Dear Thanksgiving,

Every year you give me a chance to stop and think and reflect and be thankful. For the last few years I've had so much to be thankful for: my husband and my little girl, my family, my friends. We are blessed to live in a free society, have jobs that allow us to live the life we live, a home and city we love. The past few years I've had other things to be thankful for too: the recovered health of various family members, the safety of my family, my own health.

This year I am particularly thankful. It's been a long year. Many things have happened between last Thanksgiving and this one. There have been some ups, some downs, some scariness. When we said thanks this Thanksgiving, my list was long. Longer than usual.

Because it's all okay now. And for that I am thankful. Very thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving Canadian friends!

Let the holiday season begin...

It's grey. And not very warm today.

But our house smells heavenly. And I've got a nice warm sweater. So it's all good.

There's a turkey in the oven. J is resting. Alex went to pick up the last minute groceries for our turkey dinner (umm....who forgot the potatoes...) And I'm gearing up to go wash the first round of dishes.

That's the only think I hate about making a turkey dinner...it's time consuming and can be hard work, but the loads and loads of dishes kill me. And then there are more loads of dishes.

Whatever. Thanksgiving is the beginning of holiday season as far as I'm concerned. That means this week Alex and I ahve been slowly planning for the next few months. We have a few free days in December, but that's it. It's only October. How does that happen? Oh well. We have sort of cheated. We purposely "booked" a few days for us. Days with no plans.

It also means it's time to start Christmas shopping. Except. Well, it appears we have already started...there is a bag in my closet with gifts for three people. And there is a gift for a fourth that is decided on, but can't be purchases until closer to Christmas. If I can keep up this organization, well, the holidays should be a blast!

I have a list that's twice as tall as I am (which, I think, accounts for my relative absence from the land of blogs) and once I've checked a bunch of things of that list, I get to really start planning. Which means making more lists: lists for gifts, lists for cards, lists for projects around the house, lists for gifts to be made...

Uh, yeah, can you tell I like the holidays?!?!

Bountiful Harvest

Yesterday J and I met up with Rebecca and went to the Kitsilano Farmer's Market. I hadn't done any meal planning yet - I wanted to see what I came home with and then I was going to build my menu around that.

We stopped and god a bunch of yummy carrots, J picked out her own cucumber and then we decided to get some plums. We were just going to get a container of the purple plums, but the woman at the booth gave us a sample of the smaller, reddish plums.

So good! They were sweet and juicy and I immediately added a basket of those to our haul. I've spent the last 24 hours trying to keep J from eating more of them! The woman told me what they were called, but I've forgotten. Does anyone know?

Not long after we got home, I got a message from Kelsey who had been up in Kelowna over the weeks - she had a bunch of fruit and vegetables for me, could I please come pick them up? We returned home with two boxes of home canned stuff, apples, more carrots, more cucumbers, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and green beans. I had dumps dinner in the slow cooked before we left yesterday morning, but we did add a side of fresh green beans to our dinner. I am pretty sure the beans, tomatoes and cucumbers all come out of my parents' garden. They also send some canned pears, peaches, tomatoes with basil and peach marmalade.

I was soooooooooo glad I didn't plan anything and even more happy that I hadn't gone grocery shopping. I have to pick up a bit of protein and a few staples on the way home tonight, but we're actually pretty much set for the week with all the goodies yesterday brought. I love fall.




This week's menu (I am so happy to once again have a functioning slow cooker, can you tell?)

Monday: Quesadillas with carrot sticks and cucumbers

Tuesday: Slow-Cooked Tex-Mex Chicken and Beans

Wednesday: Beef Stew

Thursday: Leftover Stew

Friday: Calzones with homemade tomato sauce [I'm on a Martha Stewart kick this week, hey? The calzones are premade and already in the freezer]

Saturday: Turkey dinner - early because I have a whole day to make dinner

Sunday: Leftovers or soup or something light because we're going for Thanksgiving brunch with Alex's family

Happy Thanksgiving week! I've linked to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie where I'm sure you'll find that not all the menus are Martha Stewart-heavy!

Thanksgiving on the Island

We went to Vancouver Island for Thanksgiving to visit my super wonderful grandma, Mama. We had a great time and I'm just really slow at posting these!

We had our Thanksgiving dinner of lasagne and pumpkin-swirl brownies on Saturday night. Yum!

Dad, Kelsey, J, Alex and me...

