1. Our lovely M has moved on from sometimes randomly repeating 40 x 8 to randomly yelling and discussing "salsa," although late today she admitted she wasn't sure what it was. The beauties of two. I have promised that she can taste some tomorrow. She has had it before and seemed to like it, but it has been awhile so we'll refresh her recollection.
2. We began all the Thanksgiving festivities with the Rouse/Richards fun on Wednesday. It was a long, lovely, delicious day. The kids had an amazing time playing with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc... I focused mostly on the kitchen as I love to do. I managed to burn my hand rather badly, but otherwise all went well. A bustling house and a wonderful day. I "think" Jamie took pictures for me so I may have some to share soon.
3. On Friday, we had Thanksgiving at my Mom's house, complete with the Beef Wellington and Tarte Tatin (see below). My Grandpa Dotter, Uncle Jim, Aunt Laurie and cousin Kristen all joined us for a big feast. The kids were super excited to get to use their Thanksgiving placemats from school at both grandparents feasts. It was a very cold day, but most people found time for a walk or bike ride outside or fun in the leaves with the kittens before heading in for the late afternoon cheeseball. B LOVED the cheeseball this year -- a way earlier adopter of this tradition than his Uncle Able or many others have been.
4. One of the weird things about my Dad dying early is this need to have no regrets about some little things that I can control. Most recently, this meant that I spent $80 on 2.7 lbs beef tenderloin for my husband's beloved Beef Wellington rather than buying the cheaper cut. I wanted to do this nice thing for him now, while I can and not regret being cheap later. Of course, we discover later he would have been fine trying an alternate cut, but its the thought, right? Meanwhile, I think it is official and Brent has won everyone over to having Beef Wellington as an annual tradition. Everyone loved it and as high process as it is for the cook it is worth it for the rare food that Brent truly loves. (Here is the recipe we use from the Wall Street Journal. It says it takes five hours, but is probably doable in less than three and we do cut some corners, like not having truffle butter or veal bones in our process.)
5. This started to veer off into a multitude of other recipes, some long and some not. I think I'll share one more here than do a couple of side posts with recipes for you. I did make the Girls Gone Child Tarte Tatin -- simple and lovely. (Brent swears I won't make it again because it was easy, delicious and worked right the first time... we shall see).
6. After the Thanksgiving fun at the farm the kids helped my Mom decorate her Christmas tree and the house. They and she loved it. I think another new tradition "might" be in the works! (Yes, all these pictures were taken with my phone as my camera ran out of battery early in the farm visit.. sad).
7. B was a super helper today. He did everything I asked without protest, helped his sister with many things, and generally was a rockstar..... somewhere in the middle of this I began to realize his voice is all funny and his eyes are red so maybe a allergy plagued rockstar? (Hoping to skip yet another round of colds).
8. Oh the mortgage refinance.... We have finally signed some papers and sent them off for our "streamlined" refinance... there were more than 150 pages in the packet and it required some dashing around OKC for signatures, copies and bothering my lovely finance guy (Able-- he can be your finance guy too -405-314-6209). In short, it really didn't seem too streamlined to me. If all goes well it will finally be finished in about three weeks and the year of the pondering the refi will be over. Really it only took so long as we so deplore the gathering the 150+ pages and signing our money away all over again. It did seriously inspire me to buy a new printer after borrowing my Mom's this weekend demonstrated that printing can, in fact, be pain free. Who knew?
9. Exercise--- how you can tell it was not a good exercise week is that this is way down by number 9. I ran last Tuesday and Wednesday and have done nothing much on the cardio front since. Last Wednesday's run was awesome as I got to run outside with M and made it the whole way with no walking. Just awesome-- followed by long weekend and generally droopiness (in denial about cold possibilities). I WILL exercise tomorrow one way or the other... seriously.
10. I don't know if you've noticed, but there is only one day left in November. For you my happy blog readers, this means the beginning of much more active posting from me as we begin December Daily. While I do plan to do my journaling in the book by hand, I will still journal here and probably a bit more than the book will eventually see. I also plan to upload photos almost daily as in the past. I am both excited and just a bit trepidatious at the size of it all. The good news is that B remembers things from our Advent swirl last year fondly and so loved the Christmas beginnings at my Mom's this weekend so I know it is all worth it.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and hope to hear from you soon!
