Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Belated Turkey Day to You All!

We had a really nice 4-day weekend which started off with overindulgence and ended pretty much the same way. Originally my long weekend was supposed to start at the end of day on Wednesday, since I had Thursday and Friday off. However our dogs thought it would be nice if I was home all day on Wednesday as well, so they proceeded to eat a full 1 lb box of See's chocolates Wednesday morning! Michaela actually remembered that we forgot to put the box up before we left the house for work, and she immediately called me to say "the dogs are definitely going to counter-surf and get that box"....luckily for us, my cousin Ashley was nice enough to come by and confirm that the crime had been committed. For those of you that don't know, that type of chocolate is highly toxic to dogs and can literally kill them if they eat enough (based on the dog's weight, etc.). Also lucky for us is that our fat-ass dogs also happen to be goats with iron stomachs that can eat (and HAVE eaten) pretty much anything. So while I did end up rushing home to monitor them for the rest of the day, I'm happy to report that they don't appear to have suffered any lasting damage...except for the extra pounds and the cravings for milk.Michaela's Dad Skip came into town on Wednesday as well, and he got the chance to spend the entire weekend with us, only leaving early on Monday. It was really great for us to get so much time with him, and I know that Landon really enjoyed all the one-on-one playtime with Papa Skip. I am also very grateful to Skip for helping me out with the bird this year, as I had NEVER cooked a turkey before and was terrified about ruining Thanksgiving. Lucky for me, Skip's an excellent cook and walked me through every step of the process which allowed me to help Michaela out with all the other yummy goodness we cooked up. We ended up having all the staples...turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, stuffing...and a few of our favorites including Michaela's Nana's homemade apple sauce (delicious!), green beans, and apple pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert....all things considered, a phenomenal meal! To top it off, my Dad and Cora came up to spend some time with us and enjoy the meal as well, so it was a really nice (and low-key) holiday.

Friday I headed out to the golf course where I somehow managed to get stuck in the longest round of golf known to man. After an hour frost delay, we finally got out on the course only to realize that every hacker in the known world had congregated on one course....long story short, it took us 3.5 hours to get in nine holes, at which point we all threw in the towel.

We decided to dust off the Christmas decor and Landon really got into the act this year. Unfortunately he still hasn't completely grasped the concept that the ornaments are very breakable and not just toys that he can chuck around the house. I think we had several go down in flames this year, and I'm sure there will be more to come. But he did have a lot of fun and really enjoyed putting them up on the tree.

We also started the "Elf on the Shelf" tradition this year...it has been pretty cool for Landon to get up each day and look for the Elf (he named him Buzz, of course!)...part of the idea behind this is for Landon to talk to the Elf and tell him what he'd like for Christmas if he's a good boy...he's consistently told Buzz "I want Iron Man!" for about 3 straight days now...nice to know he's got his Christmas list together.

I totally chickened out and decided that it was far too cold to go outside to put up Christmas lights this weekend. Since we're in a new house, the task seemed far too daunting. Unfortunately that just means I may have to risk the weather to do it another weekend soon.

Sunday marked the last official "long run" for our marathon training. We logged a quick 12 miles and celebrated with a beer! Our big run is this Sunday in Las Vegas, and I'm pretty pumped to get this whole thing over with. The running itself is fine, but the time commitment that goes into training is pretty nuts and I think I need a mental break.

We're also taking Landon to Disneyland next week, so I'm sure we'll have about a million pictures to post pretty soon.

Hope you all had a great holiday. Thanks for sticking with our blog another year...Happy Holidays!