The Thanksgiving holiday has come ’round once again.  As to the origins of this holiday, I side with Wednesday Addams.  

We have chosen, however, to make Thanksgiving our own.  Much of this credit goes to my husband, who makes a turkey that is to die for…I eagerly anticipate this every year and take great pleasure in the various turkey sales to be had.  For the record, we have two 21 pound birds, only one of which will be consumed this weekend.  Assuming there are leftovers, which is never garunteed, we will make turkey enchiladas.  Oh, yum!  My mouth waters just thinking about them.

And this leads into my Things I Am Thankful For list….

• My husband - we balance each other
• His incredible skill as a cook - I never enjoyed food so much
• Our precious baby boy - my heart swells for him
• Having the sense to ask for and actually take yesterday off
• Leo taking a long enough nap for me to get Darrellyn’s blanket cut and mostly tied
• Our counter top oven we bought when our oven was out.  It is the perfect size for small dish baking.
• The wonderful rain that fell yesterday
• Not having to be out in that rain
• Being able to cuddle Leo late into the morning (maybe that’s why I’m still awake?)
• The small tire shop that sold us a used tire for $20 total when it was discovered the flat could not be repaired.
• My carpool buddy Kim.
• Being able to take the train home when Kim has to work later than I do

Many times I have heard people say that Southern Californis doesn’t have Seasons. Oh, contraire, but we do. They just are not the normal Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter cycle. We have Rainy then Summer then Fire then Summer again.

Of course, with Rainy Seaon, we really just hope it will rain which it does in earnest every several years. Because true rain is such a rare occurence, we have those who decide to drive through the overflow area even though all the roads are closed. And we must proceed with great caution when venturing out on the roadways. It also seems that people will either drive at either end of the speed spectrum, snail slow or cheetah fast.

Summer is a fairly normal season, just here the Summer weather is throughout the year unless we are in our Rainy season.

Fire season starts about mid-October. We have low, low humidity and traditionally high winds called Santa Anas. We are in the midst of Fire Season right now with a Fire not far away. I am taking a short break from the planning. I’ll be packing up some things shortly, the important papers, changes of clothes, etc. We’ll bring the carriers inside to pack up the cats if needed. There is no evacuation order in our area currently, however, the wind could very easily shift and bring it much closer. It has already been at the top of the ridge line across the freeway from us. If we do have to get out, we will have to go north as everything to the south is shut down. Egads, I hate this.

Leo has had a few milestones recently.  He is no longer just army crawling but crawling for real.   He is also waving, trying to feed himself and pulling himself up to standing.  When he wants to be picked up, he crawls over and pulls himself up on my legs then reaches up.  He wasn’t too impressed with Halloween.  Slept through most of it.  He is also producing lots and lots of drool so we have very wet baby kisses.

Here is Leo in his Leosaurus costume.

And the Transitions. I’m doing lots of extra work in preparation for my move to the new department, trying to get everything squared away to turn over to my replacement. Plus, I’m already doing some of the work of my new position.

I had an interesting conversation with dad the other day regarding this election year.  Dad is a died in the wool Republican.  I align with no party although he once accused me of being “a bleeding heart liberal”.  And the other day, someone asked me if I thought the country was ready for a black man to be President.  Thinking about mother’s family makes me laugh.  They are died in the wool Democrats who have always voted with the party, yet also incredibly prejudiced against anyone not white.

As with every election, there is much rhetoric and mud slinging and an absolutely necessity to read between the lines.  We each must make our own choice.  Whatever your leaning, I hope you will approach this and every election in a thinking manner.  Do your research and make your own choices.  This is what free will and freedom are all about.

I made this a couple of days ago but did not think to take a picture. 

• 16 ounces pasta
• 16 ounces frozen broccoli florets
• 2 medium carrots, shredded
• 1 cup chopped turkey ham
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 cup light cream
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup vegetable or poultry stock
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup grated mozzarella
• 1/2 cup grated Italian chees mix (Parmesan, Romano Asiago)
• pepper

Phew!  I hope I don’t have to move again for awhile!  I am finally finished unpacking, now there are some minor organizing tasks to do.  Of course, the printers are not hooked up yet.  We need them networked, and the data port we want to use is broken so the vendor has to come out to repair it.  They are scheduled for today or tomorrow.  Since I left early today, I do not know if they made it out yet.   Also, the phones are not yet straightened out so I check my voicemail throughout the day as I am just not going to run to the other cubicle to answer the phone.

