Forgot to mention that this Thanksgiving vacation was one of the most restorative vacations I've had in a while. I left the bay on Wednesday, feeling exhausted and on the verge of getting sick - but by Sunday, with a few good nights of sleep under my belt and a total break from routine - I felt healthier than I've felt in a long time. I'm harnessing this feeling and holding on to it as long as possible, and once again reminding myself that sometimes the most urgent thing you can choose in the midst of life's craziness - is REST. Monday, November 29, 2010
Ahhhhhhh...
Forgot to mention that this Thanksgiving vacation was one of the most restorative vacations I've had in a while. I left the bay on Wednesday, feeling exhausted and on the verge of getting sick - but by Sunday, with a few good nights of sleep under my belt and a total break from routine - I felt healthier than I've felt in a long time. I'm harnessing this feeling and holding on to it as long as possible, and once again reminding myself that sometimes the most urgent thing you can choose in the midst of life's craziness - is REST. 
Joe meets the fam...
San Diego Thanksgiving 2010 rocked. I just love getting to spend time in the kitchen with my family, cooking and laughing and feasting - and this year getting to bring Joe home to meet the family for the first time was an extra big treat. He fit right in, just like I knew he would and it couldn't make me happier to have all these people that I love so much together in one place. Oooh and this year, we had a few more special guests - the Ford fam - so glad that Tom, Kristina and Garrett could join us!
Thanksgiving is a big, team effort in our home and I just love this tradition of ours. All of us gathered in my parent's beautiful kitchen with various food operations happening simultaneously - little chaos and a lot of laughter!
I just love my sister so much!
Here she is gettin' sassy with her sweet potatoes!
A little mom and grandma love.
My grandpa's job = mimosa sipping. He kept stealing my grandma's mimosa - adorable, isn't he!?
After a big run with Joe on Friday morning to work off our Thanksgiving meal (Have I told you that I LOVE that Joe and I can run together!! It was so fun to show him some of my favorite home town trails!) we took a family field trip to Stone Brewery in San Diego. Lots of yummy beers to choose from!
Saturday, after a coffee date with Niki, Whit, Maria, Curran and Amber, we made our way to the coast so Joe could see a little of the San Diego sweet life! Shorts at the beach in November!
Thanksgiving is a big, team effort in our home and I just love this tradition of ours. All of us gathered in my parent's beautiful kitchen with various food operations happening simultaneously - little chaos and a lot of laughter!
I just love my sister so much! 
Here she is gettin' sassy with her sweet potatoes!
A little mom and grandma love.
My grandpa's job = mimosa sipping. He kept stealing my grandma's mimosa - adorable, isn't he!?
After a big run with Joe on Friday morning to work off our Thanksgiving meal (Have I told you that I LOVE that Joe and I can run together!! It was so fun to show him some of my favorite home town trails!) we took a family field trip to Stone Brewery in San Diego. Lots of yummy beers to choose from!Saturday, after a coffee date with Niki, Whit, Maria, Curran and Amber, we made our way to the coast so Joe could see a little of the San Diego sweet life! Shorts at the beach in November!
Let the holiday season begin!!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Gratitude
If you didn't already know - Thanksgiving is hands down, my all time favorite holiday. Gathering around a table of yummy food with a group of loved ones and simply giving thanks for the many blessings that are all around us - just may be what it's all about in my book. And well, in the past year Thanksgiving has become even more special to me.
Last November, Lindsey and Nate started a tradition of holding a Thanksgiving Part I for our friend family here in the bay. Lindsey, Kat and Laura had come into my life about 6 months earlier at a time when I was feeling hurt and lonely and there were many days during that time that I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude for these women, that the tears would just flood uncontrollably. The connection that I feel to these girls is something that I truly give thanks for every day. These women have nurtured my spirit - through craft days, book clubs, sprout dinners, coupa cafe dates, bruschetta offs, blog comments, doodling dates, Yosemite trips and on and on. Our friendship is one for the books - it's not something you find every day and well quite honestly, I feel like one of the luckiest girls in the world to call Laura, Kat and Lindsey friends.
Last year, Thanksgiving grew for me. Beyond a holiday spent with blood relatives, Thanksgiving grew to be about the precious family and communities we build for ourselves as adults, and it's funny because just when I thought it wasn't possible to contain anymore joy - this community opened up a whole new space inside of me, allowing a little more joy in.
And as if it wasn't enough to be surrounded by these women and their so's on Thanksgiving last year, there was also a SUPER, CUTE boy there! Yep, that's right - Loverboy himself graced us with his presence and his incredible blue eyes. I remember walking into Nate and Lindsey's, saying hello to everyone and then being introduced to Joe and just being mesmerized by his eyes. Kat conveniently sat us next to one another at the dinner table, and well, the rest is history folks.
