I know I say this a lot, but this year has come & gone so quickly. I can hardly believe we’re past Thanksgiving and smack dab in the middle of the holiday season. My Grandma Dottie has always said that life passes by quicker as you age. That’s certainly seems to be true as I’m pretty sure we went from January to December in what feels like record time.

Thanksgiving this year was great. We spent a quiet afternoon/evening at my Mom’s. Josh and I bought a 14 pound Turkey and brined it in our ever evolving homemade brine and spices recipe that seems to get better and better each year. All I can say is that when the bird is brined it’s so moist, cooks quicker and OH THE GRAVY! It really does make a difference in how good the gravy turns out. We enjoyed the turkey with all the traditional accompaniments including an amazing pancetta and gruyère stuffing that my Mom made. We topped off an amazing dinner with outstanding desserts. My Mom went all out and made a ginger & pear cheesecake and of course what would Thanksgiving be without homemade pumpkin pie. We’ve been working on the left overs all week which has been great considering I have been working so much. There are so many great meal variations you can make with Thanksgiving leftovers. In fact, I think I’m seeing some homemade turkey noodle soup in our future.

With Thanksgiving successfully behind us, it’s full steam ahead to Christmas! I’m looking forward to all the fun times with friends and family that the holiday season brings. There are so many great things to look forward to. Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Cheers to a fun and eventful holiday season that is filled with love and most of all memories that last a lifetime! ♥

Just a quick post to show a couple of cute family photos. I love the one of the kids. I think I’m going to have it printed and framed. They really look so much alike especially when they both have the same expression. LOL!

Last Saturday was a big day for Jakob & Josh. My sister, a PSU student, is leaving in January for a program she was excepted for in the Dominican Republic. She’ll be gone for 4 months and in preparing to leave she gave Jakob her ball python, a snake he has adored for some time now. Last Saturday we picked up Milli and brought her home.

If you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be willingly living in a house with a snake I would have told you that you we’re crazy and yet here I am now living in a house with 2 snakes one of which resides in our bedroom. We already have a Pueblan Milk Snake named Frankie that we got Jakob for his 7th birthday. Frankie is a beautiful snake. She is extremely fast and hides most of the time deep in the aspen bedding of her terrarium. Although we really like Frankie, Milli has captured our hearts in a way I don’t think any of us expected. She is so sweet, inquisitive and almost Labrador like in her demeanor. She’s slow and so much more attentive than Frankie who would rather just speed back to her tunnels in the aspen.

Milli is around 2 to 2 ½ feet long and when full grown can be anywhere from 4-5 feet in length. She has an average captive life span of 20-30 years which means if all goes well she’ll be around for a long time. She is much larger than Frankie and instead of feeding her mice like we do for Frankie, she eats rats. I’m super thankful that I don’t have to partake in the process of snake food preparation but I must say that watching them take down something that big is impressive. Milli is slow and mellow until you feed her. She can strike and constrict at lightening speed. I was not prepared for that when we fed her last and I was so surprised that I jumped. LOL!

It’s been such a fun week getting to know her. Jakob has come home each day excited to get to hold her and has spent some of his chore money to buy and decorate her terrarium. Now Josh and I are going to have to add some chores to his list so he can earn and pay for the rats we’re going to have to buy and feed to her each week.

With Christmas on the horizon, Josh and I have been talking lately about taking our own family photos so that we have a good shot to put on our Christmas cards. In planning for the occasion, I recently cut both Josh and Jakob’s hair and we decided when we had a nice day where Jakob wasn’t in school, we’d run out and take some family pictures. Yesterday was that day and we packed up the family and the camera and headed to Oxbow Park a 1,200-acre park located within the wild and scenic Sandy River Gorge.

I coordinated all the clothing but didn’t realize that it was going to be quite so cold so most of the shots have the kids wearing their jackets. I can’t blame them. I was cold too and couldn’t wait to get back into the car. I’m thinking next time we may want to do this a little bit earlier in the year when it’s a little warmer and maybe a little less damp. LOL!

So here are some of the best shots. I was really pleased with how they came out especially considering that the kiddos only last a short time. I think if I get some time I’ll setup a mini studio here at home and see if I can get some more great shots. I may have to do some bribing to get the kids & Josh to comply though.

It’s hard to believe the holiday season is already upon us with less than 3 weeks until Thanksgiving and 50 days to Christmas. I noticed that many marketing departments must be working overtime because the day after Halloween the Christmas commercials began with a vengeance. I can’t say I mind it much because I love the holidays and if you asked everyone around here you’d find out that I’ve been listening to Christmas music for a month already.

