The Doldrums...

Uh, hi.  Guess I needed a little break from blogging there - like for an entire MONTH.  Talk about the doldrums! So.....where to begin?

Troy and I at this moment are sitting down on our cozy couch this happy Thanksgiving weekend to watch another installment of Lord of the Rings. We started last night - it seems like a fun addition to our holiday to enjoy these wonderful shows again which were a part of our every Christmas for a while there.  What great shows.  And, since I happen to be sitting here on my can, I  might as well also catch up here just a bit.

Life has been hectic as always these past weeks, and has frankly felt a little motonous and overwhelming.  Anyone familiar with the feeling?  (It leads to very low productivity when it comes to blogging. And also kitchen cleaning.)  It was very helpful to celebrate Thanksgiving this year.  I celebrated it very deliberately - quickly putting away our jovial Halloween decorations but definitely leaving all things Christmas on hold, and trying to really focus on what this past year gave us to be grateful for, for all its gifts.  We even made a Give Thanks spot on our fridge where we created a tree covered in leaves that each stated things we were grateful for.  That made for a fun exercize every morning at breakfast.  We had lots of light hearted (yet still sincere) things to be grateful for - everything from forks (the utensil, not the town  :) to bacon.  And many more things that are a little closer to our hearts, like friends, family, our baby Matthew and even our angelic puppy Alex.  It lifted my spirits to scan over the leaves each day as I worked in the kitchen.  I'm sure that will be a tradition we keep up each year.

So I'm sure this will take a couple of posts to record the highlights of November 2011.  Perhaps I'll just begin with where we are and work backwards from there.  What a wonderful Thanksgiving Day we enjoyed yesterday!  It was a Preslar year and we were lucky enough to meet at the new home of Troy's oldest brother Rick and his wife Tonja.  They just finished it this fall - it's up in Cache Valley and it is just beautiful and comfortable.  I could cook all day long in that kitchen!  Espcecially if I had those gals with me - that was fun.  The food, I just have to say, was probably the tastiest I have ever enjoyed on any Thanksgiving ever.  So good.  I give a great deal of credit to that king of all pork products; bacon.  (I seem to be mentioning bacon repeatedly in this post....) Bacon in the salad, bacon in the beans...  baby.  Also, I got a new recipe from my friend Jordan for these rolls that just knock your socks off they're so good.  Huge pillowy crescents that just melt in your mouth.  And everything else too.  Oh my gosh it was so good!  And it was such a nice atmosphere. The kids mostly roughhoused downstairs which was great to not have them underfoot.  All the little kids just adore Tonja's two teenagers - they glommed onto them all day long!  I bet they were exhausted....

Of course it was totally hopeless getting Bundle down for a nap even though I tried very hard to lie down with her after our dinner.  I was zonking out myself (ahhh...turkey.....) but Bundle wouldn't have it.  We gave up and just spent a very pleasant afternoon playing games and eating pie and this awesome pumpkin cheesecake I made - I found the recipe from listening to NPR!  We departed the valley around 6:30 that evening and Bundle instantly fell asleep.  I figured I was pretty much toast, that she'd sleep all the way home then wake up and hang out happy as could be until 2:00 a.m. or so.  But oh happy day she stayed asleep when we got home and remained asleep until 7:30 this morning!  Hip hip!  Hooray!  All in all, a wonderful day.  I'm so grateful for my Preslar family.  I love them all dearly.  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  (Ha ha like anyone even reads this blog anymore!  Well, Happy Thanksgiving, me!)