Gobble, Gobble

We get the girls every other year for Thanksgiving and this year they will be at their mom's house so we had to celebrate early. Friday night we made mini pizzas and turkey cookies. Well, sort of.

The girls and I made turkey cookies.

Martin just tried to use up as much of the decorations as possible.

And made this.

Maybe it's a self portrait?

Our turkey cookies looked so little like turkeys that we finished decorating the rest of the cookies "free style".


Anna made a peace sign.

And Marisa made a puppy.

We then drew our 2008 Thanksgiving tree and each wrote things we were thankful for on the leaves. I pulled out last years tree and compared the two. Things like family, friends and health were on both trees and Anna has been thankful for "her birthday" two years in a row. Girl loves her some attention!

We started to work on our Thanksgiving tablecloth (everyone writes in permanent marker our favorite memory of the year and a wish for the coming year) but unfortunately my sharpies were all out of ink so we will have finish that next weekend.

I am off tomorrow until next Monday and I am very excited! Katie and I will be braving the busy grocery stores tonight getting ready for Turkey Day.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Why?

I have no idea. But I totally want about 7 of these:

And one of these:

I Failed You

Ok, I must apologize. Remember when I told you the Pumpkin Spice coffee mate was a great way to start your day? I lied. I was so excited to taste this holiday flavor ....... then I did. It. is. gross. I looked up reviews online and saw "it tasted like a spiced hot dog". Appetizing? Nope. I didn't think it really tasted like meat, but it just had this sour milk taste to it. Gross.

But I do, however, recommend the Sweet Italian Cream. I had that this morning and it was very good.

I only have about three readers so I doubt anyone wasted the money on this suggestion but if you did, I owe you three bucks!

To make it up to you I will give you a super quick, easy and delicious recipe!

Calzones.

All you need to purchase is refrigerated pizza dough, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese (or do what I did and buy a "Italian mix") ricotta cheese whatever fillings you like and marinara sauce.

I made these last night with the low fat turkey pepperoni (men and children won't be able to tell the difference!), black olives, and mushrooms from Martin (ew fungus!). The best thing about this is everyone can make their own. If you have a vegetarian in the house (how annoying) they can add extra vegetables and leave out the meat (just kidding Katie, Mikel and Tavi) and kids can have fun adding their own ingredients and making their own!

You roll the dough out into circles, add the filings and close them back up into calzone shapes. The recipe said to brush them with olive oil but I just sprayed them with my olive oil Pam.

We put olives on top to identify the ewwy mushroom ones!

Cook at 375 for 15 minutes and serve with warm marinara sauce.

TA DA!

Totally delicious and way better than any greasy calzone I've ever had a restaurant. I paired mine with a caesar salad and it was great comfort food for a cold night.

Let me know what you put in yours!

Take 2

Ok, I found this and Anna would love it!Anna and Marisa both would love this

But I think we'd need two of them so Martin and I could play too!

As much as it pains me to say it........they would both REALLY like this

I find basketball so incredibly boring but the girls love it. sigh.

They both really want new bikes.

They got new bikes about three years ago but we just got rid of them because they were waaay too small now!

Good thing kids are cheap huh ;)

Your Holiday Shopping Guide

Yesterday's post gave you what Tavi's dying for this year. But - she'd also love cash - all these application fees are expensive!!

For the other two Zoo Day Camp! Anna and Marisa stay with us from Christmas to New Years every year. On December 29, 2008, they can do "big cats" day camp at the Zoo. (Marisa's favorite animal is a tiger.)

"Campers will spend the day exploring animals at the zoo. Activities, crafts and tours will teach campers about the animals that live in the zoo. Campers will get to an up close and personal encounter with some of the educational animals each day."

My mom did this for them last year and they LOVED it.

Looking for something for my mom? Go here: http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=12387418

Shamrock would be a great brother for Sophie and Cricket!

How about JB? I think these would look fabulous on him!

They have different color options. Very cool.

I think Mr. Hopkins should totally own this.

It's not like anything I have seen him in but I think he could pull this off and look great.

Anyone out there have any money? My sister is in desparate need of this.

Seriously, her tv is like 40 years old. You still using rabbit ears Katie? :)

Too expensive? This would look great on Katie.

How about this for Jeannie?

I love the high neck and the waist detail. Too cute.

Wanna deal? Jeannie would look hot in these! AND they are 50% off!

Perfect for a cold, windy day in New York!

I think Sjon should have something fun to wear to all the concerts she goes to. Match this with her mohawk sporting husband and leather coat (or a cute red coat!) and she is good to go!

But then for a date night I think Sjon (or me) needs these.

Hawt!

Mikel, I think Matthew should buy you this.

I really like the pattern but if you want to go for a more classic style, I like this

This is neat for Matthew

It's a tiny pen that fits in the crease of any wallet. Who ever has a pen on them anyway? If he needs to jot down something for work it will always be there.

This one is tough because I think it would be great for Matthew and JB :)

Hee, I like it!

Well that's all for now. Notice how I have NOTHING for Dad!! Ideas welcome!!!

Discovered.

Is a great invention.

Is a great way to start your day on a cold morning!

Would look so awesome on me. (size 7 for anyone in the mood to buy me a gift.)




Has been Tavi's obsession for months and months and months and they are finally on sale. CRAZY on sale actually but we are taking her to New York for Christmas so we can't buy them for her. (size 7 1/2 for anyone in the mood to buy Tavi a gift.)



Are a steal and again would be great for me. (see above for size, you know, if you love me.)




