day of thanks

ah, thanksgiving. the day of all out eating and lounging. christmas day comes in a close second, but on christmas i actually feel guilty about eating so much whereas on thanksgiving it's a no-holds bar at eating.

to balance out the food, charlee and i decided to run the turkey trot in the morning. oh man, was it a beautiful day. it felt like spring. perfect weather. my favorite part of the run was when charlee and i stopped halfway through at her car to drop our new shirts off and so i could grab my iPod. which as usual, i hold in my hand and never use. except for listening once to 1,2 step as i crossed the finish line.

this year's dinner was a little different in that dad and carol sadly weren't able to come up. luckily my dear cousin andrea graciously opened her house to us (along with cooking an awesome turkey). charlee and justin tagged along which made for an even more enjoyable time.

i decided on this most important meal of the year to try my hand for the first time at baking pies. half way into baking the first one, i checked in on it to sadly realize that i was in fact cooking it in a bake pan and it was indeed caving in on itself. classic. i also burned my hand trying to get it out. not to worry, i somehow made an analogy out of it for my talk yesterday on forgiveness.

i love eating and vegging. and then eating more. everyone needs a day like this. bring on christmas is what i say...

check out the great dessert my sister made. charlee and my cousin audrey became the best of buds.

i'll admit, i had never done the whole wishbone thing before. my aunt thought this was a disgrace. i think it's a tragedy that on my first try i lost. maybe charlee wished that next time i would win...

here my cousin is describing how to take the neck meat and put it in the gravy. you can tell how i feel about that.

all the men lounging.

dear aunt sanna and the little ones

ISO: good makeup

hey ladies (or guys if you have any suggestions for that matter), i'm looking for some new makeup and am officially taking recommendations. and i could use help. looking for makeup is probably one of my least favorite things to do (although i've decided that my least favorite things, in order, include: 1-finding a job 2-breaking up 3-finding a job while breaking up). but makeup is hard b/c you never know how it's going to look, it's expensive, yada yada. thank heavens for sephora and being able to return things though.

so, i'm looking for recommendations on lipstick/gloss, foundation and eyes. and any tips on how to use the products would be helpful. my sister loves mac products so i'm leaning towards getting their stuff, but if you have something cheaper, please save me so i can have money to get christmas gifts still...

charlestown aka charleston

this weekend we had our "grits" girls reunion for all the ladies in mi familia. and yes, grits does in fact stand for "girls raised in the south." classic, i know. our point of destination was charleston, south carolina. having never actually been to charleston before i was excited to go.

all in all, there were about 20 women who came. we had fabulous dinners and girl talk. i stayed in a room with my cousin which was fun. other highlights include: taking $4 "rick shaws" (taxis) around town, the palm trees that lined the streets, shopping on king street and the farmers market.

i did notice something interesting about human behaviour, though. other than our scheduled dinners on friday and saturday night, the rest of the time was open to do whatever you liked. even with the other options of women i could talk to, (all of which are part of my family that i rarely see) i stuck with my sister and cousin and mom. basically people i see on a regular basis.
if given the chance, people stick with what they're familiar and comfortable with. it was a good lesson for me, especially in a work context. i would have liked if there had been more structured activities that gave us opportunities to be around other family members.

side note-did you know that charleston was the first city to switch out the british flag for an american one during the revolution?


by far my favorite photo from the weekend. sassy sister, sassy.

the dc trio-cousin andrea, tab, me

charleston is known for their "sweet grass" baskets. they were originally made by slaves and the art has been passed down for generations. the sweet grass that they're made of is now hard to find and difficult to grow, so these baskets are steadily increasing in cost.

my aunt and mom deciding which basket to snatch up

this man taught me all i know about sweet baskets...

while we're at it

last christmas my dad kindly gave each of us kiddos a cd with 500 family pictures. we're talking a lot of pictures. i finally uploaded the cd tonight and had to share.

please enjoy me growing up (the good and the bad). and if you're reading this and have a blog, it's your turn to post photos of you growing up. really, it's quite liberating...


this is me and my dear grandma. her name is annie. pretty sure i'll use that as one of my daughter's names.


that's right, it says yo-yo-o-saurus. i may have even busted this out on valentine's day one year. you can only imagine how many more valentines i got that year...



ah yes, and here we hit the awkward middle school phase. notice the lack of teeth showing. i refused to show my braces and smile for the entire time i had them on. i promise i was a happy child and normally smiled.



and last but not least, what FAMILY cd would be complete without photos of ex boyfriends on there? this just makes me laugh (and i apologize for the weird sideways photo that's attached to this) that somehow a photo of me and david ended up on the cd.

like father like son

behold quite possibly the cutest picture ever taken of my dad. darling, right? now check out my brother. uncanny how much they look alike...



and yes, that is me. and yes, i apparently had an affinity for resting my hand on my chin.