Thanksgiving

Yesterday my little family and I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time. Thankfully, we didn't have to cook everything, so we were able to actually enjoy our Thanksgiving. I think the key to hosting is not getting too stressed out. I thought that I would be a nervous/pessimist wreck yesterday, but never once did I think things were going to go badly. Maybe that's because Nick was in charge of the turkey, not me. But it still helped to be positive. 

Here's what we had:

Gordo the 30lb Turkey (I kid you not, he was really 30 pounds) with a mixed fruit and walnut stuffing

Honey baked ham

Normal Stove-Top stuffing

Butternut squash and parmesan bread pudding

Mashed potatoes

Green bean casserole

Stuffed mushrooms

Sweet potato and apple gratin 

Red chile

Homemade gravy 

Crescent rolls

Pumpkin pie

Mince meat pie

Rocky-road cake (because we believe chocolate should be featured on Thanksgiving)

Yeah, it was a delicious day. I have to say, though, my favorite dish was the bread pudding. It was a pinterest find, and I had never made it before yesterday, but it was awesome. Want the recipe? You can find it here. I cooked it in a crock pot, so I'm not sure how similar it is to the original recipe. Either way, it was amazingness. 

So, in the spirit of the holiday that was yesterday, I am so thankful for my family. I love each and every one of them and I don't know where I would be today without them. I am soooo thankful for my husband, especially since he woke up at 5 yesterday, but let me sleep in. And of course, I'm thankful for my little monster. He may drive me crazy, but he is the best part of my life. 

I hope everyone had as nice of a Thanksgiving as I did. 

hello, beautiful

I got a new toy the other night, and I loves it (so far).

It's a Brother CS-770 computerized sewing machine. And it's super fancy shmancy. In fact, it's fancier than I need, but the price was great and it works (something my rinky-dinky Shark stopped doing, hence the new one.) I've been working on my costume for Decemberween (a themed Halloween party in December). This year's theme is Tim Burton and I'm dressing up as the Oogie-Boogie man from The Nightmare Before Christmas. (The hubs is going as Danny Devito's character Amos Calloway from Big Fish.) Between Decemberween and all the Christmas gifts/decorations I will be making, this little machine definitely has its work cut out for it. And me. Hopefully we make it through the next two months in one piece. Now all I need is to finally set up my desk in the office/craft room/guest room so we can use our entire kitchen table.

Also, if you look in the background, you can get a peek at the painting I'm wrapping up today.

And ten points to whoever can guess which movie we were watching. Hint: "oh my giant blue head!"

The duck is actually my measuring tape. The monster likes to make it "swim" around the mat.

Favorite Songs in Another Language

This is such an exciting challenge since there are a lot of songs in other languages that I like and would like to share. It's actually been rather difficult to narrow them down and not repeat songs I've already used.

So here's what I came up:

"Oceano"- Josh Groban

"Kaja Kaja Goo"- Polysics (warning: this is a strange video)

"Shangri-La"- angela

"Lucia di Lammermoor"- written by Gaetano Donizetti (the link is to its feature in The Fifth Element since I love this version.)

"Rewrite"- Asian Kung Fu Generation (this is my favorite foreign band)