Joe and I talk about how appropriate it is that we met on Thanksgiving (a fav. holiday for both of us) because gratitude is a central part of our outlooks on life and we feel so thankful for having met one another.
We felt honored to get to host the Thanksgiving Part I dinner (Northwest style) this year - as a celebration of our friendship and also as a celebration of us. Yesterday morning, I ran out to do some gingko leaf scavenging for decoration and when I returned Joe had a card and a pretty little box waiting for me. We have been celebrating December 19th as our anniversary - the day of our first date. But in his card, Joe said that he felt that this day was our real anniversary and a bunch of other things that made me cry. HOW DID I GET LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE SUCH A SWEET MAN IN MY LIFE? My cup runneth over...
We came together again for Thanksgiving Part I, Part II yesterday at my place and and the bottom line is
I am just so grateful....
Last November, Lindsey and Nate started a tradition of holding a Thanksgiving Part I for our friend family here in the bay. Lindsey, Kat and Laura had come into my life about 6 months earlier at a time when I was feeling hurt and lonely and there were many days during that time that I felt so overwhelmed with gratitude for these women, that the tears would just flood uncontrollably. The connection that I feel to these girls is something that I truly give thanks for every day. These women have nurtured my spirit - through craft days, book clubs, sprout dinners, coupa cafe dates, bruschetta offs, blog comments, doodling dates, Yosemite trips and on and on. Our friendship is one for the books - it's not something you find every day and well quite honestly, I feel like one of the luckiest girls in the world to call Laura, Kat and Lindsey friends.
Last year, Thanksgiving grew for me. Beyond a holiday spent with blood relatives, Thanksgiving grew to be about the precious family and communities we build for ourselves as adults, and it's funny because just when I thought it wasn't possible to contain anymore joy - this community opened up a whole new space inside of me, allowing a little more joy in.
And as if it wasn't enough to be surrounded by these women and their so's on Thanksgiving last year, there was also a SUPER, CUTE boy there! Yep, that's right - Loverboy himself graced us with his presence and his incredible blue eyes. I remember walking into Nate and Lindsey's, saying hello to everyone and then being introduced to Joe and just being mesmerized by his eyes. Kat conveniently sat us next to one another at the dinner table, and well, the rest is history folks.
Joe and I talk about how appropriate it is that we met on Thanksgiving (a fav. holiday for both of us) because gratitude is a central part of our outlooks on life and we feel so thankful for having met one another.
We felt honored to get to host the Thanksgiving Part I dinner (Northwest style) this year - as a celebration of our friendship and also as a celebration of us. Yesterday morning, I ran out to do some gingko leaf scavenging for decoration and when I returned Joe had a card and a pretty little box waiting for me. We have been celebrating December 19th as our anniversary - the day of our first date. But in his card, Joe said that he felt that this day was our real anniversary and a bunch of other things that made me cry. HOW DID I GET LUCKY ENOUGH TO HAVE SUCH A SWEET MAN IN MY LIFE? My cup runneth over...
We came together again for Thanksgiving Part I, Part II yesterday at my place and and the bottom line is
I am just so grateful....
For these incredible people.
For this incredible man.
For some damn good salmon.
For some amazing butternut squash soup, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pomegranate and grapefruit salad, cider, cabbage etc!
For sparkplug friends like Kat who conveniently arrange to sit you next to the cute boy and for Laura's amazing craftiness on these beautiful abalone name place settings.
For games of cards so intense they make you sweat and burn off your dinner.
and for the simplicity of a beautiful table to gather around the people who mean the most to you.
Happy Thanksgiving to you! May you also overflow with gratitude.
P.S. Stop by Dancing Kitchen to read Kat's take on the day :).
P.S. Stop by Dancing Kitchen to read Kat's take on the day :).
Gather
Just a quick sneak peak at the lovely Northwest Thanksgiving dinner that Loverboy and I hosted this weekend. I am grateful beyond words for these people and can't wait to share more about the day. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
La Amistad
I'm truly blessed with an amazing group of girlfriends in the bay and the creativity that pours out of this group of girls is something that absolutely nourishes my soul. We had our11th book club gathering on Saturday - yes we've read ELEVEN books together! Our next book is our12th - I'm pretty sure we're getting smarter by the minute. Kat provided us with about every type of cheese you could imagine for the occasion - not to mention, the most adorable table setting for our book/life chat. She even made little flags for so we could identify each cheese! Check these puppies out...
