We went to the rodeo, Y'all.

Or holy $#@*&*! we live in Texas!

(I don't know any cuss words that have that many letters so don't get mad, Mom.)

But seriously. When we went to the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo the other weekend, it was quite the cultural experience. And by cultural, I mean that I've never seen so many varieties of fried food in my entire life & half the people had accents so thick that it sort of sounded like they were speaking a different language. 

Welcome to Texas, passports please!

But we went! And it was really fun! And people were really friendly & dressed up in their best Texan garb (I know there's a word for this Suzi, & it's totally slipping my mind). I wore my fancy never-worn "cowboy boots" that I'd purchased on a whim for approximately $14 at the Target IN HARLEM (#ImissNYC) - funny in more ways than one - but I was missing anything bedazzled, wasn't wearing any Texas jewelry (the shame!) & forgot my daisy dukes at home. I've always tried but not quite been able to fit in. Sigh.

Quinn was really, really excited about the petting zoo. He was absolutely giddy that all of these fluffy animals had no problems with him poking his fingers into their eyes & mouths (something that his mama protests daily), & wandered around saying hello to one animal & the next for as long as we'd let him. I loved watching his pure excitement & happiness, until I saw him chewing on his shoe in his stroller a few minutes after we'd left - the same shoe that had stomped through the petting zoo for a solid 30 minutes, the same place where I'd seen a llama (?) pee a gallon onto that same ground upon which he was walking (maybe this explains why I threw up non stop for the next 72 hours). 

It was hot by the time we left around 1pm, so we stopped & got the biggest limeade you've ever seen - which was actually the second biggest limeade that they were selling (which was absolutely ridiculous). 

*I had to google proper usage / spelling of y'all. 

Thanksgiving 2011.

We hosted Thanksgiving in our own home for the first time in our married lives last week (!!). It's a really nice thing to spend a holiday at home, & I think we're going to do it more often - especially now that we have the space to accomodate visitors, without requiring that they sleep in our living room. We convinced Mike's entire family + Kylie to come to Houston this year, & were happy to get to show everyone a little part of our new life here.

Of course, a major component to hosting such a big group of people is planning meals. I'm a planner by nature, & I really love great food, so I took this seriously! I made a plan, I got organized, & I assembled a notebook. Of course! I'm sure that there were a few people who confirmed to themselves that I'm a complete nutcase, but I'm seriously holding on to my Thanksgiving Meals.doc file for many years to come. It was a tremendous amount of work doing the planning & the shopping (especially with Costco evacuations, etc), but I was really pleased with everything that we put on the table. Here's what we did:

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Tuesday
D: Tortellini w. Lemon Dill Sauce + Spinach Salad

Wednesday
B: Mom's Blueberry Muffins + scrambled eggs w. cheese & chives
L: Out
D: Rustic Fall Vegetable Soup w. Rotisserie chicken, biscuits & spinach salad

Thursday
B: Crepes w. peaches & yogurt + OJ
L: Snacks – Veggie tray, spiced pecans, Chex Lemon Buddies, goat cheese & rosemary stuffed peppers, apples & almond butter
D: Thanksgiving!

Citrus Roast Turkey

Cornbread Dressing w. Sausage &Apples

No Knead Rolls

Cranberry Sauce (Costco!)

Gravy (Costco! Simmered all day w. the turkey neck - poor turkey)

Thanksgiving Salad

Nixon Family Cranberry Salad

Sweet Potato Casserole

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Martinellis & San Pelligrino

Pumpkin Meringue Pie

Texas Pecan Pie

Friday
B: Mom's Buttermilk Pancakes w. homemade dressing + sausage & OJ
L: Leftovers
D: Hawaiian Haystacks (I retired from cooking after breakfast & put Cara & Jeanne in charge!)

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I have a new appreciation for all of the work my mother did feeding a family of 9 growing up (& she always cooked from scratch!), not to mention all of the planning she & my sister Tara have primarily handled for the weeks spent at Priest Lake over the past decade or so. It is so. much. work. but I think that making a yummy meal is most often really rewarding & I really like to do it.

(But I was so exhausted come Saturday morning!) 

Photos! I didn't take nearly as many I should have, but I at least captured our improvised Thanksgiving table (we had to  put two together in our currently-empty dining room / music room) & my first experience up close & personal with a turkey. We had a really nice time with everyone in Texas, Quinn took a break from teething for a few days & ate up all of the constant attention & focus on him, & I loved having friend Kylie around, too! My careful scheming of trying to get a friend (& photographer!) married into the family will hopefully be successful - & seeing them together for just a few days had me convinced that they're the happiest lovebirds of 2011.  

Also: I'm not allowed to buy any more navy & white striped shirts. 

And of course, the view I often get when I pull out my camera.

*Also: I feel I should mention that I'm currently sitting in the Cafe at the gym with my laptop & a Diet Coke (lie: it's Pepsi, & I hate Pepsi). My new plan with dealing with Q's recent + serious attachment issues is to bring him to the gym twice a day, just for a little bit, so that he can get used to his friends in VillaKids & eventually let me work out for longer than 25 minutes before he has a nervous breakdown (e.g. yesterday).