Our First Thanksgiving in Our Home...

Well ok, it was three weeks early, but it was still Thanksgiving for us!!!  We wanted to celebrate the holiday with Keith's parents, so we invited them up to our place and cooked them a complete Thanksgiving meal!!! It was perfect!  

The day before I made the pumpkin pies - using my Grandmother's pie crust, delish - and the cheese ball - my Mom's recipe - which was a big hit!  I also fried up the bacon and did some other prep work like chopping onions for the stuffing - again my Mom's recipe and delicious!

The day of, we got up in the morning and he helped me prep the turkey.   Keith even stuck his hand inside it to rub the spices around for me!  The rest of the morning Keith cleaned up the apartment while I finished getting all the other things going in the kitchen.  Man, we had it all, and we are still eating everything!!!  

The day after, I boiled up the carcass and made turkey stock.  Last night I turned it into a delicious turkey soup with lots of celery, carrot, and onions.  

I had to write about this because I was so excited that Keith and I pulled it off!!!  Everything was perfect, right down to the creamy mashed potatoes - my favorite!  I love cooking with him, especially when we cook for family.  We love to entertain, and we love to show people we care by feeding them!  Kind of weird I guess, but we like to take care of people - what better way to do that than to create tasty food that fills their stomachs and their hearts.  It's a beautiful thing. 

 If you're in town and looking for a good meal, just stop on by!  

After a bit of Christmas shopping, while the stock was bubbling in the pot Sunday evening, we put up our Christmas tree and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  We then had to run back to Target twice because of our Christmas tree light fiasco - twinkling lights were accidentally purchases, need I say more???

So the tree is up, and it is gorgeous.  Four hundred lights for a five foot tree.  Ridiculous?  I think not.  Even Keith has finally admitted that I was right about needing four hundred, and he is the one that had to string, unstring, and restring them over and over again.  I love turning it on in the morning while I eat breakfast, just before it's too bright outside to see it twinkle, and then again at night when Keith gets home from work.  It's hard to believe that it starts getting dark around here at about 4:45.  By 5:30 it's dark, and by 6 it's pitch black outside.  We have a pretty narrow window to go running these days.   

Last night we went running in the snow.  There's something truly invigorating about running in the snow.  It's one of my favorite things we do together.  I know it will be less appealing when the snow is a foot high and when going for a "run" is more like going for a "hike" through the fluffy slippery wetness, but... 

we've got thick socks and hearty souls.  

K&A

Election Day!!!

GO VOTE!!! 

I guess that's a fruitless plea because Keith and I have yet to tell people about this little old blog we started...mainly because we have yet to post pictures!!! 

Keith and I got up early this morning and waited in line to cast our ballots!  It was a really nice morning, so waiting in the line outside the building wasn't too bad.  

Tonight I'm making some dinner (homemade mac and cheese or meat loaf and mashed potatoes...not sure yet!)  and we are going to sit in front of the tv and watch the end of this historic race unfold.  I've never been so excited on an election day before!  Keith kept saying last night and this morning, "I'm just so excited!"  How great is that!?  A guy who wanted NOTHING to do with politics five years ago when I met him, heck even two years ago!  It's a beautiful thing when people get involved and take a stand for something, and regardless of how this thing turns out, we have that to be grateful for.    

HAPPY ELECTION DAY!!!

K&A

Heath and Nicole's Wedding!!!

What an awesome couple...what an awesome wedding!  The whole weekend was so much fun, and everyone who attended owes Heath and Nicole (mostly Nicole!) a huge thank you for bringing us all together and showing us such a great time.  THANK YOU!  The water park was awesome.  Before we got there I was DETERMINED not to go.  I typically don't like water parks, or pools.  But holy crap, that place was awesome!!  Apparently water parks have been much improved since I was like 7.  I am a firm believer that the couple makes a wedding, and what an amazing couple they are.  Be prepared, I'm going to get sappy for a moment:  I can't begin to tell everyone, especially Nicole, how grateful and happy I am that she and my brother found each other.  She was the missing piece of our family puzzle.  I'm so excited that I can finally call her my sister, and I don't have to mess with all the "soon-to-be" explanations when I reference this wonderful woman.  She rocks, and she makes my already AMAZING brother a better person, something I didn't think was possible.  

It was so great to see all of Heath's friends from high school, who thoroughly enjoyed telling Keith stories about me as a little girl.  Keith loved every minute of it.  It was also great to get to know Nicole's family and friends (Maria especially!) better.  Of course, it was wonderful to get to see family.  

I will have Keith post the pictures we took when he gets home from work...I'm still new at blogging and so not technologically "with it."  I'm off to go running and then work on my personal statement for my law school application (which has to be entirely rewritten after my meeting with the admissions representative, uh) and hopefully studying a little for the LSAT...again.  Yuck. 

A&K - mostly A 

Here goes nothing...

Well...Keith and I have decided to start a blog.  With our family and friends all over the state of Michigan and the country, and with all of our lives becoming busier and busier, we figured this would be a great way to stay in touch with all of you.  We hope this gives you the chance to be more involved in our new life together...especially with the little moments that make life beautiful.  We will be posting our wedding pictures as soon as we get them!  We are also trying to figure out what size to save pictures on our new camera so they don't look pixilated when we load them onto the blog (like the beautiful picture behind our blog title...so sad, it is beautiful as a large picture, grainy when we shrink it down!!!)  

That's all for now...

K&A