grandmother when I was still too little to keep the seat from folding back up on me. My grandmother put her 10-pound purse down next to me, which solved the problem. The movie both terrified and captivated me, and I may have been one of the few 6-year-old girls to possess the entire action figure collection as well as a fleet of x-wing fighters and the evil empire's dollhouse.

Several weeks ago Sawyer saw a full page color ad for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, and went absolutely nuts. He owns the first movie and can name all the animals. It's never been my favorite movie, but the thought crossed my mind that it could be a good first movie him - except that its rated PG, for 'crude humor.' That's what happen when Chris Rock stars as a zebra.

On Saturday, during an impromptu trip to the Dulles air and space museum (AWESOME) we came across a life-sized poster advertising the movie at the IMAX theater. Throwing caution over 'crude humor' aside, we bought tickets. After all, if you're going to see your first movie, what better venue than an IMAX theater.

Sawyer sat riveted through the entire show and Arden (eventually) slept (thanks to Magic Dad who can put any baby to sleep) despite a volume decibel that I found borderline painful. And, while it's no Finding Nemo, it was pretty good. The soundtrack was great and now Sawyer makes me sing on command (Sing Momma. Sing!): I like to move it move it . . .

My Backyard

A Sunday morning kayak through my backyard with my neighbor Jayne. Photo taken by Scott from our house.

Roasted

Legend has it that any month with an R is a good month to eat oysters. Around here, November and December are filled with oyster festivals, oyster roasts and oyster sandwiches on special. My mom has been farming her own oysters off her dock for about five years now and almost every weekend during November and December we roast them on the grill. This was the second week in a row we ate oysters - I like them alternately dipped in lemon butter and spicy cocktail sauce, but I prefer the small ones. My mom's not scared of the bigger oysters, but this weekend she may have met her match. She pulled up some of the biggest oysters she had. Scott joked that they were abalone, not oysters, and passed on eating any. My mom ate the biggest oyster in the batch in just one bite and after that she couldn't eat any more. I've never seen her turn away oysters before. We put the rest of the behemoths into a bowl for oyster bisque and decided that we'd all rather stick with the smaller oysters from now on.

Headed out for dinner

Happy Birthday Scott!

Have to add a little props to my good friend from high school Potato (aka Jonathan Williams) who has opened this awesome restaurant in Arlington: Restaurant 3. We had a really yummy meal there. If you're in the area, check it out.

When things don't go as planned

Neither of our kids seemed exactly thrilled about being dressed up for Halloween and forced to pose for countless photos. But as soon as we hit the streets and Sawyer got the hang of it (run, ring door bell, get candy, run, ring door bell, get candy, run), there was no turning back. He ran from door to door, ('I runnin' I runnin') said trick-or-treat and thank you to everyone and even told the little old lady who kept giving him more candy to 'close the door now.' We started early (I think we were the first group at almost every house) but got home in time to greet all the tricksters who came knocking at our door (equally as fun).

okay shut the door now lady.