Thanksgiving 2010

Growing up Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday, even over Christmas, because of the yummy dishes that my parents and family would make. I tended to share this same love of the holiday with my mom. My sister and I would get up early with my mom to help get dinner ready. My mom would always get the turkey together, as Whitney and I could not handle cleaning out the turkey until we got older, and we would be the stuffing helpers. My mom makes this amazing stuffing, which I have now learned how to make after about 15 or so attempts, and part of the process in making the stuffing is that everything is fresh. As my mom cut up the green and red apple, melted down the butter, chopped the onion and was preparing the rest of the "glue" of the stuffing, Whitty and I had to break the bread. My mom would buy fresh sourdough and french bread loaves and we would literally break the bread into bite size pieces for my mom. We would usually have a two for one pattern going too; two for the bowl and one piece for us. As we got older we still would get up and help my mom with the stuffing. Other favorites from Thanksgiving are Markey's homemade pumpkin, apple, and pecan pies as well as his homemade rolls. There is nothing better than fresh made bread and butter. Generally every year we spend Thanksgiving with my parents and sister in California. To keep the tradition alive for Thanksgiving 2010 we made the trip out to California again. This time we did a road trip from Salt Lake City to Yorba Linda. Russy was not able to get the whole week off of work so my mom flew into SLC and drove with Hunter and I out to YL. We bought Russy a flight to come in the night before Thanksgiving and then the three of us would drive back to SLC together. On the Friday before Thanksgiving Hunter, my mom, and I headed out with the Subaru packed down with Hunter's clothes, toys, my stuff, and the bag that my mom brought. We stopped at Blue Plate on the way out for a very yummy breakfast a fuel for the long haul. I was so thankful to be driving this time because it was so pretty. I really had never driven that stretch of road since I had moved to Utah and honestly I could not enjoy it as much on the move here as I did driving back to California. Hunter was all set in the back with a DVD player, snacks and toys so my mom and I just listened to music, enjoyed the scenery, and chatted. We stopped in St. George for a late lunch and then we were back on the road. A friend of Russ's and I that we met through work has a condo in Las Vegas. He was kind enough to let my mom, Hunter and I stay there on way down and he also let Russ, Hunter, and I stay there on the way back. So we got into Vegas around 6 and were so glad to have a nice place to stay for the night. The room had an electric fireplace and a Jacuzzi tub which were both hits for Hunter. He was able to spread all of his stuff out on the floor and play for a few hours. The next day we all got up nice and early, packed our stuff back up, and headed out for the rest of our trip to Yorba Linda. We had unbelievable weather for our whole trip and again I was so happy to be driving. The views were just amazing. We pulled into my parent’s house around two on Saturday and just relaxed the rest of the day. For the rest of the week until Russy got there we just played, rested, and ate. On Wednesday night when Russy got there Hunter and I were so happy to see him and the feeling was mutual from him as well. We are all so use to being together and doing everything together that it was weird to be away from each other for almost a whole week. Whitty and I actually picked him up from the airport in Long Beach and then the three of us went to a nice dinner at this fabulous Italian restaurant in Long Beach. On Thursday morning, Thanksgiving, I got up with my mom and started to help with the preparation of dinner. Just like old times my mom prepped the bird and I was the stuffing helper. Not only did we make the traditional stuffing that is so famous in my parents house but we also prepared a sausage stuffing that Marky had found in cooking light. After a few hours of cooking a prepping it was time to get ready for the rest of the guests. My Nanny and Poppop came over as well as SueAnn. Whit came over early to help with the rest of food prep so by the time three o'clock came around the whole group was there. We enjoyed delicious appetizers such as warm Brie, with berries, little Smokey's, salsa and chips, wine, and an assortment of olives. We generally eat Thanksgiving dinner in the evening so it was nice to have the appetizers. We all ate and enjoyed each other’s company. To end such a fantastic meal we had a piece or two of Marky's delicious pies. It was yet another successful Thanksgiving. On Friday we got up and went over to Nanny's house for a day of fishing and a pizza party. My Aunt Suzie and her family came over as well. My cousin Kelly has two boys, Max and Morgan, and they are right around Hunter's age. Needless to say all three of the boys had a great time playing with each other.

On Saturday we got up, repacked the car, and then headed back to Las Vegas to stay the night. The drive there was again so nice and it was nice to have our little family all together to enjoy the trip there. Hunty was so excited to show Russy that he could turn on the fireplace all by himself. On Sunday we had the majority of the rest of our trip to make so we got up really early and headed out. Unfortunately by the time we hit St. George the weather took a turn for the worst and it was a complete snow storm from St. George all of the way to SLC. It took us about 10 hours to get home and by the time we got home we were all so exhausted. Russy did such a great job driving though as the roads were so bad and there were so many accidents. We were just thankful to have made it home without any issues.