Hazen's November Artwork

Decorating the Tree

As Haz gets older, he is more and more helpful around the house. While having him help me decorate the tree took about 15x as long as it would have otherwise, seeing how happy he was with contributing to the beautiful transformation the house makes around the holidays was totally worth it. I love my non-conventional decorations. They make me so happy every time I look at them. I think it's so important to choose decorations that fit your personality, instead of conforming to the expected "norm"! It was really fun to tell Hazen about some of the different ornaments that I bought while I lived in Russia, and to show him the ornaments that we have purchased for each of our Christmas' together. These are the traditions that I hope to keep going for the rest of my life!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year it was Jason's family's turn to have us for the Holidays. Unfortunately, with my new job, we knew that traveling was going to be impossible. Heather and her family were out of town, so it was just my little family and my parents. It turned out to be one of the nicer Thanksgivings I can remember! It was so delightful to have a low-key holiday for a change. Don't get me wrong, I love the craziness of the holidays, but work has been really taking a lot out of me, so this was welcome change of pace. I was in charge of doing the turkey, the stuffing, the mashed potatoes and the gravy. I made a Pomegranate Glazed turkey with Wild Rice stuffing, as well as Jason and my favorite Cornbread Jalepeno stuffing. The mashed potatoes were delicious, and the liquor gravy topped everything off perfectly! My Mom made rolls, Green Bean casserole with EVERYTHING made from scratch, Orange-Cranberry Sauce and arguably the best pumpkin pie I've ever had! We had plenty of Martenelli's and our favorite soda to top off the meal. It was a sumptuous meal, to say the least! Mom and Dad, I'll do Thanksgiving with just you guys any time! Love you!

Family Pics 2010