Is an amazing, beautiful and talented kid. She just found out she has been academically accepted to Point Parke University and also received a partial academic scholarship and a partial leadership scholarship. It's a very expensive school but she hasn't even auditioned yet and may receive additional scholarships for drama. She is over the moon and Martin and I are incredibly proud!

Weekend Wrap-Up

We had a busy but fun weekend that involved very little sleep.

Friday night we celebrated Katie's birthday (early). I got her a ticket to the Reba/Kelly Clarkson concert for her birthday and Dad and Jeannie were going to go with us. Sadly, Jeannie suffered an unfortunate encounter with a hard boiled egg and was unable to attend. We missed you Jeannie! We began the evening with dinner at Bottega Cafe with JB and Martin. We didn't have any candles so JB put the table candle on the dessert plate and we sang Happy Birthday.

She blew out the candle and we ate her birthday desserts for her. Martin and JB then left and the three amigos went to the concert. We had a BLAST!! Reba and Kelly were unbelievable. Head over to the Woodside to check it out.

After the concert we went back to Dad's and sang country music at the top of our lungs until 2 a.m. (Fun but not necessarily smart.)

Saturday morning Martin and I had to get up and drive to Nashville. Martin's contact from HBO Sports got us tickets to the Tayor v. Lacy fight.

"Jermain Taylor and Jeff Lacy have been buddies ever since they roomed together in the 2000 Olympic Games. They had always hoped they would never have to fight each other. But with their careers on the line, friends or no friends, Taylor and Lacy are going to go at it. Will a friendship forged in combat survive combat? "

Martin was BEYOND excited. As Katie will tell you, we had to hear about this every day leading up to this weekend!

I had heard of their names before but didn't really know anything about them. I was looking forward to seeing Deontay Wilder who was having his pro debut before the Lacy/Taylor fight. Wilder is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama and was on the U.S. Olympic team this year. Martin knows him and has refereed some of his fights in the past.

I will admit I was mostly interested in trying to see celebrities and getting on television - and Martin agreed to take me to a nice dinner before the fights.

We got to our hotel in Nashville and I was exhausted. The weather was gloomy

which made me even more tired. The fights started around 6:00 p.m. and we had 5:00 p.m. dinner reservations which left no time for a nap. It did leave about 15 minutes to watch Bob Ross. That guy is just nuts.

He just takes a paint brush and randomly smudges paint on a canvas.

Then all of a sudden - out of nowhere - snowy mountains. How does he DO that???

We had to pick up our tickets before dinner because Martin was dying to find out where our seats were.

When he took them out of the envelope I thought he was going to pass out. Yes, you read that correctly - fourth row!

We went to dinner at Miro District. Dean (you may remember him from Bottega) opened Miro District about three months ago and the restaurant was amazing.

I wanted to take lots of pictures but as you can see they turned out too dark.

We started with the stone crab claws with arugula, orange, shallot, and citrus aioli. The crab claws were enormous, fresh and delicious. Martin had the grouper with creamy polenta, fall vegetables and carrot nage and I had the butternut squash risotto with braised beef, leeks, brussels and sage. Martin was dying to get to the fights but I had to try the tiramisu with polenta poundcake, mascarpone, and espresso. It just sounded too good and it did not disappoint!

Like the restaurant, the bathroom was very nice too.

But when I went to wash my hands, I looked in the mirror and saw the weirdest thing - those mirrors make your pupils look solid white. It was CREEPY. I tired to take a picture but didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

The picture shoes the white outline but when I looked in the mirror my entire pupil was white. I know, random but it was really bizarre!

We then went to the Vanderbilt University gymnasium to watch the boxing matches. As soon as we walked in we found out they didn't serve alcohol - it was going to be a long night!


We watched about five hours of boxing (vote for me for world's best wife!). I was pretty entertained by people watching.

These guys were walking around trying to get attention.





They looked absurd and it ended up being about 90 degrees in there so I can't imagine how hot they were in their fake furs. They were here getting their picture made with Evander Holyfield (who was also there for the attention, in my opinion!).



Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield is a multiple world champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions. And check this out - he has 11 children. Yikes.

A pair of twins sat in front of us. Well actually the man sitting next to us called them quadruplets.

They were identical twins and even dressed alike. As you can see they were identical from behind as well. It was a lot more impressive in person but let me just put it this way - Kim Kardashian has nothing on these girls!

I didn't really get to see any celebrities but there were a lot of boxers from the Olympic team that Martin recognized and Eddie George was there.

Deontay knocked his opponent out in the second round and Chaz Witherspoon beat Adam "The Swamp Donkey" Richards. Yup - that was his nickname. Swamp Donkey.

I wanted Jeff Lacy to win but that didn't happen.

But it was a good fight and Martin had a blast.

After the fights we met up with one of Martin's clients. He is a senior at Vanderbilt and he wanted to introduce Martin to all of his friends. He took us out to several different bars. Martin was a celebrity - apparently Alex talks A LOT about him. All of Alex's friends "couldn't wait to meet him" and Martin hated all the attention :)

Sunday morning we got up and went to the hotel restaurant.

For a light lunch under flying saucers(?).

A club sandwich the size of my head and enough french fries to feed a family of five.


Our initial plan was to head on home after lunch but Martin saw that the bar next door had ALL of the football games on. So we decided to duck in there for a drink and to watch the games. Tampa Bay won their game but my Falcons lost.


We then finally got in the car and came back to the 'ham.


Martin had to get back in time for the Cowboy game.

The weekend was fabulous and ended on a high note when the Cowboys beat the Redskins (aka Martin beat Katie).



Thanks T.O., sorry K.F.