Halloween this year was really a blast. My cousins are all starting their own families and now we have 7 little ones in the age range between 0-8 years old. This year we got some of my Aunts, Uncles, cousins and their kiddos together and met at my Grandparents house to go trick or treating. My cousin Lisa just had her 2nd and at only a week old he went on his first trick or treating trip with us. My Grandparents loved that they got to have 5 of their 7 great grandchildren at their house on Halloween and they along with my Aunts & Uncles created quite an amazing spread of food and beverage to fill us up and send us all off with. One thing we are never without in this family is great food and beverage. It’s the foundation of all of our family events and we’re so fortunate to have so many great cooks & bakers among us.

This year Jakob originally decided to be a Ninja then he changed his mind and decided that he was going to be Billy the Exterminator, a pest control star in a TV show that we love to watch around here. We were able to throw a costume together for that very quickly and it worked out to be one of his best costumes yet! I was really proud of all the things he came up with to make it work. This kid is so creative. I love always getting to see what he comes up with next.

Madison decided early on that she was going to be a princess. We found a princess dress for her at GoodWill about a month before Halloween. She’s actually played in that dress all month long. I’d say that alone made it a bargain at $4.99.

I dressed up this year as a black cat. I found a really cool headband and tail at the store for cheap and then did my makeup to look like a cat. It was a hit. I got compliments all day. The best part of it was when I met Jakob as he was getting off of his school bus. I thought he was going to think it was really cool but instead he glanced at me and then quickly looked at the floor of the bus. I realized he was having a moment of “that’s not my Mom and I’m not here”. LOL! It was priceless!

Josh was going to dress up as a fisherman, but actually spent the entire day fishing and came home soaked because he forgot his waders so he was unable to assemble a dry costume. LOL! That’s ok. He was the real thing all day. I guess being in costume most of the day counts. Right?

This Halloween was a successful one for the kids who scored tons of candy and thoroughly enjoyed their costumes. Good times, tasty food, great memories & tons of candy. What more could you ask for on Halloween?

What a wonderfully busy week we’ve had in our household. The kids and I created an autumn sign for our front door made out of leaves, pine cones & sticks we found while walking around the neighborhood. We made and decorated cupcakes for Halloween and then we topped our weekend off with a birthday party and two Halloween parties where the kids dressed up, painted pumpkins, had their faces painted (Maddy’s favorite), played games, did crafts and obtained large quantities of candy. Then in case that wasn’t enough, my brother and his wonderful wife sent the kids fully loaded Halloween buckets in the mail. These kids have so much candy already that I’m not sure what we’re going to do with all the candy we’ll have after trick or treating. I’m sure the kids have some ideas of what to do with it! LOL!

Jakob was originally going to be a ninja for Halloween when one day this weekend he came out of his room and had assembled a Billy the Exterminator costume. He is so inventive. Josh and I thought it was so cool so we stopped by Goodwill and picked up a couple of details to assist him with his costume. Although I haven’t yet photographed him yet with the extras here was one photograph Josh took of me with “Billy”. We’ll reveal the full costume on the next post.

Even more exciting this week was Josh’s catch. We’ve be fishing a lot lately for Fall Salmon. Josh in particular has been persistent. He has been out nearly every day examining and fishing the holes and finding the best spots. Last Thursday he came home with these two female salmon. I was so proud of him. He’s been smoking salmon for the last couple of days and I’m sure making the neighbors jealous in the process. It is good stuff! That BBQ with the smoker has worked out to be one of the better gifts I’ve ever gotten for Josh. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! LOL!

Exciting times are ahead this evening as we head out to trick or treat with a little Princess and Billy the Exterminator. Happy Halloween!

The temperatures are beginning to cool drastically, all the trees are turning and tomorrow night will be our first frost. We spent this weekend picking out and carving our pumpkins with the kids.

Saturday we headed out on one of the back roads and hit up a local farm for pumpkins. The kids had a blast walking/running through the field and all of the pumpkins. Many of the pumpkins were already beginning to rot. Jakob kept lifting them up off the ground and then letting them fall a short way to find out if they were rotten or not. There’s nothing quite like the look and sound a pumpkin makes when it hits the ground. SPLAT!!! We ended up picking our pumpkins out of the bins that had been stored in a dry place. At 20¢ per pound we got out of there for less than $7.

Sunday evening we lit the candles, turned on the movie Hocus Pocus and made a yummy salmon, quinoa & butternut squash dinner and began carving our pumpkins. This was the first year Jakob carved all by himself. I was so proud of him. He cut the tops off and cleaned out most of the pumpkins, meticulously saving each and every pumpkin seed. Jakob loves to eat roasted pumpkin seeds! Jakob carved a cool “viper” face in his pumpkin. We also did our traditional Jack Skellington, one pumpkin with our last name and Madison’s pumpkin as a basic jack-o-lantern. Maddy absolutely loved her “baby” pumpkin. She carried it around like a doll all evening. She even put a binky in it’s mouth. LOL!

Many great memories have already been made this October and many more to come this next weekend. I’ll post all about it next week!