more martinez thanksgiving!

dining on the deck

local bougainvillea

waiting for the next train
(too bad i didn't get a picture of uncle steve
taking enzo by the hand to meet the conductor)

latinas bonitas!

y guapos tambien

time for yoga
(you can see the train a comin' from here

happy thanksgiving!

we spent thanksgiving in kuna, idaho (right outside boise) with tony's oldest sister and her husband and her husband's family. it was bo's first roadtrip, first night away from home, and first thanksgiving. he was a good sport. he even timed his nap to be during dinner so tony and i could both sit and eat with everyone else.

i made mashed potatoes, an apple pie, and a pumpkin cake.

dyany brined the bird before cooking it and it was delicious.

not sure about all the new people.

Noelle Elizabeth Spring

we have been best friends since day one. thanks for always being there for me. i hope you have great birthday and know that we will always be bestest best friends. love you tons.

Thanksgiving

I only made 4 pies and a costco sized potatoes bag worth of mashed potatoes (5 loads in the kitchen aid gives me new perspective of cooking for a crowd), and it took 7 hours to cook and prepare for dinner. Several of us were cooking all day because we had over 30 people for dinner.

We had tables outside and inside, and the outside ones got filled up first, obviously. This did make for a nice intimate dinner with the old standbys inside. The kids were entertained all day by each other and some nerf dart guns, and the rain held off until after we ate dinner and got all the food inside.

Naturally I focused on the food first, and people second. I really did not take enough pictures to give justice to all the people that were there. Hopefully Adam and Danny can help out with some more pictures later.

Here's Ethan trying for the heartthrob look (aka "teenage angst").

Whoever created the staple Thanksgiving foods really was the most genius person ever. So many perfect blends of sweet and savory on one plate.

We had 11 pies, but I remember a couple of years that there was at least 1 pie per person at Colleen's house on the beach, so I did not think there were even close to enough.

After dinner most people went for a quick session at Pounders; Minami, Amaya and I went for a walk in the rain; and when we got back I smacked down at Texas Hold 'em. Austin's friends taught us how to play last summer. Every time we play Ethan talks trash, Adam bluffs, and Tru throws all his chips in.  It's pretty fun.
Adam says that Thanksgiving is better than Christmas. I guess that's a challenge for Christmas dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am so thankful for these two special women. Mimi is the oldest woman I know and Maria is the youngest. There is only 93 years in between them. I am thankful for families, shared experiences, concern with one another, hugs, kisses, shared smiles, conversations, attention, laughter, and moments like these where we can come together to enjoy each other.

 

We had a lovely time at S+S. How did you guys spend Thanksgiving in Hawaii, Utah, NY, and every where else? Please share even if you don't have any pictures (hint, hint Pammy!)

A Dr. in the House

Hi. So I heard from my dissertation committee yesterday that I passed. Everyone was very happy with it, which is pretty gratifying, since I felt like I had kind of lost perspective and was just focusing on the negative, things I needed to work on parts. We heard on our drive down. We are in New Haven now with the Williams and will be on to New York soon. So forgive the pretentiousness, but if anyone wants to call me Dr. for the next few weeks, I won't mind.

Chelsea!

Chelsea with sister, cousins and friend. Circa 1985.

It's almost midnight and Chelsea's birthday. Since Chelsea was young, she has paid attention to others and sent birthday gifts and cards (on time) and still does. If she heard someone was having a rough time, she would say, "I am going to send a card". And she did. Chelsea is genuine and easy to be with and has a beautiful laugh. Her children are blessed. (Husband, too.) Happy Birthday to You!

Today

Monet's contribution.
Robby today.  This one is small, but fun.

Dear Palmer Family Near and Far

Secret Santa this year
yay
or
nay?

Maria was blessed

our baby was blessed yesterday. She did great even though she had about 10lbs of lace to carry around (ok, fine, we carried her around...but still). She is such a champ.

Christian gave her a beautiful blessing. I love, LOVE, baby blessings and am grateful for the priesthood, and even  more grateful that Christian has the priesthood (high-five Christian). I recorded the blessing and will transcribe it. If you want a copy I'll send it to you via email.

 

My aunt and uncle are here for the week. My mom has been with us for almost 2 weeks. It's so fun having my family around.

at night we had a big dinner party with our friends.

Today we're recuperating from the long day.

good night.

it's beginning to look a lot like winter

as much as we will come to hate the snow later. the first real snow of the season is quite magical. we woke up this morning to this view and had to put bo in his snow suit so we could document his first (real) snow. this snow suit barely doesn't fit, so we had to use it at least once.

visiting baby "Rosie"

It's kind of hard to type when you have a 4 year old make-up artist extraordinaire applying glitter to your eyelashes...but our trip to Sacramento was a success.  We got to bond with who Monet prefers to call baby "Rosie" and sometimes "Rose."  She is so sweet and cute.   It was so good to see the Grandmas and Aunts and Uncles, mom and dad, sister, brothers, nephews and new niece.  The fall leaves were beautiful.  We had so much fun.  I only wish we could have stayed longer.

Maine Halloween

Jesse worked on Halloween, but he did come trick or treating with us at night. These are the only two pictures of the day. I took the kids to a Halloween shindig put on by the city parks people. The girls had separate parties later in the evening. It was fun for them and fun for us to hang out with our new friends (the parents). I made M's costume and the skirt for G's. She's a green fairy, btw.