2. We began all the Thanksgiving festivities with the Rouse/Richards fun on Wednesday. It was a long, lovely, delicious day. The kids had an amazing time playing with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc... I focused mostly on the kitchen as I love to do. I managed to burn my hand rather badly, but otherwise all went well. A bustling house and a wonderful day. I "think" Jamie took pictures for me so I may have some to share soon.
3. On Friday, we had Thanksgiving at my Mom's house, complete with the Beef Wellington and Tarte Tatin (see below). My Grandpa Dotter, Uncle Jim, Aunt Laurie and cousin Kristen all joined us for a big feast. The kids were super excited to get to use their Thanksgiving placemats from school at both grandparents feasts. It was a very cold day, but most people found time for a walk or bike ride outside or fun in the leaves with the kittens before heading in for the late afternoon cheeseball. B LOVED the cheeseball this year -- a way earlier adopter of this tradition than his Uncle Able or many others have been.
4. One of the weird things about my Dad dying early is this need to have no regrets about some little things that I can control. Most recently, this meant that I spent $80 on 2.7 lbs beef tenderloin for my husband's beloved Beef Wellington rather than buying the cheaper cut. I wanted to do this nice thing for him now, while I can and not regret being cheap later. Of course, we discover later he would have been fine trying an alternate cut, but its the thought, right? Meanwhile, I think it is official and Brent has won everyone over to having Beef Wellington as an annual tradition. Everyone loved it and as high process as it is for the cook it is worth it for the rare food that Brent truly loves. (Here is the recipe we use from the Wall Street Journal. It says it takes five hours, but is probably doable in less than three and we do cut some corners, like not having truffle butter or veal bones in our process.)
5. This started to veer off into a multitude of other recipes, some long and some not. I think I'll share one more here than do a couple of side posts with recipes for you. I did make the Girls Gone Child Tarte Tatin -- simple and lovely. (Brent swears I won't make it again because it was easy, delicious and worked right the first time... we shall see).
6. After the Thanksgiving fun at the farm the kids helped my Mom decorate her Christmas tree and the house. They and she loved it. I think another new tradition "might" be in the works! (Yes, all these pictures were taken with my phone as my camera ran out of battery early in the farm visit.. sad).
7. B was a super helper today. He did everything I asked without protest, helped his sister with many things, and generally was a rockstar..... somewhere in the middle of this I began to realize his voice is all funny and his eyes are red so maybe a allergy plagued rockstar? (Hoping to skip yet another round of colds).
8. Oh the mortgage refinance.... We have finally signed some papers and sent them off for our "streamlined" refinance... there were more than 150 pages in the packet and it required some dashing around OKC for signatures, copies and bothering my lovely finance guy (Able-- he can be your finance guy too -405-314-6209). In short, it really didn't seem too streamlined to me. If all goes well it will finally be finished in about three weeks and the year of the pondering the refi will be over. Really it only took so long as we so deplore the gathering the 150+ pages and signing our money away all over again. It did seriously inspire me to buy a new printer after borrowing my Mom's this weekend demonstrated that printing can, in fact, be pain free. Who knew?
9. Exercise--- how you can tell it was not a good exercise week is that this is way down by number 9. I ran last Tuesday and Wednesday and have done nothing much on the cardio front since. Last Wednesday's run was awesome as I got to run outside with M and made it the whole way with no walking. Just awesome-- followed by long weekend and generally droopiness (in denial about cold possibilities). I WILL exercise tomorrow one way or the other... seriously.
10. I don't know if you've noticed, but there is only one day left in November. For you my happy blog readers, this means the beginning of much more active posting from me as we begin December Daily. While I do plan to do my journaling in the book by hand, I will still journal here and probably a bit more than the book will eventually see. I also plan to upload photos almost daily as in the past. I am both excited and just a bit trepidatious at the size of it all. The good news is that B remembers things from our Advent swirl last year fondly and so loved the Christmas beginnings at my Mom's this weekend so I know it is all worth it.
I hope you all have a wonderful week and hope to hear from you soon!
1 comment:
But what if she meant the dancing type of salsa and not the sauce type?!?!
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