Thanksgiving

By the time we made it over to Aunt and Uncle's casita on Thanksgiving, Uncle Steve had already baked his apple pie and was in the process of making a pumpkin pie/tart using a new recipe that included garam masala. After breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and tortillas, the girls opened two gifts from Aunt and Uncle. The were the card game Uno and another board game called Trouble. We decided to open Uno and play. It was really fun and pretty soon both girls were joining in the fun! We soon learned that CK is a card shark!

This year, Aunt and Uncle got the turkey ready and Uncle Steve drove it over to Chris and Mike's house for it to start in the oven. Aunt Shirl and I made the stuffing, which is my absolute favorite! Before we knew it, it was time to head over to Chris and Mike's house for the big meal. Chris and Mike's house has incredible views and each time we visit I'm newly amazed by how beautiful it is. This year it was a smaller group that included us and one other couple, Deborah Madison and Patrick McFarlin who are friends of Chris and Mike's. Deborah is a well-known vegetarian cookbook author who is very interesting and nice. Patrick is an artist and painter and was a little more reserved but also very kind.

After we arrived, we took some photos and then helped get dinner on the table. I made my steamed broccoli with olive oil, lemon juice and sautéed garlic, which I pulled together at their house. Before we knew it we were sitting down to eat. The turkey was easily the best I've ever had and both our girls ended up having seconds of just the turkey meat. It was all delicious and we were all hungry from not eating since breakfast.

After finishing our meal, we enjoyed a simple salad made by Deborah that was incredible (apparently it's all about the type of olive oil). After, we dug into Uncle Steve's apple pie (amazing as usual with the best homemade crust) and the pumpkin tart which easily won everyone's vote as the very best ever had! The garam masala really added to it and it was different and delicious! We lingered over coffee and Chris gave the girls little wooden puzzles that could be made into different shapes, etc. The girls loved playing with them and the wind-up toys. After a while, we said our goodbyes and headed back to the casita for another quick game of Uno and bed. What a fun Thanksgiving!

Aunt and Uncle pulling the pumpkin tart together

Aunt Shirl and the girls before opening their game presents

I love this picture of Aunt Shirl and Sofia

Opening....

Olivia opening up the other present

The four of us

All of us - not a great photo but the best taken

Deborah at work

Uncle Steve and me cooking

The incredible view

Uncle Steve and Mike cutting up the turkey

Girls!

Aunt Shirl and her cranberry sauces

Sitting down to dinner

From the other side of the table

Santa Fe!

We flew to Santa Fe on Tuesday afternoon and arrived at the casita around 4pm. After saying 'hello' to Aunt and Uncle, we unpacked into their friends' casita directly behind theirs that we've stayed in before and got settled. After, we returned to their casita and caught up. Aunt Shirl had also made a fantastic chili that we all enjoyed. The girls were so excited to be in Santa Fe with their Aunt and Uncle and loved that there was a small dusting of snow on the ground (in the shade)!

The next day, we ventured over to Cafe Pasqual's for breakfast - a must for any visit to Santa Fe. We sat at the community table and Sofia spent her mealtime entertaining and talking to the ladies sitting next to her at the table. She also devoured her pancakes! Olivia has never been a huge breakfast fan, so she picked at her food but the rest of us left overly full. After breakfast, we walked up to the Plaza where the girls played. They ran after pigeons for a while before Olivia found a group of kids around her age to walk around the monument at the center of the Plaza and Sofia tried to sit very still to lure a pigeon near her (it didn't work). Although cool out, it was sunny and clear and felt great in the sun. The little dusting of snow that remained in the shady areas was soon gone.

After playing for a bit, we returned to the casita and the girls played with their horses and dinosaurs while we just hung out. After lunch, we decided to walk over to the Harrell House Bug Museum which Aunt and Uncle had heard great things about. None of us had great expectations, but were soon greatly surprised. The museum was fantastic! There were scorpions, giant tarantulas, a whip spider, hissing cockroaches, and all sorts of bugs in their own enclosures. The museum also had a tortoise and a kimono dragon. The girls walked around looking at all the bugs and they each borrowed a flashlight and magnifying glass to look closer at everything. There was also an amazing collection of pinned dead insects that one man has collected since he was 12 years old. He was there and was so enthusiastic and passionate about his hobby, it was infectious! He told us how he got started and explained all he knew about the bugs and butterflies. He explained that he connected with someone equally entranced by insects and bugs, but live ones and they decided to open this museum. The other man explained several of the bugs on display and let Sofia and another boy take turns holding them while he explained about the particular bug! Sofia even held a hissing cockroach. It was really fascinating! We ended up spending nearly 2 hours at the museum when we expected it to be a quick visit! After our museum visit, we drove over to Maria's for a traditional plate of southwestern-mexican food - another must visit for any trip to Santa Fe! It was a fun and full day!

Snow!!

Cafe Pasqual's

Running around the statue at the Plaza

Chatting....

Sofia trying to lure pigeons to visit her

Visiting the Santa Fe burro

Leaves! The girls loved walking through the piles of leaves

At the Bug Museum

Checking out one of the lizards with Aunt Shirl

Looking at the amazing butterflies!

