Thanksgiving and Other Opportunities to Eat and Drink Too Much...

In case you missed the news last week, Seattle got hit with quite a snowstorm! It started Monday afternoon and the snow shut down the city through Thursday... Here are some pictures from outside our apartment on Thursday--this is after it's started to melt, so there was plenty more. Now Minnesotans, before you laugh at the piddly amount of snow you see, remember there are big hills in Seattle and no snow plows! :)


Kitten's not sure what to make of the snow


Picture out the front door


View from out the back door

We went over to Aunt Cathy & Uncle Sandy's for Thanksgiving. Here are some pictures of us preparing our dishes: we made a baked potato casserole and a sweet potato dish with brown sugar & walnuts on top, yum! Thanks for the recipe, Ash!

Chels in the onion goggles :)
Lucky girl, I was crying!

Cousin Miranda & Matt

Yum! Though the picture does not do the food justice...

Here we all are at Aunt Cathy's

Cousin Claire & Sean

Friday night Chels and I had some friends over for a little cocktail party. Five of us girls (and Todd) used to work at Crate together and we still get together to hang out when we can! It was me, Chels, Todd, Marit, Courtney, Karen & PJ, and Erin & Ashod, fun times! I made pomegranate martinis that turned out pretty tasty :)

Marit & I setting up the snacks

Pomegranate martini, pretty and delicious!

Cheese and crackers is always a crowd-pleaser!

Sean and Claire came over today to play "Settlers of Catan" with us and help us eat the leftover cheese and crackers (we really had to twist their arms to help out, ha ha)...

Here's a picture of Kitten "helping" with the clean laundry :)

PS: Happy birthday to my Mom yesterday! My sisters thought it would be funny to actually put a candle per year on the cake and said she's up to three boxes this year--sounds like a fire-hazard! :) Mom said you could feel the heat radiating off of the cake, and that the candles were melting the icing, ha ha... Love you, Mom!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

That's right, folks, I've been listening to Christmas music already! This is new for me--typically I DO NOT listen to Christmas music at home because I hear it at work during the holidays (starts next Friday!), but this year I actually wanted to listen to it and I've already started. Chels and I downloaded some albums from Itunes and I've been thinking about getting the classics we used to listen to with Mom: Alabama, John Denver, the Carpenters, etc. Not sure if I'm ready yet for Anne Murray Christmas, sorry Mom :) I still cannot stand the little drummer boy, don't think I'll ever like that one!

What have we been up to lately? Well, we went up to Uncle Sandy and Aunt Cathy's cottage on Camano Island a few weekends ago, which was lovely. It's only an hour north of Seattle but it feels like a whole lot farther because it's so peaceful. It's nice to get away from the city sometimes... Earlier this week Chels and I celebrated 4 years together :) It feels longer in some ways and then surprising it's already been four years in other ways. We seem so young in our college pictures together. Funny!

Otherwise, we've been working a lot and trying to spend some time with each other and our friends. Busy time of year! There's a rumor Seattle is supposed to get snow this weekend, and I'm secretly hoping we get some. I LOVE the first snow of the season! One of the things I miss most about Minnesota, besides my family and friends (of course!). It's just so fresh and quiet and beautiful to see the first snowflakes falling, hopefully I'll get to see some this weekend (sorry Chels, I know you hate driving in the snow...) Then again, I'm one of the only managers who can still get to work when it snows because I walk to work, so maybe I shouldn't wish for snow. Oh well! :) I'm excited for Thanksgiving this week, yum! I'm planning to make 2 dishes--one is a sweet potato dish, and the other will be some sort of delicious potato and miscellaneous other item main dish that Chels will eat (that's Aunt Cathy's stipulation!). I wanted to make sweet potatoes the way we make them back home, with melted marshmallows on top, but everyone balked at that idea. So plan B is boring but still delicious brown sugar on top. I'll let you know how it goes... Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Lastly, I wanted to say goodbye to my sweet older cousin David. He passed away last week. We love you, David, and miss you. You won't be forgotten...goodbye.