Leo has been eating constantly again and has yet another tooth coming in so more nights of little sleep.  But we made it through the week.  I am taking a couple of days off next week, and I am certainly looking forward to that.  Maybe I’ll be able to get a few things accomplished at home….Maybe.

This past week has been incredibly busy.  My office is moving tomorrow, so I have been packing.  We also had an audit and had to pull and copy all contracts for the past 12 months to send off to corporate. 

Leo has been teething and having a rough time of it at night which has led to a lack of sleep for me.  Last weekend was bad for him with a teething fever, but that darn tooth is finally poking through.  He now has six teeth, 2 on top, 4 on bottom.  We also started baby swim lessons at the aquatic center.  It is more of getting them used to the water in a safe and controlled environment.  The family pool is very shallow on the ends so the little ones can even lay down without submerging themselves. 

My Tadpole

And Satuday was spent running errands…dry cleaning, shoe repair, post office, supplies for Thursday’s program.

Today I am relaxing, updating my blogs and doing a bit of stitching.

When this started off, I was going to make vegetable stuffed raviolis, but Leo needed to go down for a nap, and we had no bottles thawed.  So I took him to the bed to nurse and ended up taking a nap myself.  Not being entirely coherent upon waking, I decided to nix the ravioli idea and just use bowtie pasta I already had.

• 4 medium pieces of chicken
• 2 medium zucchinis, chopped
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 medium carrots, chopped
• 1 can medium black olives, pitted and cut into halves
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 16 ounces pasta
• shredded Italian cheese mix  
• ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 cup chicken broth

Boil chicken in a stock pot until thoroughly cooked.  Do not drain.  Set aside to cool.

Heat the oil in a large skillet over a medium-low flame and add garlic.  Saute until garlic is just translucent.  Add carrots to skillet and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add zucchini,tomatoes and olives.  Take a cup of broth from the chicken pot and add it to the skillet.  Simmer until vegetables are tender.  Remove chicken from water and shred then add to skillet.  Add pepper to taste.

Add enough water to chicken broth and bring to a boil.  Add pasta and cook according to directions.  Drain pasta and return to stock pot.  Add contents of skillet and stir until well mixed.  Spoon into bowls or onto plates and garnish with shredded cheese.

Notes: I used chicken legs as  that is what I had on hand.  For the cheese, I like to use a mix of Parmesan, Romano and Asiago.  I am a big fan of garlic so adjust to your taste.  Onion could also be added and sauted with the garlic.  I leave it out as DH doesn’t care for it.

Here is hoping everyone had a safe and happy Labor Day weekend.  Having had the occassion to visit Home Depot this weekend, I would think not too many people were relaxing.

We spent Saturday and Sunday helping a friend paint some rooms in her new condo.  Leo had a hard time being away from home though, so I spent as much time consoling him as I did painting.  We also had confirmation of why he was miserable Thursday and Friday as tooth #4 appear Saturday.  We decided to take the coast road back home to enjoy the ocean views.  We were at Topanga Canyon before we knew it and turned inland there.  Since the route took us near to my parents’ house we stopped there so I could return their keys.  We stayed for a bit and had dinner then drove home.  Leo was very happy to be home!

We all slept late today and took a long morning nap as well.  Tooth #5 broke through today.  Little man now has four bottom teeth and one top tooth.  He had a big lunch then took a good afternoon nap.  I was able to get some laundry done and put aside a bunch of stuff for Goodwill.  There is still quite a bit to do.  I certainly won’t be able to manage the rest tonight.

Leo’s third tooth poked through Wednesday, which explains why he needed so much snuggling early in the week.  Suprisingly enough, this is another bottom tooth.  The top ones are formed and making their way down.  Tooth number four should appear any day now. 

He is also getting ready to crawl.  Over just the last couple of days he has been getting up on his knees more and more and starting to rock.  Once he does start crawling, we will be albe to find him by the trail of drool in his wake.