Sunday, November 26, 2017

Thanksgiving...s.

 Earley family Thanksgiving at my house. We have so many living nearby right now I feel really spoiled. Everyone took a food assignment,and I hosted because....I wanted to haha. I love hosting, especially when someone else helps with the food stuff.
 We've got me and Meesha's family and Gavin's family, and my Aunt and Uncle and my parents. Slowly we are luring everyone out to silicon slopes.



 It didn't matter what the rest of us said, Alex decided he was eating outside.

My brother kept telling him nobody else was going out there, but he was determined. Finally my dad decided to go out and eat with him. At least it was nice and warm Thursday.






 My sister's oldest even came up for the holiday. What a treat to see him!

 My niece was another treasured guest --my brother's oldest.
 We drank the fresh apple cider we pressed at my sister Kira's house in Yakima. It was like liquid gold. So sweet and perfect.
 I think there is some cousin teasing going on here!





 Getting ready for pie time!
 This was probably my ugliest pie year ever. However I think the varieties were all good picks. We did our family favorite Apple sour cream, a sweet potato pie, our chocolate covered pretzel pie (which I made 1 1/2 times big because everyone wants "a little chocolate" no matter what they pick), and the new one was a lemon sour cream my sister Kira recommended to me. It was a huge hit too.





 After eating we took a long walk around the neighborhoods enjoying a spectacular sunset. I probably needed to walk the equivalent of a marathon with how much I ate, but then, that is Thanksgiving for you.
 
We were able to have a second get together with Jeff's side of the family down in St. George on Saturday. Sadly this was the only picture we got. We had a great time, cooking together, eating, and talking. Jeff and the kids and Paola and I all went out to the Chuckwalla trail in the morning for a run. We didn't see any desert tortoises like last time we were there, but it was wonderful. So warm as to be almost too hot. Lovely. We had a hard time finding rolls down there. I nixed making them with the short time we had, and three different bakeries were out. Paola finally grabbed some brioche, and chopped it into rolls. Holy cow. Perfect. I highly recommend brioche if you want to live it up for a holiday. Dad insisted on getting a watermelon from Costco, and cutting it all up himself for the meal. It was surprisingly a great melon for the time of year! Mom sent us home with too many treats, and my diet is not going so well lately as a result. Well that and having two amazing meals in a row. 

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Halloween party!

Long time coming, but it took a while to collect pictures together, then I had a family trip. 
Me and my friends Kelli and Audrey hosted our annual Halloween party this year. We all love Halloween, and when we first moved to this neighborhood, we would all host one on alternate years to try not to step on each other's toes. Once Kelli finished the big yard to the side of her house, she has generously let us host together there in recent years. We all try to take some of the burden so nobody is stuck with everything. We also usually make it a potluck thing, so the expense isn't too great. This time we tried something different. Instead of potluck, We decided to do a sweet and savory waffle bar with the good kind of Belgian waffles. We asked for contributions from our neighbors for ingredients and toppings, and everyone kicked in pretty well. Things got a little hectic night of, with running around refilling the table, so this may be the first and last one like this (my calves were killing me by the end running up and down stairs in those heels!), but it was a nice change.

 Epic Halloween miracle for us this year. Jeff agreed to dress up! Can you guess who he is?

 Some of the families did great themed costumes.

I honestly wish I were able to get more pictures of people.
But we were all busier than in years past.



This is one of my little nursery boys. He INSISTED on Princess Leia for his costume and he made a great one!

 The funniest couple in the ward. Love these guys.

 The table turned out pretty cool with a nice garland from Audrey for the front.
 I really wish I had a better camera. Not loving this new phone's camera.




 We had  the biggest crowd we have seen. Over 130 people.









 This year we had some killer special effects thanks to this couple below. Fog and a startling opening coffin. Watch for it in the video near the end. 
Classed up the whole event! A big thanks to them!
And thanks to everyone who came and participated! It made my Halloween.