Losing

I hate it.  But sharing the pain with others who understand . . . helps.

So, this helped:  Levels of losing.

I've experienced most of these.  Last Saturday's football game combined about 5 of them in one game.

And now we will move on.

1

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving Dinner at our house this year (18 people) and I cooked a turkey for the first time ever. As a woman of mature years, I felt it was time to be the host.  And I loved (nearly) every minute of it. I had everything planned out on a spreadsheet (that's right) so I knew what time to start doing what. Two columns; one for my duties, one for Sam's. We are a good team.  I love cooking and planning with him (and even cleaning, and the kids were great helpers).

Everyone I talked to was falling all over themself to help me learn the secrets of roasting turkey.  I brined it the night before (doesn't that sound fancy) and it made the meat really tender.  And it was done cooking two hours earlier than anticipated (thank you, convection oven) which was great but I worried it might not be hot enough? or something.  But it was delicious.  Next time I'll know I don't need to allow so much time.

What else did we cook? Mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, carrot soufflé, homemade rolls (my favorite part of Thanksgiving), roasted asparagus. (Abe nearly froze his hands off in our backyard, digging out some fresh herbs from under 14 inches of snow.  But he got the rosemary and it was delicious. :))  Our guests brought stuffing and cranberry-marshmallow salad and green beans.  It was all so tasty.
And then pie, of course.  I like to have a surplus, an abundance, a wealth of pies.  I wish I'd gotten a picture of all the pies lined up.  They were lovely.  I made this pumpkin praline cheesecake (with gingersnap crust, yum) and our old favorite chocolate chip cookie pie.  My sister-in-law brought apple pie and vanilla cream and chocolate cream pies, and my mother-in-law brought pumpkin cake with whipped cream.  It was perfect.

I thought it looked really beautiful with all the dishes out and the Fall colors and everything, although as I look at these pictures it doesn't really seem that impressive.  And I forgot to get flowers for the table (I meant to) but, oh well, it was pretty anyway.  I got to use the turkey tablecloth Beth gave me years ago and I've never used because I'm always at someone else's house for Thanksgiving. 

I love pretty dishes and silverware and paper lanterns and good food and having people over, so this was pretty much an ideal day for me and I'm happy I got to do it!

5

Clearing out

Some unrelated pictures I'm trying to clear out of my "share" folder:

Funny horse

Play dough

Red Butte Gardens (in warmer times)

Sucking thumb with finger hooked over nose

Happy walker

0

Baptism

Abe turned eight last month and got baptized.  Here he is with his new football scripture case.  (Yes, we have noted the possibility that this may encourage him to throw his scriptures---but he hasn't, yet.)
 

He is such a happy, handsome little man.  I loved him in his new Sunday suit and in his white clothes.

0

Logan Canyon

It seems impolite to say this, but there can't possibly be any cuter baby in the entire world.  ANYWHERE.

On our way home from our family reunion, we stopped at a particularly beautiful campground in the cayon to have a picnic and play in the leaves.  It was Fall in my very favorite phase: earth and sky BOTH covered with leaves.  They were so thick you couldn't see the ground beneath them.  And they were SO yellow!  My very favorite color of yellow---that rich, pure gold.  The boys collected armfuls (armsful?) of them.  After a while they started saying, "I wasn't going to get any more leaves---but I just can't resist!"

I couldn't resist any of it.  The sky, the river, the leaves, the children.  All totally breathtaking.

Pleased with his findings

Shoe off

Yellow carpet

Eeeee!

0

Reunion

A cattail; he loved it and carried it around everywhere

We had a nice time at our family reunion last weekend.  I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few.  The weather was beautiful and Bear Lake was really pretty (I'd never been there before).

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Canyon

 I like it when the leaves are like this---just a few bright dots against the black branches

We have been greatly appreciating the recent warm days (even more so knowing that they may be our last for awhile).  We were up in the canyon one evening and the light was really pretty.

 Malachi attempting to "look happy"

They were pretending to be trains---Daisy LOVED it

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