thank you!

Hello everyone!I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Sara & Jeremy arrived in Portland very late Wednesday. We all slept in and started getting ready. I talked to my parents on the phone then headed over to Elaine and Gina’s house (which smelled WONDERFUL of course). They had some apple cider warmed up so I got myself a mug of that (with just a bit of spiced rum) and so the festivities began. People began filling the house and we ate snacks, played cards, listened to music and watched football. Jay and Melissa came over and Jay set up the deep fryer out front. Elaine and Gina roasted a 22 lb turkey while Jay deep fried a 19 lb bird. I’d never had a deep fried turkey before so I was really excited to try it. There ended up being a total of 22 people for dinner including Elaine & Gina’s parents who brought over 30 twice baked potatoes and two pumpkin pies. I jumped in to help with the cooking in those last crazy 30 minutes. I was assigned the sweet potatoes. I made them just like my mom does with butter and brown sugar. Everything was timed perfectly and everyone filled their plates. Lincoln said a few words about good friends and good food and being grateful for the good things in our lives. Then everybody ate. It was fantastically good! I was good though and didn’t stuff myself knowing that I had to save room for some of the many desserts.

I helped with cleaning for a bit then had some coffee and pie. I had brought French Silk Pie (a long time favorite) and a pumpkin spice cake (with cream cheese frosting yummm). It was delicious and then I finally felt overly full. After dinner Sara & Jeremy went back to my house to lounge around and watch movies while I stayed and played games and hung out with everyone. We played Trivial Pursuit which was fun and then cards. I rolled myself home and hung out with Sara and Jeremy for a while before going to bed.

Friday we hung out at my house and relaxed. In the afternoon we went over to Elaine and Gina’s to eat some leftovers. Mmmmm I love the Thanksgiving leftovers. Elaine and Andrea got back from frisbee golfing and they had leftovers too. We spent the rest of the evening there. Dave came over and we all played a round of Shanghai Rummy. Sara had never played before but somehow crushed all of us to win by a wide margin. Elaine cooked some calzones and pizzas with crusts she’d picked up from Papa Murphy’s. Steve came over and Dave and Jimmy played music in the living room for a long time which was really nice. We went home full and tired and wondering when the eating extravaganza would end.

Saturday was a surprisingly nice day out meaning it was rainy, windy or freakishly cold. To take advantage we decided to go frisbee golfing. I had shunned frisbee golf all summer long, not playing once since the Masters in early June. I was ready to play again and happy to be playing in a big, fun mob. We played at Pier Park as a herd of 7. It was really fun but we were a slow moving group and let many smaller groups play through. After the game was done we went home where we stayed for the night. We napped then watched a documentary about the Pixies called LoudQUIETLoud then later we watched An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s documentary about global warming which was extremely good and quite disturbing. If you haven’t seen this movie yet RENT IT ASAP!

Sunday was cold and blustery outside so our plans for going into the Gorge were nixed. Instead we spent the day at home. I made a bunch of photo cards while Jeremy read, Camille did homework and Sara made us all melty ham and cheese sandwiches. Later that evening we went to the Bonfire where we met Melissa and Jay for drinks and dinner. Sara & Jeremy played some pool and then we decided to go back to Melissa & Jay’s house in Sellwood to hang out. They live in a beautiful old Victorian house that they’ve been fixing up. I love old houses since that what I grew up living in. I’m so envious of their home ownership. It’s hard but so rewarding!

Monday I went back to work while Sara & Jeremy made their return trip back north. A freak snowstorm had come through and Bellingham was buried under a foot of snow. This doesn’t happen very often so their drive took a long time once they got north of Everett. They made it home safely though and I was so happy that they came down for Thanksgiving.

That was my long weekend! Please let me know how you are and what you’ve been up to!

xoxo,
carolyn