Thanksgiving

It has been a crazy week!  I don't have a single picture from Thanksgiving Day.  I stayed up late the night before making a pumpkin pie and all other things that could be done a day in advance.  Steve let me sleep in, even though he was up late too.  I let him do that for me way too much.  How bratty of me.

He took the kids over to Ken and Rachel's house for some breakfast and football watching, while I stayed home and cooked.  It was kind of crazy and wonderful to be all alone in my house.  I downloaded an audio book to keep me company.  My selection was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I love it.

I chopped vegetables and roasted them in our electric roaster so I wouldn't take up valuable oven time.  They didn't caramelize properly.  After brining the turkey overnight, I patted it dry, coated the skin with oil, and stuffed it with aromatics.  I think it came out perfectly, but then we covered it with foil because we started an hour later than planned and the skin lost its crispness.  My gravy was too thin and my homemade pumpkin pie cracked wide open in the middle while cooling.  My heart broke a little bit over my failures.

But, we were with family, and that is nothing to be heart-broken about.  We are so blessed to live near Rachel and Ken, Christine, and the Earnest family.  Their culinary contributions were perfection.  We all stuffed ourselves.  Christine and her friend had to leave because Christine was working Black Friday at Anthropologie and had to be there at 5AM!  The rest of us adults sat in our living room after the kids went to bed and just talked.  It was lovely.

Annee and Darin stayed at our place with the sleeping children, while Steve and I went to a store at midnight to buy a washer and dryer:

  

Ha!  It was insane!  Luckily, there was a separate line for those buying appliances and the majority of the people were going for the TVs.  The ordeal only took us an hour and a half.  I'm pretty excited about our purchase.  It will be nice to have a washer that (hopefully) doesn't break every few months and actually cleans clothes.


My heart is filled with gratitude for my blessings.  I have too many to count, but I try to count them in prayer each day.  Perhaps I haven't yet faced hard enough trials to prove me wrong, but so far I've come to know that being grateful makes any stage of life a beautiful one.  

Thanksgiving

We drove to Indiana to be with my sister for Thanksgiving. It was our last opportunity to do so before she moves to Mexico City.

We had a wonderful time together. We ate a delicious Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

On Friday, we visited Churchill Downs, where we saw a real live horse race!

Friday night, we celebrated Stephen's birthday. We made a monster truck cookie cake for him and he ate exactly one bite. I should have stacked up some yogurt cups instead.

The trip was a success and thankfully we did not get stuck in West Virginia this time. Here are a few things I observed during my trip that I'm grateful for.

Mei Li is adaptable and resilient.
It was cold at the race track, and we forgot to bring any outerwear to Indiana. Mei Li wore just a sweater, skirt, and tights. Mei Li was smiling and seemed to be invigorated by the cold wind. I asked, "Aren't you freezing, Mei Li?" Her response was, "Yeah, but I have pockets!" And she continued to smile and twirl in the cold.

Stephen loves his cousins.
As we got ready to leave Indiana, Stephen cried over and over again, "I don't want to go back to Virginia!" As much as it hurt my heart to see him so sad, I was also happy to see that he had formed a bond with all four of these cousins.

Mi Na is indeed smilingly tender.
I sat next to Mi Na on the drive to and from Indiana. There was one time when she was so tired and crying so much, but could not be lulled to sleep by the moving car. So I smiled at her, and she smiled back, and we exchanged smiles for a few minutes until she smiled herself to sleep. She's a keeper.

Steve is better than Superman.
Some of you know about my Superman fetish. Steve is my Clark Kent, my Gilbert Blythe, my Superman, all rolled into one. He's sensible and nerdy, he can tease me with charm, and he can drive straight through the night and only stop for gas. Most importantly, he is good through and through, and I am reminded of that daily.

Ie Mei is an angel.
I'm sure I've said this before, but she truly is one of the most Christlike people I know. She lives her life in the service of others. Brad is lucky and deserving of her, and they are raising some great kids together.

I have much to be grateful for, more than I deserve. I suppose the best way to deal with that is to keep on being grateful and serve my family and others.

Thanksgiving in Boston

We drove to Boston for Thanksgiving to visit Steve's brother and his family. Google maps claimed that the estimated drive time was no more than 8 hours. It took more like 12, but that did include a couple of stops. On the way to Boston, Steve taught Stephen how to say "Bahston Gahden" like a true Bostonian. It was hilarious.

We loved seeing their new life at Harvard. What an adventure.

They took us to the Boston Public Gardens on Thanksgiving day, which was so so lovely. The kids enjoyed riding on the "Make Way for Ducklings" statues. Mei Li was actually having the worst day of her life that day, but managed to smile for the camera.

3-year olds

Z brothers and their families

Zack and Jack

Mei Li took this one.

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at their friends' house and it was so very delicious. I was especially impressed with Zack and Ana's juicy and tender turkey. I've never made a turkey before. I'm scared to. Someday I will, and I'll use Zack and Ana's recipe.

On Black Friday, we went to the Harvard Museum of Natural History. The kids loved it.

I was so pleased to see how well all the kids played together. Stephen and Jack, the roommates, had some fun middle-of-the-night adventures together.

That night, Zack and Ana arranged for a babysitter to watch the kids while the four of us went on a double date to P.F. Chang's. I really love those two. They fell in love when they were 15, which happens to be around the time I first met my Steve.

We were hoping our drive back to VA would be shorter than our drive to Boston, but it was still 12 hours. Still very worth it. We are so grateful for family. Nothing feels as warm and wonderful as being with family.