The First Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, Adam and I stayed home in CA (lack of money, lack of vacation time, etc., etc.) and had our first major holiday together. Lucky for us, our dear friends the Kings were also in the same situation, so we all got together to plan a Thanksgiving to remember. It went a little something like this.

Wednesday Night:

The Kings arrive in O.C. for the festivities. Lauren made some apple cider to warm us all. Then we began the first of many hours of cooking!



I know, I know, we should be on Iron Chef America - I'm expecting a phone call from Bobby Flay any day now.



Thursday Morning:

Despite our board game hangover from 2 late-night rounds of Yahtzee, we were all up and at 'em bright and early the next morning for the Dana Point Turkey Trot. Adam and I are TT veterans (having run it a total of 1 times in the past - for the record, I won. And beat Adam and his whole family. It was great. But I'm not competitve - its just for fun!). Let's be honest, I'm in pretty bad shape right now, so I was optimistic about me and Adam's strategy to run the first mile, walk the second, and run the third. The excitement that you see here is totally forced - we were actually dreading it!



I forgot how crazy this race is. We opted for the 5K rather than the 10k. Good choice. There were 9000+ runners, not to mention spectators, volunteers, etc. Its insane. Lots of people dress up and run in teams, etc., etc. It was a fun morning of people-watching, and in the end we were glad that we did it! I am also proud to announce that I ran the whole race, which exceeded my goal. Here are Adam and I's official race pics:



Luckily Andrew gave us a pep talk just before the race about not getting beat by strollers, so you can see my motivation directly behind me in my photo.

Thursday afternoon:
After the race, we rushed back home to get the turkey in the oven. This was definitely one of the highlights of the day, as the 4 of us sat around, consulted cookbooks, and checked the internet to see which end of the turkey you put the stuffing in. Since the boys were supposed to be in charge of the bird, Andrew had the privilige of pulling all of the organs, etc. He loved it.



The majority of the day was spent slaving away in the kitchen. But it was all worth it in the end. You are about to be very impressed with this spread:



And this was after appetizers of sausage balls, ham rolls, and homemade guacamole (that was our CA Thanksgiving twist). The turkey turned out perfectly. In the end, Andrew became quite attached and refused to let anyone else baste her and exchanged loving words with her each time he opened the oven.





The biggest success of the day (besides us actually completing the Turkey Trot), was the coconut cake that Lauren and I baked. We started it on Wed. night and finished up on Thursday. Yum!



We seriously have no idea what went wrong. I think that we were all looking forward to the coconut cake more than anything, but it was a total disaster. Lauren and I both re-read the recipe multiple times and still have no idea what we did wrong. I guess that we just don't have the magical touch! Needless to say, we each had about 2 bites of it and trashed the rest. Bummer.

After the Kings left, we spent the rest of the break painting our condo! Finally! Its amazing how much cozier it feels! Of course these things are always more of an ordeal than you think, but after multiple trips to multiple home depots, a few minor home-improvement injuries, 2 coats of paint, and one case of bronchitis, we finished all of the major spaces! What used to be stark white walls are now covered in Rustic Taupe and Berry Red (just humor me and tell me it DOESN'T look like blood smeared on our walls - I'm trying to convince myself!).




No rude comments about the Christmas house plant in the corner. Happy Holidays!