Thanksgiving in the Wilderness

We had a wonderful and mellow Thanksgiving this year. Just the 5 of us at home with a few good things to eat. I'm sure we could have joined in with the Hixon crew this year, since we have the family tie, but they were having ALL 10 children and their families for dinner. I think that is close to 60 people... so we opted for our own family meal. At first Billy suggested I buy a nice piece of salmon for dinner and we just make it really easy on ourselves. I however, really wanted turkey (and the leftovers to follow) since we only cook one once a year. So turkey it was. I also made cheesy potatoes, oven baked green beans, butter leaf salad and a layered jello in individual cups. We used the help of Pillsbury and had croissants :) All in all, not to much fuss, I didn't even end up making apple crisp like I planned. We had root beer floats.

William had collected some fall leaves at the playground in the morning where Billy was playing football with the elders quorum. (I got to go for a run with Jamie!) He put those along the table runner to decorate for our feast and he did a great job.
Zachary was sleeping when everything was ready to dig into and William refused to try anything. So, Billy and I sat down together and ate on our china and enjoyed every bite.

I can't forget about our thankful tree we made during family night the week of Thanksgiving! The boys were really excited to hand me leaves and tell me things they were thankful for and then hang them up. It was a full tree. Everything from family & primary to dirt & macaroni and cheese.
I sure am thankful for my family! I'm glad we have this special day set aside to celebrate our gratitude and I think I would like to start setting a few more aside during the year as well- one day a year is just not enough :) Maybe we will celebrate quarterly.

A funny thing about Thanksgiving in the wilderness that I have noticed the past several years...
We have wild turkeys that hang around our neighborhood everyday. I don't think there is a day that they aren't by someones house and when it's by ours the boys chase them away. (I don't care for the turkey poop in the yard) Every year at Thanksgiving, the turkeys are no where to be found! I have made note of this each year we have been here, that the turkeys disappear for a few days around the Thanksgiving holiday. It's really weird. They must smell their kind being cooked and they hide or something. Anyway, they are back now that Turkey day is over.

Santa Monica Mountains Trail Race

On Sunday (I will repent) I ran my first trail race! It was an awesome experience, a beautiful day, and a great location. My friends Lauren and Kevin Gleason convinced me to sign up for this race about a month ago and run it with them. Lauren & I signed up for the 18K and Kevin was going for it all in the 50K. The morning of the race I fed Jameson around 5am, got up and out of the house right after 6am and down to the Gleason's home where we all left together at 645am. We drove down to Oxnard and then out to the PCH, just past Point Mugu and parked along the ocean next to La Jolla canyon. Walked in, grabbed our bib numbers and about 35 minutes later we were running on the trails. The race started with uphill switch backs all the way to the top of the first little mountain, about 2.5 miles. I surprised myself and jogged all the way up. Normally I don't make it very far running uphill and I end up hiking instead. Once we were at the top, the view was gorgeous! Beautiful blue sparkling ocean, clear and crisp morning and perfect running conditions. It worked out in our benefit that it had rained the day before because the trails weren't slippery and had just the right amount of stick to them. There was only a couple spots where the mud stuck to my shoes enough that I had to slide my feet on the rocks to take the extra inch of weight off. Anyway, the trails were nice and there was only one really challenging climb from mile 6.5 to mile 8. My legs were really tired by that point but I knew it would be pretty much all down hill from there, so I ran. It was nice to descend into the finish area. I ended up surprising myself again when I finished in 1:55. I thought for sure it was going to take me around 2 and half hours. I also was the 3rd girl to finish, right behind Lauren, so I got a ribbon! I've never placed in a race before. Pretty cool.

I got home at 2pm and was very ready to feed Jameson again. It was really nice to have a morning to myself, to be outside enjoying God's beautiful creation and get some good exercise and time away. I REALLY needed it.

Fire

Tonight I started our first fire of the cold season in the fireplace. It only took me one try :) It never even made it past 65 degrees in our house today... a big change from last weeks 95+ degree weather we had. Maybe that's why Jameson is a little under the weather. Well, it felt like a fall day today anyway. Can't wait for Billy to come home from New York, I'm tired.

 

On another note, I really need to finish sewing the Christmas stockings I started at the beginning of the year :)