Thankful...

for my family.

Meet Barley

Meet Barley- Jeff and Val's new addition to the family. He is a puggle (1/2 beagle, 1/2 pug) and the sweetest little guy. Daniel and Charley-Boy have been having a grand old time romping around with him. I'll post more pictures soon!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! Since we have recently "upgraded" to a larger house with a MUCH better kitchen, Brian and I decided that we would like to host Thanksgiving for the first time. Besides, the walls of our kitchen/dining room are already painted pumpkin orange to provide a festive decor. We even used our wedding china for the first time.

Brian decided to volunteer to take over turkey duties. This was a brave venture considering that our Thanksgiving turkey is always prepared and cooked by my Uncle Randy. Uncle Randy's turkey is fabulous. So, with some turkey coaching from just about everyone in my family, as well as watching how-to videos on the internet, Brian decided to use Uncle Randy's dry brine method. Brian did add his own signature to the turkey by using an olive oil spread with fresh rosemary from our backyard. Brian's turkey was a success and let's just say, we didn't have leftovers for very long.

We were joined by my parents, my Auntie Mary, and Brian's grandparents John and Mary. We had a much smaller Thanksgiving celebration than we had expected. My dear PoPo suffered a stroke the evening before and so Uncle Randy joined Uncle Allan in Laguna to be with her. My cousin Brian was sick with a nasty cold and so soon we had dwindled down from a table of 12 to 8. We missed having them with us but we are so thankful that PoPo is doing better.