Thankful

My sister and I have officially "hosted" Thanksgiving for the past 7 or 8 years. Back then, our mom passed down a special family tradition. Each year we cook the basics, but we always find new and exciting recipes to try. Some things are staples, of course, like mom's pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes (yum!) and I do believe the clam dip is becoming one as well. Other than that, we experiment. We always have at least two appetizers, then soup follows, then the main course, and finally dessert. We make EVERYTHING from scratch...even the caramel (ok ok this year we didn't make the ice cream or the whipped cream). But there is no skimping here. And we don't try to make our food low fat or with less calories - no way. On Thanksgiving we're all about fresh, fattening and full of flavor. This year's menu looked like:

Appetizers
Crab Cakes with Red Chili Mayonnaise
Clam Dip with Sourdough

Soup
Roasted Pumpkin Soup with Mushrooms and Chives (I couldn't find any pumpkins however, so this ended up being squash soup - not your everyday squash but some that looked sorta like pumpkins so I figured what the heck)

Salad
Romaine with Cranberries, Oranges and Goat Cheese

Main Course
Porcini-Rubbed Turkey with Shitake-Madeira Gravy
Artichoke, Sausage and Parmesan Cheese Stuffing
Chive and Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Haricots Verts with Herb Butter
Maple Glazed Carrots
Sweet Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce

Dessert
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Tart with Caramel Sauce
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

This year, the food was truly a group effort. Kellie, Richie (my bro) and I along with our sous chef Ethan really knocked it out. We listened to music and cooked pretty much all day Wednesday and then most of Thursday. Kellie and Richie made the crab cakes. I wasn't happy with that selection as an appetizer because we made them a few years back and they weren't that good. This year though, this recipe, these cooks, these crab cakes were AMAZING. They were so damn good. Really, everything was delicious!

So of course I was extremely thankful for the fabulous fare, but on top of it, I was and am so extremely thankful for the beautiful family and wonderful friends I am blessed with. Ethan said it best when he read a Thanksgiving prayer:

Heavenly Father, on Thanksgiving Day
We bow our hearts to You and pray.
We give You thanks for all You've done
Especially for the gift of Jesus, Your Son.
For beauty in nature, Your glory we see
For joy and health, friends and family,
For daily provision, Your mercy and care
These are the blessings You graciously share.
So today we offer this response of praise
With a promise to follow You all of our days.
We pray in Jesus name, Amen.

A couple pics to follow - my flash drive is currently MIA.

Mission Inn Run: New Family Tradition?

On November 9th, the boys and I, along with my niece Sarah, participated in the 31st Annual Mission Inn Run. It was awesome. I had a blast and the boys did awesome. It was fun to be a part of something with my family that so many other families were participating in. There was a great sense of community. Everyone had a smile on their face. Well, except for the really tired runners - haha.

I did the 10k. My family gathered on one of the corners and cheered for me each time I passed. Ethan ran down the street to watch for me and then ran up with me when I finally came by. Both the boys waved and yelled "MAMA! GO MAMA!" every time I saw them. During the last mile, I was running up toward my family and Brenden yelled out while Ethan ran up near me. The lady next to me said "Aw, that must be really inspirational." She was right. It was such a good feeling to have all the people that I love, the people who genuinely care about me, there to watch me reach my goal of running my first 10k, without stopping, in less than an hour. It was wonderful. And I finished without even feeling tired. I was only happy. So happy.

The kid's races were fun too. They were SO proud of themselves and I was SO proud of them too. Brenden and Sarah completed a 1/2k while Ethan did the 1k. As soon as the kids took off during the 1k (fast I might add!), a bunch of the parents (including myself) took off down the side street to meet them at the pass. It was so funny! I tried to run to get ahead of Ethan to take a good picture of him but he was too quick! Aunt Jay got one though!!!


Brenden and Sarah were quick too! Ok, well Sarah wasn't so quick but she is a lovely little tea party type of girl and she did FABULOUSLY considering that. Her mom Jocelyn ran with her the entire time convincing her not to give up!

I had done something similar a couple of days before, yelling at ALL the kids not to give up when they came down to the track for a "trial run". Since they had never run in a race before, I wanted them to experience the run so that they would get a feel for how far they had to go. They did well, but wanted to walk some, and I kept yelling across the field "DON'T GIVE UP!!!"

After the kids' races, they got their medals, we looked at the list of names and times, and then headed for a family lunch at our mexican restaurant. :)

I do believe (and genuinely hope) that this will become a new family tradition for us. Even Kel said that maybe she'll do the 1 mile run next year - hehe. It was terrific!