Sofia holding one of the large insects

Olivia looks at the Kimono Dragon

Holding a Hissing Cockroaches

Learning about a huge centipede!

Holding the centipede which "felt funny"

ICE!

Yesterday afternoon we visited ICE at the Gaylord Texan. Last year we went on Christmas Eve with the girls' grandparents and basically walked right in without a lot of other visitors. This year, we figured if we went early we would be similarly lucky with the amount of people. It was also half-price tickets, so we figured it would be a lot less expensive. What could go wrong? We arrived early for our 5:30pm ticket time and joined a massively long line. The line barely moved and the girls were restless and wanted to play so it made it difficult. Luckily there was a young boy behind us in line that the girls ended up playing with and we talked to his parents who had never visited ICE before.

The theme for ICE this year was Frosty the Snowman, which we were all looking forward to seeing. By the time we got to the area to pick up our big, thick blue jackets we were all hot, tired and hungry and Olivia wasn't up for wearing her jacket at all. By the time we continued in the line and made it to the actual exhibit, we were all wearing our jackets and hats, although Olivia wouldn't wear her gloves. The exhibit was really fun and interesting and it's pretty amazing what the Chinese ice artists can do with a block of ice! The girls loved exploring and there were so many people waddling around bundled up in their bulky blue jackets that we had a hard time keeping up with them! Olivia could snack in between people and be gone and thankfully we kept track of her by her hat and managed to keep track of her but it was difficult. We made it to the slide area and it took forever for Sofia and CK to make it to the top. At that point, Olivia was so hungry she started crying, so I pulled her into a corner and fed her a granola bar from my purse. I didn't plan on offering it to Olivia since I figured she'd be scared to try it or would change her mind at the top of the slide and there is really no way of walking down the stairs at that point. However, she ended up walking up the far side of the slides and went down by herself! She loved it! Since I was at the top with her, I had to go down too and was surprised at how fast and fun it was!

After the slides, we continued walking through the ICE exhibit and made our way out. By the time we returned our jackets it was after 7pm! We were all hungry and a little grumpy at this point and Sofia was desperate for a cut of hot chocolate, which they conveniently sell at the end of ICE. We were ready to get out of the Gaylord and eat some real food, so we managed to make our way to the car and drove to Baker's Ribs, a BBQ joint that opened up not far from the Gaylord which is also in Dallas and a favorite of CK's. It was fantastic and really hit the spot! We were all so hungry and it was just what we needed after a long afternoon at ICE.

Waiting in line....

In our big blue jackets

Our "official" photo

Finally in ICE and a smile!

Frosty, Olivia and her little green hat

Checking out the exhibit

Sofia and me

From the top of the slides!

An attempt at keeping Olivia still for a picture

A "fire" made out of ice....this was one of my favorites

Frosty and Santa

Sofia

The very impressive ice nativity

The End of Soccer 2014

Today the Pink Pirates had their last game and ended up losing, which was unfortunate because the parents of the team were really ugly about the win and even cheered when one of our girls was tripped up or missed. Altogether it was a good season and the team won most of their games by a huge margin but also lost today and against another team several weeks ago that was also very good. Ever since Sofia scored her goal against the Sweet Frogs, she's been so excited to play and practice which has been great since she normally wants to stay home rather than practice. She enjoys going to the game but there is also a good amount of foot-dragging. Ultimately she loves doing activities and being involved but she really loves staying home, playing, reading and running around with Olivia.

This season I took all of the photos during the game and after editing them down to about 200 photos, would send them to all the parents through Shutterfly. It's something I enjoy and I really try to get good pictures of each of the girls but have a hard time with those who aren't as involved with actually kicking the ball much, like Sofia. Sofia isn't really afraid of the ball as much as she knows Olivia and Emily, who are the very aggressive and good players, will come and take the ball. She's gotten a lot better at going after the ball this season and is becoming more confident in playing but still needs to work of dribbling and passing the ball. As long as she's trying and having fun that's all that really matters to us. This season Olivia has really loved playing with Gabrielle's little sister, Emily, and they usually walk over and get a hot dog together during every game. My daughter who has never had a hot dog in her life loves them! It's so cute to watch them play together and get along so well.


Sofia is excited to get back into soccer in the spring, which is great and has had a lot of fun with the Pink Pirate girls. It really is a great group of girls. We are looking forward to having our weekends open now and hope to go out and visit museums and do other fun things that a middle-of-the-day soccer game makes impossible.

Our little soccer player

A rare picture of the team photographer - me and my shadow, Olivia

Snack time

Olivia relaxing while watching her sister play

Going after the ball

Playing goalie

Dribbling the ball down the field

Hot dogs with her buddy Emily

Sofia

In charge of the ball

Going toward the goal

Emily and Olivia hanging out

Team picture

The silly version

The girls

Our sweet girl (wearing the black Nike headband) and her soccer pals

Pep talk before their last game

Waiting on the bench before getting subbed in.

The soccer game

High-fiving the other team at the end

Sofia's "official" soccer photos for the season