Giving Thanks

Mike, Tanya, Emerson (who just turned two!) and pup Guthrie came down from Spokane to spend the long weekend with us!

We kicked off Thursday by gorging ourselves on Eric's special blueberry pancakes, then spent the rest of the day cooking and munching on Cougar Gold, the best cheese ever made. It was the first time Eric and I had hosted a full Thanksgiving dinner and I think things went pretty well. Only one key ingredient was left off the list (fried onions for the green bean casserole!), but Tanya and I remedied that by a quick walk to Grande Foods in the rain.

Here are Mike and Tanya (and Guth) preparing the sweet potato-cranberry-apple-raisiny goodness:

Many of our recipes came out of The Grit cookbook, a gift from Scott and Hilary that shares the secrets of the delicious food served at a vegetarian restaurant in Athens, GA with the same name. We haven't been there, but if the food is this good when we make it, I can only imagine how tasty the originals are! Eric made a Grit tofuloaf, which turned out amazing, and we topped it with sage-onion gravy (with not even one lump). There were also garlic mashed potatoes, incredible stuffing with green apples and raisins, beer bread, and a pumpkin cheesecake pie with whipped cream (topping thanks to Mike)! And Tanya brought a nice selection from the Weitkamp wine cellar. Good and strong.

Eliser joined us for dinner and got to experience his first "traditional" (so most people don't do tofuloaf, I guess) Thanksgiving feast. And he got seconds. I think he liked it.


I am getting hungry again just looking at this picture. Thank goodness we've still got lots of leftovers, even two days later.

Eliser and Emmy were fast friends:

For his first time playing Phase Ten, Eliser was pretty amazing. He led the whole game, but Tanya pulled ahead in the last hand. I was dead last and it was not close. We had a great time!

On Friday, we all piled in the car and headed to Newport to visit the aquarium. Mike and Miss Em on the way to lunch:

Checking out the swimming things below--this underwater tunnel was amazing!


Touching star fish:

Tia Mia and Em being swallowed by a shark:

Checking out the sea lions lounging and barking away below:

After a full day, we got back and slept like rocks!

This morning, Mike and Tanya went to Trader Joe's and Tia Mia and Unkage got to hang out with Emmy for a bit. There was lots of chasing and dancing and bouncing and reading and, of course, hanging upside down. We had fun.


It's so fun to see how much Emmy has learned since last time we saw her. She sounds so cute saying little phrases: "1, 8, 9, Go!" "Good job, Unkage!" "Out, cheese" (cheese = please).

It was great to talk with my mom, with family in Michigan, and Eric's parents, with family in Georgia, during the weekend. I wish we could all be physically together, but at least no one is alone. Now our house in clean and quiet and kind-of empty and my heart is full with gratitude.