J had a bath at Mama's (great-grandma's bath tubs are apparently very exciting...more exciting than the bath tub at home) and was just so excited to be there...Mama, my parents, and Kelsey are most certainly some of J's favourite people!

On Sunday morning, Kelsey ran the Victoria marathon...look at that smile!

And look at all these people!

While we waited for Kelsey to finish, J ran around beside the museum with her stroller...don't try this at home! Or at least, don't try this with a kid in your "lolo buggy"

We found a big spider...I thought it was cool, J ignored it, and Alex got as far away from it as he could!

J spent some time cheering hard for Auntie Kelsey from a special vantage point above the crowd.

There happened to be a cool tree to play under.

And J appreciated having some special one-on-one time with her daddy.

But she was on a mission...once the race was over, she had something in mind...

She was looking for her marathoning auntie. And she found her eventually and brought her back to see the rest of us.

We stayed in some little cabins a few minutes from Mama's house...there was a great view...

....even at the crack of dawn!

J learned about blowing dandelion fluff and making a wish (maybe she didn't quite understand the concept of a wish...)


Nice view huh?

We had a great weekend (scary stuff aside)....it was nice to come home though!

Thankful on Thanksgiving - a few days late...

This isn't the first time I've posted about the things I'm thankful for at Thanksgiving. This is the first year that I've experienced absolute gratitude accompanied by an insane the adrenalin rush and somehow, I've experienced it more than once. Back in January and again in May, I wrote about it. I thought I was done with that... But Monday, Monday I experienced it again.

AND EVERYONE'S OKAY...

We had been on Vancouver Island since Friday visiting my grandma and cheering for Kelsey in the Victoria marathon (she took 8 minutes off, yay!). After lunch today my dad had to drive her to the ferry. The rest of us were heading home the next day. J really wanted to go with him and since she needed a nap and the car has such a sleepy effect on her of course we told her she could go.

Just a few minutes after they had pulled out of my grandma's driveway, her phone rang.

We could hear the male voice on the other end.

We knew it was my dad.

I knew he had been driving and if he was calling, he wasn't driving anymore.

My grandma got off the phone, told us everyone was okay and where to go. The whole way there I was hoping J had just had an accident that leaked or thrown up or something. We came over the crest of the hill and there was a horrible sight...the car had no front bumper and very little front end. But there, on the side of the road, huddled near some kind passersby were my sister, J and my dad.

They were okay.

The people in the other car, they were okay too.

Everyone was okay.

And that's really all that matters.

Poor J thought it was her fault. She keeps telling us she broke the car. Today when we got to daycare she didn't want to go in because daycare-kid might be there and bite her and make her "cry a little bit." Once we calmed that fear, she didn't want to walk in or have me carry her because the cars might "bite" us. We got there. She ran and gave the daycare lady who met us at the door a huge hug. Turns out daycare-kid is away today, so we have a bit of a respite on that. The daycare already knew about the car accident - I called and talked to the manager yesterday when J was out of earshot. They'll take good care of her. And she loves daycare and knows it's safe.

I am so thankful for the guardian angels that seem to be surrounding my family this year...so very thankful...

And in honour of Thanksgiving on Monday, here are a few other things that I am thankful for:

• My husband, daughter, parents, sisters, and our very large extended family (which includes Alex's family now too)
• A delicious turkey dinner that hit the spot after a stressful day - bonus - we didn't have to cook it or clean up!
• A job. A good job. With a good boss.
• J's daycare. It's amazing. That's about all I can say about that.
• My health. A's health. J's health. We're a pretty healthy bunch these days.
• Those guardian angels.
• The kind police officer and wonderful people who stopped to keep us company, offer first aid kits, and just make sure everyone was okay.
• A beautiful fall day.
• A future that looks lovely - as long as everyone stays out of the way of moving vehicles.

This year has reminded me to be thankful all the time, everyday, not just on Thanksgiving.

Happy late Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends...

Three-generation Italian Thanksgiving

That's what we had, Italian Thanksgiving complete with loud talking, lots of yummy food, hand talking, and confetti...and here, representing the three generations, are three small branches of the Zinio family tree.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again...turkey, trimmings, family...all good things.

