november. 2015

Because today is the last day of winter, and it would seem just weird to do November stuff in spring.... let's talk about November now, ok? (It's as good a time as any, right?)

I love coming across surprising little outdoor scenes. Like frozen leaves in rain puddles.

So, Darcie has been having an amazing time at college. I'm super-grateful that she lucked out to get some awesome roommates to start college off right.

Those girls are such a blessing and I can tell that some lifelong friendships have been formed already! Roommates are like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're going to get! Darcie really hit the jackpot.

I steal photos off Facebook a lot, ....... heh,heh.

A LOT.

Sometimes, .... just sometimes .... I happen to get a Snapchat selfie that I actually LIKE, too.

\

Sheer luck!!

So, the first weekend in November, Brandon and Cecilia blessed their new little bundle of joy, and we didn't want to miss that for the world! Despite the face that we were smack-bang in the middle of our busy season in the hearth products industry, we blocked out the time and made a long-weekend trip down to Utah. We stopped in Boise on the way, to grab Andrew and Alyssa, and made a full-blown family reunion out of that trip. It was WONDERFUL!!

Here are some shots from that Sunday:

Their cute little family!

Grandpa Todd with Baby Darius. The crocheted blanket was made by Cecilia's mom, who had recently passed on. What a wonderful way for his other grandma to be a part of that day.

3 Huffaker generations. Personally, I was particularly pleased that they chose to include a Huffaker family name in Baby Darius' full name. He makes it the 5th generation of Huffaker men to carry the name, "Weld."

I know I'm a only a Huffaker by marriage, but it's really important to me to carry "Weld" down through the generations. Maybe one day, they'll even tell Darius how the name originated from Weld County, Colorado!

The full family group! We're all squinting because we were facing the bright sun!

Miss Emma missing a few teeth!

Miss Giselle has the sweetest smiles ever!!

This was a chance to get all of my kids in the same spot. I wasn't passing up the photo opportunity!

(Sometimes they get a little wacky!)

Pretty darn sure that we'll re-create this photo at least once more when Emma is older..... !

Later, relaxing back at their home, and before saying our goodbyes...

My girls!

Newlyweds smooching!

The back story behind this photo is that Giselle wasn't too sure about us -- she'd seen us on Skype a lot, but here we were: up close and in person! Grandpa Todd was a little scary because of his beard, so our only choice for holding them both at the same time, was for Todd to take Darius, and me to hold Giselle -- but she still wasn't too excited about me, either. It was a quick-grab-the-photo-NOW-moment!!

That picture makes my heart happy!

And this next one, actually kinda does, too!

Grandma's touch? I put the little guy right out! Of course, he was tired anyway and would have fallen asleep in a tornado. But I like to believe that it was my doing.  [smile]

Emma really wanted to hold him, too, so we slipped the sleepy guy from my arms to hers.... two cuties!!

All these photos would not have been possible, were it not for my amazing niece, Chelsea:

She is one seriously gifted and talented young lady, and we were so glad that everything worked out so she could be with us that day & to capture these moments.

One example of her talent comes through in her drawings and sketches. Here's one (one of SEVERAL) that she cranked out in less than 70 minutes of sitting in our church sacrament meeting:

I made sure to grab that program and pocket it, because I sure didn't want it to disappear!

Chelsea, you really, really rock!

THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

 (Darcie was proud of herself for that photo-bomb.)

We kind of took our time returning home, and enjoyed a quick game of 8-ball at our favorite hotel, before leaving town.

Fast forward to Thanksgiving Day --

this year was quite possibly the smallest Thanksgiving gathering we've ever had. Having the kids so far away is kinda hard sometimes. Oh, how we miss them!!

We started our morning with Todd making a super-yummy "train wreck" breakfast ---- eggs, hasbrowns, peppers, onions, jalapeno sausages ...... oh, yummmmmm..... 

He had started smoking the turkey on the Memphis smoker, way in the night. 

Ready to pull him off the grill now.

Serious tryptophan gloriousness right there:

(he got to rest under a foil blanket before carving.)

I spent the morning with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and working on pumpkin pies. The recipe will be forthcoming here on the blog. I'm going to put Grandma Davidson's pie recipe out there for all to see...... it's epic.

I never understood why people don't like pumpkin. Then I had some other pumpkin pie, and it was all clear. It didn't taste remotely like the pumpkin pies I'd always known!

I took plenty of pictures for a pie-making tutorial. And I recruited Cameron to get a picture of my flour-filled hands, pinching the dough just like my momma taught me how to do it.

When the pies come out of the oven, they're all puffed up and have that sweet-spicy-pumpkin aroma that fills the house. Mmmm.

Glorious turkey makes glorious gravy, too:

Look how small a group we are!

Christmas lights went up that afternoon....

(Somehow, I'm humming, "If I Were a Rich Man".......)

I set those beautiful pies out on the railing to cool. I do like pumpkin pie served COLD.

Games that evening.....

And, still to come:

That divine pumpkin pie recipe, and also ...

..... our favorite dish to make with leftover turkey.

(Besides turkey sandwiches. Because turkey sandwiches really rock, too!!)

Are you like us, and do you purposefully roast/smoke/cook a bigger turkey than you actually need to do, just to make sure there will be plenty of leftovers??

Oh, yeahhhhhh.