Thanksgiving 2013

For the first time ever we had having Thanksgiving dinner at home. In the past, we either went out to eat or to some other relative's house for Thanksgiving. This year as per the request of William, we had Thanksgiving at home. 

 

We begin the morning with deviled eggs. William LOVES deviled eggs and I must say that these were especially good.

 

I am loving these new crockpots. Each one is 1.5 quarts and on separate heat levels. We had festive mini-meatballs, crab dip and corn all going at once. 

I made pecan pie for dessert and much like the eggs, I think it was my best effort yet.

I have had these floating candles sitting around for years and never the opportunity to use them. This was our centerpiece and watching the candles burn to see what would happen proved quite amusing.

Before dinner, Mike and William checked out the Black Friday ads to see if there was something we couldn't live without. (there wasn't)

 There you have it the dinner all set to be gobbled. 

THANKSGIVING MENU

Appetizers

Crab Dip

Deviled Eggs

Beer Nuggets

Mozzarella Sticks

Festive Mini-Meatballs

Dinner

Turkey w/gravy

Mashed Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes

Cranberries

Asparagus

Stuffing

Corn

Dessert

Pecan Pie

Happy Easter!

 Easter 2000

 Grandma Connie and all her grandkids at the time.

The Loftus grandkids with Aunt Val.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day is not at the top of my list for Holidays, however, when the kids were small we use to make heart-shaped pizzas for dinner. They loved doing it and well in the middle of February in the cold and snow there isn't a whole lot else to do. Look how adorable they are holding their pizza dough that they shaped into hearts.

  

The finished product made them very proud and they were actually very good, we all enjoyed eating them. 

 

 The year was 2001... fast forward to 2013 and William agrees to make heart-shaped pizza with his mother once again! I think we did a much better job of shaping hearts back in 2001, but we had fun making our pizzas and eating them!

 

 

Unfortunately for us Mike was not here to join in the fun, I am sure he is jealous....LOL. I also made these delicious brownie cookie hearts for dessert. I am thinking for a holiday I don't celebrate, I did an okay job of celebrating.

 

 

 Silly boy put his heart cookie on his heart and it is sitting right on his thumb. What a goof! Hope you (that would be you Mom, since you are the only person that reads my blog) enjoyed this little blast from the past, you can look forward to more as I continue to try to organize and clean up my photo area.

Merry Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas! We went over to the water ranch to recreate our Christmas day photo from 2006. We arrive at the spot, rocks still in place, cacti blooming and a dead bird laying by the rock. ICK that was not part of the plan. Pat decides he is going to pick it up and get it out of the way, so I turn my back and start setting up my tripod. Along comes a very nice young woman who informs me that she is pretty good with a camera and would we like her to take our picture, it might be easier than a tripod. So I said sure hahahaha. I can't stop laughing because, well you have to know my family to know that this was a HUGE thing for me to get them to agree to photos, but that didn't include a stranger doing it. hehehehe So we are on the rocks in front of the cacti, not exactly posing how I would have insisted and not the angle I would have done, but we got the photo and she was very nice to offer and take her time to do this. In addition to our "2006 recreation" she thought a nice close together family photo was in order, so she proceeded to pose us and take one. Thank you to the kind woman at the water ranch!

Happy Holidays!

Mesa Temple Lights

 Our evening started at the Cheesecake Factory. It has become a tradition when Grandma comes to visit to go here usually on her last night with us, but because Pat was working late her last night here, we decided to go on Tuesday evening and then make a trip to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple. I have heard that they have a magnificent display and often have musical performances going. Well the lights were wonderful, and oh so many. There was a choir singing Christmas songs in one area with lights galore all around them. And then in closer to the temple we walked around this area that every single thing possible was lit. It is a very beautiful display and the lights reflecting in the water were my favorites.

i

 William is cheating here he is not that tall.

 

 

 This is my favorite shot with the reflection of the temple.

It was a very lovely evening, the weather was perfect for walking around and it wasn't too crowded. I will add this to my list of must-dos at the holiday time.

Holiday Balloon Glow

SanTan Village held their 2nd annual holiday balloon glow. I love hot air balloons. I have decided to add a Hot Air Balloon ride to my bucket list. We arrived early in the evening when they were just starting to set up and there were maybe only four or five up. By the end of the evening there were at least twenty maybe more. I don't know because I didn't get a chance to walk around and see all of them and they were in such a small space for so many that it was just balloon bumping into balloon.

 William and Pat

 William, Margaret and Pat

Pat, Margaret and me

In addition to all the balloons, they had arts/crafts vendors and jumpy, bouncy ride things for the kids to play on. We had dinner at Cantina Laredo and when we were done, the place was beyond packed with balloons and people. It was a beautiful evening and lots of fun to walk around! I think this will be added to my list of annual events to attend.

Merry Christmas

Mike on Christmas, heck make that Mike all Christmas break. William on Christmas morning.

Mike and Pat in a dessert competition.
William deciding the winner.

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner at Chilis (don't ask, no one knows how these "traditions" start) and then drove around looking at Christmas lights. Christmas day was pretty quiet, filled with presents, Christmas Story nonstop on the TV, and relaxing. We had a "traditional" ham dinner. The menu was planned by William and executed by me. For dessert there was a competition between Pat's famous Bananas Foster and Mike's not-so-famous Brownie Batter. The Judge was William and while he had a hard time picking a winner, he eventually went with the bananas foster as that was the dessert on his dinner menu.

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Day of the Dead

Pat, William and I attended the Dia de los Muertos Festival in Mesa on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Wikipedia explains the holiday better than I ever could:

The Day of the Dead (Día de los Muertos in Spanish) is a holiday celebrated mainly in Mexico and by people of Mexican heritage (and others) living in the United States and Canada. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and relatives who have died. The celebration occurs on the 1st and 2nd of November, in connection with the Catholic holy days of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day which take place on those days. Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts.

There were public altars for local people to bring in candles and other remembrances of their friends and relatives, then there were altars inside the Arts Center that were done for a contest of famous and not-so-famous people. There were quite a few different performances going on during the day, a market where you could buy Day of the Dead figurines and other arts and crafts, William made his own sugar skull and then there were the four performers who had on masks and carried poles and scattered amongst the crowd creeping up on people and scaring them, much to my amusement. All in all it was a very interesting and fun day.

Halloween 2008

Football Player by Day, Rich Man by Night. So went Halloween 2008. Enough said.

Christmas Decorations around the Valley

Just some of the Decorations seen around town the week before Christmas. Seems to me a lot of people like the idea of snowmen and polar bears and penguins and big blow up snow globes. Can you imagine not a cowboy santa or blow up cactus to be found? I'm sorry but these items look out of place to me with no snow on the ground or frost on the rooftops.
Check out the brilliance of a Witch still hanging in December, can we say put the Halloween stuff away? Sorry, this is my house and since Fall (see earlier post) has just arrived I believe the witch is an appropriate decoration.

Merry Christmas to All

Merry Christmas. Our day was very quiet thanks in huge part to the boys' number one favorite gift, the Wii. It kept them entertained for most of the day, and the good thing is they are not sitting in front of the tv staring at it as they kill aliens or worse, they are up on their feet swinging their arms bowling, and golfing, and fishing. It is actually the first video game system that I can stand to watch them play. Since they have barely played any game except the one that came with it, I believe there will be many weeks of play before they grow tired of this. Or we will at least make it through Winter Break without boredom setting in, I hope. We did manage to go out and take a walk at the water ranch, so there was a little fresh air involved and what appears to be some very intense brotherly conversation.