We Eat Braaaaains!

At work, I get the first and third Friday of every month off. When we work on a Friday, there is a rotating schedule, and someone is the designated treat-bringer.

Friday, October 27th was my treat day. Based on the treats that I have brought to work over the years, I feel like I've developed fairly high standard for myself. So this time was no exception, I could not disappoint. With Halloween just around the corner, I went with a monster them.

Basic rice krispie squares, with some chocolate work make a melty Frankenstein monster!

And an impulse purchase of a cupcake kit in the line at Winners (the most clever marketing strategy there ever was!) resulted in these Halloween-themed muffins. Banana chocolate chip, and banana carrot zucchini, with some cream cheese frosting!

The team was pleased!

Cross Stitch - Project Numbers

My sister-in-law, Ashley, has been an avid cross stitcher for many years, but it is something that I have never tried myself. Lacey's room features an alphabet that my mom cross stitched for my sister some 40 years ago, and two cross stiches from Auntie Ashley. I decided that I wanted to round off these stitches by adding one made by me!

I scoured Etsy and found a pattern I liked. Then I bought all my materials at Michael's. Finally, on the last weekend in August, I got started.

After about six and a half hours that weekend, this is what I had to show... Barely finished 1 of 9 numbers. This is when I thought... WHAT have I gotten myself into?

I had no idea that cross stitching would be such a long a tedious process. Luckily for me, I LOVE long and tedious processes! Ha!

Over the course of about eight weeks (and countless hours!), I slowly finished the cross stitch for Lacey. I cross stitched in the evenings after Lacey had gone to bed. I would squeeze it into every opportunity that I got. At one point I even considered taking it to work with me and cross stitching during my lunch hour (I never did, I was always too paranoid of spilling something on it, or getting it dirty during transportation).

And... The finished product!

I am super happy with it! It looks great on the wall next to Lacey's other cross stitched creations. And Lacey has been slowly learning how to count to ten. Although she doesn't understand what the numbers mean right now, we have been making an effort to point them out to her, and recite them so she can learn to identify them.

If you find yourself intrigued by the idea of cross stitching, I purchased my pattern here on Etsy. It was great, easy to follow instructions, and no difficulties from a first-timer!

Our First Turkey

Now that we are in a house, we finally had the space and seating to host our first Thanksgiving! Not only was this our time first hosting of a major holiday, but also our first time making a turkey. Keep in mind, when I say, "our first time making a turkey," I actually mean, Tom made the turkey.

Here's what we were serving up for Thanksgiving 2017!

Hehe, just kidding!

I didn't really have the foresight to take a lot of photos of our first Thanksgiving, but I can tell you that despite some stress (not leaving enough time to defrost the turkey... not entirely sure how long it takes to cook a turkey in our new oven...), things turned out great. Tom and I took care of the turkey, stuffing and dessert, and our family brought beans, brussel sprouts, potatoes and appetizers.

I made cornbread the day before, and Tom used it to make cornbread stuffing. It was AH-MAZING. We will DEFINITELY be doing that again! Here's a shot of the turkey, glistening, straight out of the oven.

And here are a shot of the pumpkin pies, modified from this Paula Deen recipe.

The food was consumed with gusto, and we are thankful to have shared the day with our family.

Happy Thanksgiving!