10 years!

Thanksgiving 1997 was the day that I realized that Kirsten was the ONE for me. Kirsten and I met in October 1997 through mutual friends she was visiting in Tucson. When I found out that she had no plans for Thanksgiving, I insisted that she attend Thanksgiving dinner with me at my parents house. She was reluctant, considering she hadn't met anyone in my family and really hadn't spent much time with me either. But I was my pushy, insistent self and left her no choice ;)

We had a GREAT day. Kirsten fit right in with my family, helping with the cooking, helping with my parent's godchildren that were visiting, joking around... I vividly remember watching her playing with the kids in the living room while I did some cooking thing in the kitchen. My mom said something like "she's pretty special". I said something like "I know" and I knew right then that I loved Kirsten and that we could and should spend the rest of our lives together. Thanksgiving is always a wonderful reminder of that for me. I can't believe it, but this Thanksgiving marks an amazing 10 years that we have been together!

In those 10 years we have gone through a lot of things, both good and bad, but we have always had each other and our love for each other. Now our family has grown to include two wonderful boys, a few more cousins, and lots of new experiences. I love you baby and I love the life we have created together, here's to a few more decades together and lots more Thanksgivings...

Emmett the Cook

This Thanksgiving, I helped Emmett make his first pie! Granted it was made with canned pumpkin and a frozen pie crust... but it was so fun to make with him and it turned out so well.He was so excited about it, he started asking about it when we bought our Halloween pumpkins then didn't drop it until the night before Thanksgiving. He was a little flummoxed by the canned pumpkin and wanted to know where the real pumpkin was, but he got over that. We made a recipe from Bon Appetit this month's issue, check http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240423 for the exact recipe. We skipped the whipped topping, because I didn't have enough whipping cream and we frankly didn't need the extra calories!

Emmett measured and poured all the spices, did the grinder for the cloves, helped with the mixer (which he loved!), measured and scraped the mascarpone and the brown sugar. Then he helped put the mixture into the pie crust and was so excited to taste it the next morning. It was very cute and a good experience for some very rare one on one, Emmett mommy time. Kirsten took Harrison for a ride and picked up salads for dinner from a near-by chain restaurant.

On Wednesday, we also received the movie Ratatouille from Netflix in the mail. We must have watched it about 6 times over the holiday weekend. Emmett had tears in his eyes when he put it in the mail this morning... the DVD is now on his Santa Christmas letter and I think Granny or Grandma and Papa will come through! The other item that made E's Christmas list was a chef's knife, so he can "chop it up". He really does like cooking and he is very attentive, and remembers what we teach him. Does anyone make a chef's knife for children? Off to google that...