A Peaceful Thanksgiving

I had decided to spend Thanksgiving at home. In the peace and quiet of my home. It was marvelous. Every year I cook a turkey. This year it looked particularly nice and scrumptious.

Friday evening I headed down to Pioneer Courthouse Square to see the lighting of the tree. This year it is 75 feet tall and is beautiful.

Pre-lighting
with lots of people.

Santa and a few of his helpers to turn the lights on as the thousands of people on the square counted down.

Every year Pink Martini, a local group does a sing-along of holiday songs...Christmas and Hanukkah songs. This year held a special surprise. The Von Trapp Children, great grandchildren of Maria and Captain Von Trapp (the real life Von Trapps) joined us. Their voices were absolutely beautiful. I will hear them in concert, someday.

The lady in the middle, dressed in costume for a play called Ebenezer, has played Maria in a stage version of The Sound of Music.

And, the tree is lit!

And, I was there!

Lots of people are there!

On the way out...

It was a fun evening and a good way to start the Christmas season.

Merry Christmas!

Inside out, Upside down, Backwards & Sideways

My friend, Linda and her family have a Harvest Party every year and theme it differently. Linda has invited me in the past but I was never able to make it. This year I was. And, the theme was inside out, upside down, backwards and sideways. The food theme was something to do with apples. So...I fed two birds with one stone (as my friend, Cindy the bird lover says) and I made "Inside Out Caramel Apples" AND they were yummy. Now, they didn't look like the ones in the picture, but they were just as delicious, I imagine. You see, I can't eat puff pastry, so instead of using puff pastry, I made a gluten free pie crust and used it. It didn't cut into nice strips like the puff pastry would have, but I still had leaves.

Pre-baked.

I made 8 of them. It took me four hours. I made two sets of pie crust (out of a bag from Bob's Red Mill) and homemade caramel sauce from scratch. I forget how long it takes to bake since I hardly ever do it anymore.
Pre-bake and post bake photos.

Doesn't that look amazing?!?! They were SO yummy. And, because it was a backwards themed party dessert came first. As it should anyway. My inside out caramel apples were a hit.

But, I don't have a single picture of the party, where there were soups, dips, appetizers all made from apples. There was a reading of the poem Backward Bill by Shel Silverstein was read and the game Apples to Apples was also played and lots of laughter filled the air.

Crazy Cat Lady

I don't dress up for Halloween unless it is on a work day. Luckily, I've gotten off the last couple of years. This year, however, no such luck. Last year one of our nurse's had told me that her granddaughter was a crazy cat lady for Halloween and they sewed stuffed animal cats all over a bathrobe of hers and did her hair realy crazy. I had told her I was stealing the idea...and I did, this year.

I got a short bathrobe so I wouldn't die of heat and went to like a billion Goodwills and other thrift stores (really, it was only like 13, but still way too many) to find a decent amount of stuffed animal cats. I got dollar store foam rollers and put a few in my hair and teased out the rest...

I feared that I would be combing my hair out for hours, but I didn't have to spend long on it.

Every year Jack-o-lantern (Jack for short) gets made. The co-worker who used to make him every year left and has moved back east, so this year my friend Jenny from work made him. Every year I introduce him to participants as my boyfriend, Jack. They get a kick out of it. He is just around for about a month. and then gets dismantled for another year. He is also dressed differently every year. This year Jenny put a heart on him that said "Stephanie and Jack." We just had to get a few pictures.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord..." Psalm 127:3 (NASB)

You saw a few posts ago that my friends Stasia and Dave and their son Myles had a new little one added to their family. Baby Josie was Baptized in the name of Jesus Christ this morning. I am one of her Baptismal Sponsors (aka sort of like a Godmother-which is how I refer to is when asked or when I am telling someone).

In honor of Josie's baptism I gifted her this cross that reads, "May the Lord bless you and keep you; May His face shine upon you." Numbers 6:24. Along with this cute block version of a piggy bank that reads, "Little Miracle, Big Blessing." Psalm 127:3.

Josie's grandparents (Stasia's parents) got this cake for the celebration and potluck after the church service.
After a few pictures with Josie laying next to the cake she stuck her fingers in the frosting and proceeded to get it all over her face...too cute. You can see Myles and Grandma Janice in the background.

Josie sleeping in my arms before the service.

We arrived early for pictures and this is Josie and me at the Baptismal Table.

During the baptism. Big brother looking on in curiosity.

All bundled up in the pew. I'm pretty sure she slept through the whole ordeal...water on the head and all! Actually, she may have awaken ever so slightly during that part.

Isn't she a precious child of God?!

Keeping Portland Weird

About a year ago I shared this. This year I am sharing this...

Unicorn hood ornament....awesome!

Soccerball kicking leg attached to a house...crazy decore!

Keep it up, Portland!

What constitutes a Giant Pumpkin?!

Apparently, one that weighs 1,431.5 pounds.

After wanting to go for a few years, I finally made it to the West Coast Giant Pumpkin Regatta. It was a blast and I will go again.

I didn't know what to expect at all, and when I arrived there were all these huge pumpkins on display. They were amazing!

In order to move the pumpkins they needed to rig them up with this rope system and use a forklift to manuver them.
After seeing a few of them being weighed I got to see the biggest being weighed that was there that day. It weighed in at 1431.5 pounds...that. is. One. BIG. pumpkin. Wow. The guy standing with it is the grower. His name is Steve. He was pretty proud.

This pumpkin was also grown by Steve and had been at a competition in Half Moon Bay, CA. It had bottomed out, cracked and the "pumpkin juice" running down the sidewalk was sort of interesting.

After the weighing of the pumpkins they put them in this pond, at the Tualatin Commons, and prepared them for the regatta.

This is the moving of the biggest pumpkin to the pond.

Lowering the pumpkin...

Even in water, it must be difficult to push a pumpkin that heavy...

Look at all those pumpkins!

In black and white...

Smile!

I loved the suit that the guy in yellow wore...it said "Seed Extractor" on the back. Sweet!

By the way....I heard some people talked about buying those seeds...I thought to myself, "gee, I wonder how much a seed from a giant pumpkin would cost?" That was then answered by someone behind me, who must have read my mind. A mere $100. Yes you saw that right - 100 big ones for a seed, a pumpkin seed.

Trying to flip the pumpkin so that the flat part would be on top for carving an opening purposes. It took a bit of heaving and hoeing to get it.

Got it! Every once in a while there would be a stray pumpkin and there were these weird this remote controlled boats that would push them back into place.

Making the first cut.

Check out the inch depth of the hunk of pumpkin that is being held. That one piece alone would probably make a whole pumpkin pie.

Digging deep to get all the guts.

Taking away a precious bag of spendy pumpkin seeds.

Don't fall in!

A cute dog in one of the canoes in the pond.

Testing out the pumpkins. Making any last minute modifications.

After having added some fun last minute details.

Getting ready to head towards the start line.

At the start line.

go, Go, GO!

After paddeling down around the pond they were on the homestretch!

One of the pumpkins was a dud and the guy fell out....he swam, while pushing his pumpkin at least half of the race back to the start/finish line.

There were four different heats of races. The next was a relay. It as a competition between the Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue Department and the Portland Office of the Army Corp of Engineers.

The third heat had to do with people fetching balls that were tossed into the pond by the audience. Racers had to fetch as many as they could and the balls had different point values based on color. The picture below is of the Mayor of Tualatin competing. There was another heat, which I decided not to stay for, but the event overall was a lot of fun. I have been to many fall festivals and events and this was probably one of my favorites. And, like I said, I will go back again another year!