A day (or two) of thanks.

Our Thanksgiving was simple and lovely. How was yours?

I slightly over estimated how long it would take to make our little feast, which I blame my mother for. Just kidding!... but really. At home she spends alllll day cooking so I figured that's just the way the cookie crumbles. And then I realized she cooks for six mouths. I was cooking for 2... and a half. I don't know how Matt is able to consume so much food and still manage to be so skinny.

Everything was going wonderfully - the food smelled delicious, everything was getting cooked and heated up - until I shorted our power causing us to try to keep things hot (didn't work) and finish cooking the rest of the food on the stove. We rushed to get everything on the table and into our mouths before it got cold (again, it didn't really work aside from the stuffing which quickly came out of the pot and into our stomachs at rapid speed). But a cold Thanksgiving dinner is still a Thanksgiving dinner and is better than no Thanksgiving dinner, no?

Needless to say, I was rather disappointed about how the first Thanksgiving dinner I ever prepared didn't turn out how I had hoped. After lots of grumping during dinner I finally realized that this holiday is not about the dinner. It's not even about pie.(!) It's about being thankful for what you have and who you are and where you have come from and where you are going. It's about knowing that the person sitting across from your on a tiny dining table is everything you could have hoped for and being thankful for everything they do and have done and will do.

I looked at Matt and apologized for being so bummed and unreasonable when he was trying to comfort me.  He apologized for trying to comfort me a little too firmly. We kissed and made up, took a few pictures with Mochi, and lounged around for a bit between flipping on and of the switches for the breaker in our apartment wondering when our power would turn back on. THEN my genius of a husband remembered about the breaker box two flights of stairs down from our apartment! He turned our power back on and we made pie and watched a movie. It was glorious. (He's exceptionally dreamy when he fixes things).

Thanksgiving Eve!

It's the eve of our very first Thanksgiving as a married couple and the first year we will not be celebrating with our families in California. It's bittersweet, really. We're happy to be doing this on our own - a sort of symbol of our new independence and a new chapter of our lives, but being away from family during the holidays.. I don't highly recommend it.

I've always loved Thanksgiving - sleeping in, moseying down the stairs to be greeted by a waft of great smelling food as my mom slaves away in the kitchen, and (aside from eating) my favorite part - making the cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries. And the past two Thanksgivings, I've been fortunate enough to be able to celebrate twice; once with Matt's family and once with mine. (Helloooo holiday l.b.s.!)

This year we're having to compromise a little with our Thanksgiving meal. Our oven is out of commission so we're using the toaster oven my parents bought us on their most recent trip to Utah (Thank you!). And since toaster ovens aren't traditionally used to cook Thanksgiving meals - especially turkeys - we're making due with cornish hens. But to balance out our lack in the turkey department, we bought a teeny little ham. Other traditions are still going to go on as planned. I have all the ingredients needed for my favorite Thanksgiving side dishes: green bean casserole, butternut squash, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, and honey-butter carrots. I opted out on making my own cranberry sauce. Matt's not a fan and there's no way I could finish or let a family-size portion of cranberry sauce go to waste. I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to get everything cooked in time with the very limited space and resources I have to cook in, but I am excited (and a little bit nervous). If it doesn't turn out well, I'm hoping Wal-Mart will still have some of those ready-to-eat chickens on hand.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.
May your hearts be warm and full this holiday season.

xo.

Lately...

I've been too busy reading other people's blogs to post on my own..
That and I've somehow been juggling a full time job and a full time student schedule.

We've been getting showered with little snow flurries. Fall never lasts long enough in Utah. I figure there are two things that I like and dislike about the cold white stuff of the ground: 1) it looks fabulous on our view of downtown [like], 2) our heaters in our apartment haven't quite gotten the message that it's time to turn on and stay on [dislike].

Mmmmagic.

Matt's off on another whirl-wind adventure (I just got word that he has safely landed in Memphis for his lay-over to San Antonio), and I'm stuck at home with my homework, a long to-do list, and an energizer bunny.

But guess what!?

I found the slightest bit of free wireless internet in one area of our apartment - a Christmas miracle! It's slow, but it works! I felt like a kid on Christmas discovering that smidgen of internet to use in the walls of my own home. Life is wonderful, no?

That is all.