Turkeys, Trees, and In Between

Thanks to Mom E., our roll assignment was not a disaster. Thanksgiving morning, we indulged in some physical activity and set about the major task of eating. I broke all my rules and cooked while Brady played football. In all fairness, though, he watched Zachary while I was gone for a good hour on a run. Zac was sound asleep while I rolled the dough, so it was a fair deal.

We ate at the Giles home, with several friends and their kiddos. They had the place pretty decked out.

Zachary, like his parents, loves all things carbohydrate.

Here's our spread. I still think of myself as too young to be cooking Thanksgiving without parents, but it turned out well. I wonder at what point I will consider myself old enough to cook a turkey. We'll see.

The kids were smart and got active right away. The rest of us vegged out, looked at ads, and fought sleepiness. I think we should have gone to the beach, but it was a good time chatting.

My pie is the one with a marijuana leaf inscribed on the top. Hard to see in this pic (look on the table behind the pie stand...pumpkin). With Brady's help, I graduated to homemade crust this year, and could not be prouder. No, the cool whip was not whipped cream, but I'm taking baby steps on my progression towards "cook."

We did hit a beautiful sunset at Poipu Beach before heading home.

Friday we went with the "Work before Play" motto my Dad drilled into me at young age. We got down and dirty, shampooing the carpets, moving all the furniture around, and otherwise obsessing about the cleanliness of our condo. Our place needed it:

Our carpets look fantastic! I can't figure out why people buy these things (shampooers, not brooms). It was only $16 to rent for 4 hours, and it was the best thing out there.

After a long day of working, we took off for the beach. The day was gorgeous, and we decided since we were surfing all day Saturday, we should boogie board. It was fun, but I was antsy to surf. Patience, patience...

Saturday morning, we woke up to pouring rain and gusting wind. Nice. I decided the "work before play" motto does not fly with me anymore. My new motto is "Sun=Beach, regardless of responsibilities." I am one step closer to local.

With jeans and sweatshirts on, we put the house into Christmas mode. We checked out our $19.99 tree from Target 7 years ago, and decided it was the LAST year we would use it. It looked so pitiful! Out of curiosity/boredom, we went to a few stores (i.e. the number of stores on the island), and wound up coming home with a brand new tree and decorations. Rain and wind are very dangerous in Kauai! Thanks to Macy's forgetting to take down their Black Friday deal, we came home with the tree at 75% off. We didn't even get up early and fight crowds. That's my kind of shopping.

We were so excited to see Zac's reaction to all the Christmas decor. As soon as he woke up, we brought him downstairs to see the tree. As soon as we turned the corner and he saw the lights, he just grinned and grinned. We walked him around the tree and showed him each ornament. It was such a precious moment for us.

Our first Christmas together, we decided to buy one ornament each that reminded us of the year, or had some kind of significance. We have a laborador for the year we got Terris, a shovel for the year Brady shoveled The Colony 100 times, an ice skate the year I took my ice skating class to keep my scholarship, a surfing Santa for last year, etc.

Last year, I bought another ornament, but didn't dare to put it up. We both were so anxious about the upcoming adoption, and hoping and praying things would work out this time. I saw this at Macy's and put it in our Christmas box. I completely forgot about it, but when I opened it up yesterday, I couldn't help but get caught up in a flood of memories. We are so grateful for our boy!!!