A Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I can now say that I have officially hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner! Luckily everything went fairly smooth and our guests seemed to have a great time. We wish that we could have spent this holiday with our family, but this new experience turned out to be so much fun. It not only makes us very grateful for our family, but we are also blessed to have such wonderful friends. Here are a few pics from the special occasion:

We got a great deal on these dishes at Linens and Things (unfortunately they are going out of business).

The turkey turned out really well thanks to Reynold's Wrap Oven Baking Bags.

Turkey carving.

We had 3 couples join us and they all brought yummy dishes to share.
I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Advice for a First-Timer

So, it seems that I have taken upon myself a somewhat challenging task... hosting/cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. Yeah, it sounds somewhat daunting, but I am determined to succeed. Since we are not traveling home for Thanksgiving, I decided to take a leap of faith and invite a few other couples over for the occasion. Although I am not cooking the entire dinner, I am still taking charge of the "meat and potatoes" portion of the meal (turkey, potatoes, and stuffing). So, my question for you is: what advice can you give a first time Thanksgiving cook/host on anything and everything from cooking, decor, food assignments, etc.? Wish me luck!

** just a note: I already put the Turkey in the fridge today to thaw.

Thanksgiving THEN

And NOW

Things sure have changed...

Sedona

Well, Steve's finals are finally over! To celebrate, we decided to head up north to Sedona for the weekend... it was soooo much fun. I'm very excited because Steve gets 2 weeks off for Thanksgiving! He still has some things that he needs to study over the break, but I we will definetly have a lot more time together. Here are some of our adventures this weekend...

We did about 9 miles of hiking on Saturday... it was amazing!
I was a little scared when I walked over to that ledge... it looks a lot higher in real life.
This one reminds me of Lake Powell.
Steve climed up to this little cove... and he even had a sprained ankle from playing basketball the day before! I just think he has a very good pain tolerance.
Hole in the rock... literally.
Taking a nap...
I can't believe he got his whole body in there.
The challenging part is getting out! We saw lots of art too.

This is actually a painting.

DDR

So, it seems that I have a new addiction: Dance Dance Revolution. I know this game is kind of old and its popularity died out long ago, but I have wanted to own one of these things for years. Steve got me one for my birthday a few weeks ago, but the story behind this birthday present is what makes me realize how lucky I am to be married to such an amazing person. Since we have only one vehicle, Steve's current mode of transportation is a bicycle that has a knack for getting flat tires (as some of you may know we sold Steve's car before we moved here). I occupy our vehicle almost everyday of the week and and some weekends because of work. Steve wanted to purchase my birthday present without me knowing and decided to use his bike for transportation. Luckily when he made the trip to Wal-Mart he didn't have a flat tire, but the journey was still quite eventful. Steve rode about 6 miles to Wal-Mart on a very warm Arizona day with his backpacking pack to put the presents in. He not only got me DDR, but also a sewing machine since I can no longer make a trip to my sister's house to use hers. Unfortunately the sewing maching box did not fit in the backpack. Steve rode all the way home with a DDR box in his backpack and a large sewing machine box on his handlebars! I'm such a lucky girl...

You can see the intense concentration.

But, it all pays off in the end... a nearly perfect score.

note: REENACTMENT

Now I just have to figure out how to use this thing...