Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving Dinner

The first year that the Husband and I were dating, we had only been seeing each other for a couple months when Thanksgiving came around. Because I wasn't sure whether we would spend the holidays together, I completely avoided the potentially awkward conversation by making plans to spend Thanksgiving weekend with a girlfriend in San Francisco. The weekend before I was headed to SF, the Husband suprised me with dinner at his house so that we could still have Thanksgiving together. A couple friends joined us for the full traditional meal of turkey, stuffing and potatoes all made by my then-boyfriend. It was wonderful and probably answers any questions about how he became my husband. What a catch, right?!

The next year, it was obvious that we would be spending the holidays together (I was pregnant at this point) but we decided to do another pre-Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate with the same friends and added another couple to the mix. By this year, it's become an annual tradition. We have just a few friends over for a pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings. It's a great way to celebrate with friends since we spend the actual holiday with family. This year turned out great. The husband still takes this meal on mostly by himself. I pitch in by cleaning and setting up for guests.

Here's our table ready to sit down and grub on some delicious food (my camera was accidentally on the wrong setting so sorry for the horrendous blurry picture). I used leftover mason jars with tealights from our reception to decorate the table. I also had twine leftover from several wedding projects and used it to tie around the napkins. It was a simple way to dress up the table with things we already had around the house. I love the bunch of roses as the centerpiece. Not something you typically find this time of year but these came straight from some late-blooming rose bushes in our garden. It was a great night and definitely made me feel very thankful.

The Sicky Von Sickersons

We've got the flu in our house. No tests have been done but the doc says we have that flu. You know the one. Just me and Baby so far but energy is lacking. Must go now to coat the house in lysol and burn all the linens. Will post again soon.

Our "New" Bathroom

Last weekend the Husband busted out his inner handyman and got well... handy. Our master bath shower was in desperate need of some TLC. So desperate in fact that I didn't even take before pictures because it was too embarrassing. I think the shower doors were the originals from when the house was built in the 80s and they were so full of gunk and grossness that no amount of cleaning with toxic chemicals ever made it feel truly clean. The grout was stained, the caulking was mildewy... it was horrendous. But not anymore!

The Husband ripped out the old doors and scraped out all the old caulking and sealant and cleaned with some super-duper Tilex that could probably melt the hair off a dog. This unfortunately was not a time for "green" cleaning so I took Baby out of the house until it was all rinsed and aired out. Next my fabulous spouse repainted the ceiling and walls. We really liked the existing paint color so we peeled off a paint chip about the size of a nickel and the superheroes at Home Depot color-matched it exactly. It's a nice, soothing grayish blue that reflects enough light to make the separate shower/toilet room feel a little bigger. There's only a small window so going too dark would make it feel like a cave. He installed shiny, new shower doors and re-caulked the whole shower. Here is the result...

It sort of looks like the window is in the shower but it's really not. You can see how small it is though. I am so happy every time I use my "brand new" shower. It feels clean and sparkly despite some residual scratched tile and stains. To re-tile would involve ripping out the drywall and starting fresh and that is a project for a different time. For now, we have the feeling of a new shower for a very low cost.

Here you can see the color of the walls and my cute little shelf above the toilet. I'm sure you can survive without seeing the actual toilet- just imagine it below where the picture ends. The little glass jars are just Ball half-pint preserve jars from Walmart. They actually held votives and sat on the belly-up tables on the outdoor patio at our wedding reception. Miraculously I got them back and put them to good use to add a little country cuteness to our bathroom. The tea towels are from Anthropologie (aka heaven) and were a gift from my sister last Christmas. So there you have it... our "new" bathroom!

To the Pumpkin Patch We Go

We've started an annual tradition of going to the local pumpkin patch as a family just a couple days before Halloween to select our "carving" pumpkins. There is a great local place that does an awesome job decorating (great for family photo ops) and have reasonable deals for the most part. They really go all out making it creative so I snapped a few photos.

I love the tractor! Last year it was being driven by a headless farmer. This year the seat was empty so we propped Baby up there (with Dad hunched behind her out of view) and got a great picture of her in all her excitement.


We carved some pretty good jack-o-lanterns for our doorstep. We've done one for each of us since Baby was born and I always try to bring out my inner Martha. Unfortunately I couldn't get any good pictures of mine without the flash so you can't get the full effect but it looked great in person.

Baby's sweet little punkin

Dad's scary one

With the candle lit at night, it looks like a witch flying with the moon behind her amidst a starry sky but I just couldn't get a photo where you could see the silhouette clearly. Luckily it looked good in person. Happy Halloween!