Being Thankful, Part 1

It had been at least 2 years since we'd last celebrated Thanksgiving in The Dalles with Michael's family, so our plans were to head through the Gorge on Wednesday night, weather permitting, spend Thursday with his family and return that night so I could work the next day. We were also playing it by ear a bit since there had been some snow and ice in Portland earlier in the week, and there was the possibility of pretty bad weather through the Gorge.

We thought I might get done early at work because of the upcoming holiday, but it was fairly busy and I didn't leave until my regular time of 6:30pm. I got home and got a few things together to take to The Dalles but by that time it was 8:00pm and we still needed to eat dinner. We'd heard there was ice through the Gorge and of course the regular pre-Thanksgiving traffic so taking all of that into consideration, we decided to settle in for the night and leave early the next morning. We were both so glad we did!

Thursday morning traffic was a breeze and we sailed through the Gorge, enjoying the snowy landscape. Multnomah Falls was particularly beautiful. It looked like a cascading sheet of ice with just a small river of water flowing through its middle. Breathtaking. I wished I'd had the camera out, as neither Michael nor I remember ever seeing it look so icy. I was able to get some nice pictures of the hills as we passed through Rowena though, and as we came into the The Dalles from the west.

Michael's parents were watching for us and met us at the door. Their house was cozy warm and smelled deliciously of roasting turkey--what a great place to spend Thanksgiving! Donna and I busied ourselves with fixing side and "snack" dishes, while Michael and his dad headed out to check on some apartments that his dad helps maintain.

Soon they were back and with them came Michael's aunt Linda. She was soon joined by her daughter Shawn and Shawn's kids, Cage, Vicky & Abby. Soon after came Linda's other daughter, Melissa and Melissa's daughter, Kyla. At this point everyone who was scheduled to arrive had arrived and we all nibbled at pumpkin hummus & sundried tomato hummus (thanks, Melissa!), quinoa salad w/corn chips and lentil & potato crunchy curls.

It was a lovely afternoon spent visiting and catching up on each other's lives. Michael and I had missed the Hoffman family reunion this past summer and so had not seen everyone for at least a year. The kids had all grown taller and made those of us who went to high school together (Michael, Shawn, Melissa and me) feel more than a little old and wonder where the years had gone. :)

The turkey was very good, as was the new recipe I tried out on Michael's family: sweet potato fries. They turned out, surprisingly, like the old-style krinkle-cut fries that I have always loved. They were also very easy to make! We used salt & pepper, some olive oil and thyme and nutmeg although I think many different kinds of seasoning could be used and they'd still be delicious. I was glad that Michael liked them, since they will be a painless way to get some veggies into him that aren't McMenimen's tater tots . . . we have become used to having them on the evenings when we go out to play pool. Sweet potato fries before we go will be a much healthier alternative. :)

All too soon it was time for us to head back to Portland . . . there was talk of freezing rain hitting the Gorge sometime Thursday evening, and we wanted to stay ahead of it. Although a short trip, it was fun to see everyone, and to spend time together being thankful for what we have.

A few pictures of Michael and me, and his parents, Ted & Donna:

Playing Hooky

I felt like I was playing hooky from work yesterday afternoon, but I had the time off fair and square. A couple months ago I won a half day off with pay and had to cash it in before it expired. I decided it would be nice to take it on a Thursday since I normally get off work at 3pm on Fridays and that way I would get to leave early two days in a row!!

At first Michael thought he would end up working late, and wouldn't be able to join me, but it turned out that he was able to get off at 2pm as well, so we got to spend a rare weekday afternoon together. :)

It felt like a day in June or July--the weather was that warm and sunny, and there wasn't even a hint of the fall crispness that is normal for November. I knew that I didn't want to spend such a glorious afternoon in the house, so Michael and I agreed that we would take our new camera up to the nature park to wander the trails and practice our photography skills--well, mostly me practicing. Michael took photography classes in high school so already knows quite a bit about composition, lighting, etc. Here are some things we saw in the park:

After our photo shoot, we headed to Lowe's where we bought paint and some trim for the master bathroom. Our plan is to continue the update we started when Michael replaced the sinks and hardware earlier this year. It will be a good winter project and will look really nice once it's finished.

Not a bad afternoon's work--I mean, rest. :)

Happy Scary!

Michael and I had a pretty low-key, laidback Halloween weekend. Friday night we watched a movie with John and Amy, "Getting to the Greek," which had some pretty funny moments and definitely wasn't scary, which was one of my requirements for watching it. :)

I did some housework on Saturday while Michael and John test drove some cars (the Hyundai Genesis was a big hit) and pretended they were race car drivers. Then we hit the grocery store and made sure to get a couple bags of candy just in case some trick-or-treaters managed to find our door. Since we live on a flag lot and are tucked behind another house, I think that most people don't know we are there, which is nice in some ways, but not in others. I love giving out candy on Halloween, so not getting trick-or-treaters has been something I have wished we could change about where we live.

Sunday we each carved one of the small pumpkins we got with our CSA membership. It took longer than I remember--I guess it's been awhile since I last carved pumpkins--but we had fun and it really felt like Halloween to be scooping and scraping and carving scary faces.

We spent a few afternoon hours visiting Michael's Uncle Dick in Hillsboro. We've lived so close to him for the past 6 years and yet haven't gone over much to visit. So it was fun to catch up and listen to the two of them talk about their many shared interests: guitars, golf, pool, target shooting. I'm sure the list goes on! Hopefully, they'll be able to plan some excursions together in the near future.

We got home just after dusk and I set our pumpkins out so their spooky faces could glow from our front porch. I was concerned that Flynn would trip on one of them on his way outside and break a leg--or set our house on fire. Thankfully, neither of those things happened :) and Michael and I spent our evening watching scary movies. Although I normally don't want to watch them, I make an exception on Halloween itself, but they have to pass some pretty rigorous screening since they can't be too scary or I won't sleep. We watched one about a vampire that was fairly campy--more like a bad B movie than anything, but the next one we watched was much scarier. The movie was "The Deceiver" and was from 1997. It was good and scary in a Silence of the Lambs kind of way. But I only had to stay up for a little while after it was over before I could go to sleep, so it wasn't too bad.

At the end of the evening we hadn't had a single trick-or-treater but we still had a nice Halloween. And Michael has a whole lot of leftover candy--he scored quite a haul for someone who didn't even dress up! ;)