Thanksgiving Day 2009

My modern Thanksgiving tablescape (eat your heart out Sandra Lee)



So pretty... just ignore that one mismatched plate. NavyGuy and I took one for the team and let all the guests have the good china :)



Gratuitous china shot :)



Consulting with MIL on the recipes.



What a good looking group! (And it only took eighteen tries to get one photo of everyone smiling...)



Some of my helpers! (Myself, Roomie A, MIL, and SIL)



Classic NavyGuy and NavyGirl Thanksgiving shot... both of us hunched over the stove, pouring our blood, sweat, and tears into making lump-free gravy.



NavyGuy carving the bird(s). Yes. Plural.



Brother-in-Law was the unofficial puppy-sitter for the weekend.



The NavyGirl family has always struggled with group photos...



This photo, while unflattering for everyone in it, probably most accurately depicts the general chaos and mayhem of Thanksgiving. It was awesome.

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Conversation of the Day

Setting: Family room. 10:30pm. Watching Tuesday's performance show of So You Think You Can Dance? on TiVo.

[Dancer Jacob bends his leg back, up, and over his head like Gumby.]

Mugs: Hey, can you move like that?

[NavyGuy gives a withering look.]

NavyGuy: I tweeked my neck putting my helmet on today.

(Something he's done countless times in the past three years...)

So apparently, the next winner of SYTYCD is NOT sitting in my livingroom.

If you want to check out the move that brought on this exchange, skip ahead to 1:19.

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DIY Moving Announcement

I'm waiting on photos of this past weekend (including me, in my Starbucks apron, working the syrups like a madwoman at 6:30 in the morning), but until they arrive, I've got a few backlogged posts to share.

First up - I never showed you what I came up with for moving announcements! NavyGuy didn't realize that I had grand plans for sending these until I showed him the final draft and asked for approval... luckily, he wisely told me they were great :)

I designed a postcard and had it printed through Zazzle.com. The front side I drew up in Microsoft PowerPoint, and it was supposed to resemble a paint chip. I through in some sarcastic fake paint color names, and ended with the color "New House Bliss." It was really simple to draw out in PowerPoint (it's just rectangles of varying shades of blue, with white letters on top).It took a few adjustments to upload it to the size Zazzle wanted for a postcard, but by the third or fourth attempt, I had the front of the postcard done, with no blank white spaces or odd borders.

Then, for the "postcard" side of the sheet, I added a basic clip art photo of a house, the cheesy "Home Sweet New Home" phrase in a cool font, and our new address! The right half of the backside was left blank so I could address them and add a stamp.


Total, it took about thirty minutes, a few creative brain cells, and around $40 for 50 postcards (including the shipping costs). Probably not the cheapest option out there, but I figure - we'll only live in our first house once :)

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Holiday Decorating: Part 2

I almost forgot...

Tally will have a place to hang her stocking as well, courtesy of Mom:

Dog Paw Stocking Holder

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Holiday Decorating Part 1

I tend to go a little Christmas crazy when it comes to decorating the house. I have five large rubbermaid tubs of decorations, boxes of Willow Tree Nativity pieces, wreaths, lighted garlands, a Christmas train... and that's just for inside the house. And being this is the FIRST year in our FIRST house, and the FIRST year NavyGuy and I won't be going home to our parents for the holidays, we may reach a whole new level of insanity.

Step 1 in the decorating process should have been to inventory and take stock of what items I already have.... whoops. Instead, I carried four bags of Target holiday items home yesterday (which I blame on the fact that I spent half of Black-Friday working the seasonal department of the store... and thereby eyeing up all the new holiday decorations). But everything I got is sooooo fabulous! Check it out:
A decorative pillow and matching kitchen towels, from the "Birchwood Chalet" theme of decorations.Stocking holders for our mantle (NavyGuy vehemently stated that his stocking would hang from the reindeer... why he felt so strongly about it I haven't gained the courage to ask...)
An advent calendar with room for a little piece of candy as we count down the days to Christmas.

I also got some red and gold ball ornaments, and another strand of white lighted garland (it's my Christmas crack). Annoyingly, Target doesn't have most of these items available online, so sorry for the shoddy photographs. Everything was on sale (so no guilt trip Mom!), and I can't wait to bust out all of my other decorations and trim the house! Lots more photos and possibly some how-to's to come...

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Thanksgiving Highlights

Here's the most memorable parts of our 2009 Thanksgiving holiday celebration...

*watching Sister's dog Lucy bound up onto NavyGuy's Dad's lap and surprise the crap out of him

*managing to get all of the Thanksgiving food ready at the same time and on the table (mostly) warm at our projected dinner time (and people made fun of my meticulous schedule, time table, planning checklists... fools)

*reading a hilarious essay on "Decorative Gourds" and then snickering at every traditional Thanksgiving themed decoration spread throughout our house... (warning: linked essay is not suitable for children or people without a sense of humor)

*watching Tally and Sister's dog meet each other and proceed to romp and chase each other for two days straight. Tally thought Lucy's ears tasted very yummy and couldn't figure out why Lucy never wanted to sit still and let her gnaw on them. Lucy found Tally fun, but slightly annoying when she would get near anything Lucy wanted :)

*peeling carrots and spending time with Sister

*having our traditional National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie viewing after Thanksgiving dinner, complete with inappropriate laughter and everyone reciting the lines along with the characters

What else family and friends? What were your favorite Thanksgiving moments at our house?

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Slow News (Reporting) Week

The Thanksgiving holiday official begins tomorrow at our house, as NavyGuy's family arrives, followed closely by mine, plus our good friends A&B. Today was a blur of cleaning, organizing, and last minute grocery shopping. With a houseful of guests, I can't predict how much blogging will be happening this week. However, there'll be lots to report once the crowds thin and life calms down - Turkey day, Tally meeting her puppy cousin Lucy, my first Black Friday working retail, and who knows what else!

Hope everyone else is ready for the big day!

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