Thanksgiving at Sundance

This year (yet again) we had a fabulous Thanksgiving feast at the Sundance Resort. I will not admit to how many trips I made to the buffet table. I did partake of the expected food...turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, butternut squash, and Diet Coke with lemon. However, this year the wonderful chef included the breakfast fare. So, I indulged in blueberry cream cheese filled french toast and yummy, crispy, bacon. I totally stayed clear of the salad table. Who wants salad on a day like today (or any day for that matter)? The desserts were divine, I had an undisclosed amount of sugary sensations. When we finally rolled out of the restruant, we strolled around the grounds at Sundance trying to burn a few calories. The only snow that has fallen is all man-made, but the kids had a great time playing in it.

Upon arriving home, I was shocked to see a holiday monstrosity. Someone (who will be very sorry) put the inflated tackiness in our front yard where the whole world could see it, while we were enjoying our Thanksgiving feast. I had my husband and son immediately remove it from the premises. We are now holding it hostage. The culprit/Holiday Bandit will be forced to turn him/herself in.

The old quiver chin trick

So it is over, Dancing with the Stars has announced the newest winner. While watching the final dances I saw Lance mess up a few times in his dance and Warren appeared to do the same. Then it was Brooke's turn. I wondered to myself if she was going to pull thru or buckle under the pressure like the other two. Brooke and Derek chose to do a waltz instead of something that was full of energy and excitement. The waltz was really nice and I didn't see any obvious errors with my untrained dancing eyes.

Once the dance was over I thought to myself that Brooke did a really good job and was feeling really good about Brooke's chances of winning. She has been getting my vote this season so of course I am probably biased in that opinion. And then, there it was. The camera closed in tight. It had to at least be a 15 second shot. Brooke's fiance, David Charvet, had the quiver chin. I lost it. I started to giggle at the quiver chin because I thought to myself that he stole my look.

This is the look I still give my mom when I want to comically annoy her. She gets irritated with me and just says to stop it. Sometimes she likes me to show the quiver chin to others when their kids through a tantrum or try pouting and she says that my sad face is much better.

So Brooke, I'm sure that your man's quiver chin was a ploy for a last minute sympathy vote but if it was or wasn't in the end you are the winner! Congratulations!!

Go into the light, Carol Anne

I’m back from sunny California and back to chilly Utah. It is so hard to come back into reality after you have spent a few days at the happiest place on earth (minus my bickering children). As I walked around Disneyland, I noticed how many different lighting fixtures they had. I LOVE lighting fixtures, you could even call it a fetish (but only if they are cute)! I know I didn’t even come close to getting pictures all of them, but I hope you will enjoy the ones that I did capture.

Thursday Quiz - well, it's a question this week

When growing up in Kansas we ate dinner with whatever family was within an hour’s driving distance but I also remember a girl from Japan joining us one year. Then there was the family from Tonga. It was fun teaching them about the holiday and learning about their culture’s holidays. Then there were those good family friends that we invited over to join us so that they would not be alone for the holiday. But my mother reminds me of when my brother and sister and I were just small kids and my kind, loving father would invite people over for dinner that they didn’t even know. My mom would feed them and these guests would fall asleep on the floor watching football with my dad. She was a little nervous to let us play around people that she knew nothing about but the people came, ate, slept, and then went on their way.

I wouldn’t say that my family is steeped in tradition but the meal itself is pretty basic with the roasted turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, yams, pumpkin pie, etc. When I lived in Louisiana I learned about turduken. If you don’t know what that is well you stuff a chicken inside of a duck and that goes inside of a turkey. This is what I would call untraditional food. I never tried it but I heard that it was really good.

So the Thursday quiz/question is: How do you celebrate Thanksgiving? Are you traditional or untraditional? Do you eat only roasted turkey or do you fry it? Do you eat steak instead of turkey? Let us know and give us some fresh ideas.

Fun pics

Greetings from sunny California! The weather is so warm (as in t-shirts & shorts). It's a big difference coming from wintery Utah. The Christmas decorations are up and looking fabulous. Most of the pictures for today's post were taken in New Orleans Square, also known as the French Quarter. One of my favorite spots to wander around. I love Disney's attention to detail!

Joys of the season

I love this time of year. The leaves have changed and the gold and red colors seem to be so vibrant against the drab brown of the mountains. Sadly, the trees in the mountains have lost most of their leaves but to drive around the valley I can still catch some of those amazing colors.

I used to not like to wear sweaters. They felt so bulky and scratchy but in the last couple of years I have grown to love them. When I lived in New Orleans I had a gray sweater that I wore just about every day. It has since gone away but I would love to get a comfy sweater like that one but without the holes that seemed to have found their way to Old Gray. But now, when I leave for work in the morning I have to have a sweater on because the brisk air touches my skin of my face and gives that great shock to my body to remind me that I am still alive and the sweater gives me that bit of warmth that keeps me comfortable.

Autumn makes me want to sleep in and never get out of bed. I want to drink hot chocolate and the yummy spiced cider from Starbucks. Fortunately, I have a family that I love to spend time with so the holidays are always filled with family. I love to find out which family members will be coming to Thanksgiving because even though we live minutes to a couple of hours from each other it seems like the day will be more enjoyable with more people there.

What I don’t like about this time of year is that spiders seem to show up inside my home. I wouldn’t say that I have a fear of spiders but I feel that we have this understanding: you stay away from me and I won’t kill you. When I lived at home I used to make my sister kill them but I haven’t been able to abuse those services for quite a while. A few years ago I was watching TV while sitting on my oversized chair. I don’t know what made me do it but I looked over the armrest and saw the biggest spider that I had ever seen inside of a home. It had to have been 2 to 2-1/2 inches across. My heart started racing and I had to take a moment to plan my attack. I thought to myself that I could use the vacuum but then I realized that he would likely clog the vacuum hose and that would not be acceptable. There was NO WAY I was going to step on it because I could imagine hearing his exoskeleton body cracking under foot. Then it came to me, I had spider spray! I jumped up and ran to get it. I think I used half of the can of spray on that guy and he wouldn’t die but just ran from me. Finally he started to convulse and then flipped over and died. I had to sit there for another hour or so with the can of spray just in case he came alive to try one last attack like at the end of a horror movie. I hate spiders.

Pure delight

Since arriving home from Paris about a month ago, I’ve been on a quest to find chocolate croissants like we had every day for breakfast. I finally found some that are flakey perfection from Williams-Sonoma online. They are made by pastry chef Jean-Yves Charon. They arrive frozen & you let them thaw overnight. The smell of them baking in my oven is heaven on earth. And of course they had to be enjoyed on Apilco porcelain with a nice cup of hot chocolate.

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/