It's almost time for us to leave to pick up Alex's grandma and take her to his parents' for Thanksgiving dinner with the family and while I have a few quick minutes to myself and we all know how much I like (no, need) to make lists, I thought I'd make my second annual what I'm thankful for at Thanksgiving list...in no particular order and without referring to last year's list:

• Alex
• our extremely supportive families
• two families that now make my one family
• a back that is almost 100% healed
• pain-free days and now more often than not, pain-free weeks
• wedding planning that has gone extremely smoothly...which means that the wedding will go smoothly!
• Alex's mom's health continuing to improve
• a healthy new niece
• an awesome group of friends who looked after me last winter and who have done a whole bunch of special things for me in the last few months
• people coming to k-town from around the world to spend a very special day with us in a few weeks
• that lack of garbage pick up is probably the biggest issue (read: inconvenience) in our lives right now
• being able to pick up the phone and talk to my family pretty much whenever I need to
• being happy
• the nervous-excited feeling that's been in the pit of my stomach for the last few weeks
• a great medical team
• a great boss and super coworkers!
  
• rainy afternoons and sunny mornings
• thermostat control
• awesome paramedics

There's lots to be thankful for this year...actually, there's always lots to be thankful for, but this year either I'm more thankful or there really is more!

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Aw gee, I wish I lived south of the 49th parallel today so that I could indulge in my second Thanksgiving of the fall...actually, I guess I only got to do that when I lived in London. When I lived south of the 49th, they just laughed at me when I said it was Thanksgiving and reminded me that I said aboot and probably had a pet polar bear hidden in my backyard in K-town.

So, to all my friends and family who are south of the 49th this week, HAPPY THANKSGIVING...I can't share your turkey tomorrow night, but I'll share the beautiful flowers I was given for CANADIAN Thanksgiving six weeks ago. And even though it's not my thanksgiving, I'm still going to be thankful for all the same things I was thankful for at our thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving is for family...

Last night Alex and I hosted our first ever turkey dinner and invited both our families.

Preparation for the big day started a few weeks ago when my Mom picked up some pretty Thanksgiving napkins and sent them our way (okay, really I guess preparation started longer ago than that, because it think we decided to have Thanksgiving at the blue house back in July).

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and my parents came over and my Mom and I made stuffing and roasted the turkey while my Dad hung the curtain rods for the not-yet-completed kitchen curtains. We went on a brief excursion to Sophie's so that we could all fuel up on non-turkey food so that we'd be ready to prepare a turkey dinner and also so that Rebecca could pick out a puppy to be her imaginary pet.

This little girl really wanted out and thought she could lick her way through the plexiglass cage or the big green wall.


There were some hard working people at our house and it would have been difficult to pull off our dinner without their help. (Not pictured is my Mom...she was working so hard, she only showed up as a blur on the camera)




We had some pretty flowers



Alex and I got a house warming present from Grandma Ina (and yes, I'm super cheesy).


We had lots of smiling faces and everyone went home with a happy tummy full of food and armed with care packages of leftovers for tonight.

Grandma Ina, Paul and Colleen

Trey

Fraser, Steve and Kelsey

Shannon, Rebecca and Larry

Joan and Alex

the girlies

Ahhhh....time to relax until next year!

Thanksgiving thoughts...

My house is quiet and almost back in order after a (WONDERFUL!) weekend of people everywhere; the soup is simmering on the stove; I've done four loads of tea towels since Saturday morning; I'm still super full from all the yummy food...ahhhh...thank goodness for long weekend Mondays...

Since it is Thanksgiving and I am a complusive list maker, I made a list of things (in no particular order) I'm thankful for...

• for my family and Alex's family (and Alex too!)
  
• for all the wonderful food we ate over the last few days including the delicious turkey dinner last night and the tasty cinnamon buns this morning
• for the fresh South Kelowna vegetables from the SBN gardens
• for my parents and all their help cooking and all the things they brought with them for our dinner (dinner plates, cutlery, microwave, food, recipe for stuffing, meat thermometer) and for the HUGE free range turkey Alex's mom provided for last night's dinner
• for the sunshine and warm(ish) days
• for our happy and healthy families
• that I moved out of the hobbit hole and into a house that could fit 12 people at the same time
• for our friends, some of whom we don't see nearly often enough and some of whom have been in and out of the blue house all summer and fall
• that I feel healthy again
• that Wednesday is Alex's mom's last treatment
• and for all the other good things in our lives that we forget about until Thanksgiving reminds us they're there!

Happy Turkey Day...

It's Thanksgiving...YAY!!

It's been all bustle and hustle at our house for the last two days...my family is here, Alex's is coming over tonight, furniture has moved and moved and moved again, yummy smells have been coming from the kitchen...

And tonight it's turkey dinner night.

MMmmmm....

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!