How adorable is that?!
How adorable is that?!
We read a book called Little Bee this past month - it's a story about the amazing strength of a Nigerian refugee. For me, the book forced me out of my comfort zone a bit and while I admit I chickened out of reading some of the more graphic parts, the story heightened my awareness of the struggles that still are very real for citizens of countries/villages that are/have been exploited by oil companies.
As our book club ended we got busy in the kitchen for our 2nd Bruschetta off! Yep, you read right, Bruschetta off!! Look at all that bru-ske-ta!
Here's Lindsey's Morroccan Road...
and Laura's Autumn Sunkist....Joe's excited about this one!
and Kat's Christmas...
We're not done yet people, another one of Kat's creations - BORSCHETTA
My lips of rome...Julian is seriously scrutinizing this creation.
And the winner of the evening....Lindsey's California Capote. (Although I think the true winners were the boys/judges - they kicked back watching football while us girls whipped up a bunch of fun food for them.)
Is there anything better than friends and food? I think not!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Bella Note
I'm sorry that I'm head over heels in love and that all of you are subject to my weekly posts where I re-hash the gushy details but I can't help myself. I just feel so darn grateful for Joe and he continues to do things that make me fall even further in love and I just have to share.
Grad school has fully taken over Joe's life in these past couple of months and between teaching full time at an intense charter school that operates on business hours and attending classes Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (not to mention the hours of time he spends on homework/lesson planning etc) the guy hardly has enough time to breathe. I really don't know how he does it - all I know is I am amazed every day by his work ethic, endurance, passion and optimism. He's incredible about keeping his head about him when everything around him is swirling around in chaos and I am so moved by his dedication. Lots of days I wish I could be like a substitute reader for him and read the hundreds of pages that he is assigned each week and just dump all the knowledge from the readings into his head so he could have a few extra hours to write papers or grade tests, but unfortunately, I haven't figured that out yet - so what I have been doing is cooking. A LOT and in BIG quantities. That way Joe has lots of leftovers that he can freeze and pull out for easy dinners during his crazy weeks.
Last Friday however, the tables were turned and Joe made dinner for ME. He already gives so much of himself when we are together and well, his time is his most precious commodity these days so it was very special to me that he made such an effort to make dinner. He had not gone to bed until 11:30 on Thursday night because he was doing homework and then he woke up at 4:30 on Friday to get more work done but when I arrived at his place on Friday evening, he had set a romantic table with candles for us and made a yummy salmon dinner with red pepper pasta and an incredible homemade salad dressing for our salad! And then to top it all off as we sat down to eat he cued up this song for us to eat to - Bella Notte. I almost cried, actually I might have cried.
I'm sure this story sounds incredibly simple and maybe I'm foolish for being moved so deeply by all of it, but the simple things Joe does for me (and for all the people in his life) are so full of his heart that they have a way of filling me up with a joy that's bigger than all the space inside of me.
Grad school has fully taken over Joe's life in these past couple of months and between teaching full time at an intense charter school that operates on business hours and attending classes Monday, Wednesday and Saturday (not to mention the hours of time he spends on homework/lesson planning etc) the guy hardly has enough time to breathe. I really don't know how he does it - all I know is I am amazed every day by his work ethic, endurance, passion and optimism. He's incredible about keeping his head about him when everything around him is swirling around in chaos and I am so moved by his dedication. Lots of days I wish I could be like a substitute reader for him and read the hundreds of pages that he is assigned each week and just dump all the knowledge from the readings into his head so he could have a few extra hours to write papers or grade tests, but unfortunately, I haven't figured that out yet - so what I have been doing is cooking. A LOT and in BIG quantities. That way Joe has lots of leftovers that he can freeze and pull out for easy dinners during his crazy weeks.
Last Friday however, the tables were turned and Joe made dinner for ME. He already gives so much of himself when we are together and well, his time is his most precious commodity these days so it was very special to me that he made such an effort to make dinner. He had not gone to bed until 11:30 on Thursday night because he was doing homework and then he woke up at 4:30 on Friday to get more work done but when I arrived at his place on Friday evening, he had set a romantic table with candles for us and made a yummy salmon dinner with red pepper pasta and an incredible homemade salad dressing for our salad! And then to top it all off as we sat down to eat he cued up this song for us to eat to - Bella Notte. I almost cried, actually I might have cried.
I'm sure this story sounds incredibly simple and maybe I'm foolish for being moved so deeply by all of it, but the simple things Joe does for me (and for all the people in his life) are so full of his heart that they have a way of filling me up with a joy that's bigger than all the space inside of me.
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