Sad News

Before I get back to recapping December, I have some sad news to report. On Saturday, January 2, 2016, a coyote got into our chicken pen and killed all three chickens. 

It happened during the day while we were out running errands, which is brazen for a coyote. Usually our dogs are in the backyard, but on this day we happened to have let them hang out inside while we were out, as it was cold. Most likely, had they been outside the coyote would either have never come so close to the house, or the dogs would have barked and scared it away. 

Now, unless it's raining, the dogs get to be outside as our poor Sophie needs the protection. 

When we got home from our errands, we saw that Sophie's cat food contained was in the middle of our driveway. This isn't a small contained. It's a big clack storage box with yellow lid that you can get from Costco. And it was half full. 

Then we noticed Sophie's Dogloo was moved. We surveyed all this quite quickly. The next thing we heard was London pointing out that Sophie was up in the one tall tree we have out front. The poor thing was at the highest point possible and it took me a good 15-20 minutes to coax her down. While I did that, Cameron was surveying the property as he worked on determining if man or animal had visited us. As soon as he looked in the chicken pen, he knew it was animal. 

While we feel very bad for the chickens and the gruesome end they met, we are also quite thankful our little Sophie is ok, physically, but she's definitely shaken up. We had her spend the night in the house, in our bathroom, that night, and didn't let her back out until we had removed her food and the chickens. 

For the time being, we're feeding her wet food daily as we don't want the scent of food to draw the coyote back. Don't get me wrong, we're still worried about her. She's such a sweet cat. If it weren't for Jake and Kelsey, she'd be a house cat. And I'm still considering it - if we could get the cats to assimilate to each other. We at least want to get her comfortable in the backyard when the dogs are back there so she knows she can run back there for protection any time and especially when the dogs are there. 

The whole experience has been a bit more emotional than I would have expected. As Cameron described it, it's like we have been robbed. And as his mom put it, it's almost worse because we know this robber could be back at any time. But alas, we know and knew that this was the reality of country living. 

And now we know what we need to do to improve our Chicken pen to prevent such an attack in the future, both for chickens and the goats we are considering. Guess we're back to square one again on the chicken front. 

Thanksgiving 2015

This guy was delicious!

Don't say it. I know. But I also want to put down in words what has been going on over the last month and a half and that means recapping Thanksgiving, Christmas and more!

The girls toasting with Grammi!

Today I'll just focus on Thanksgiving. 

Sydney enjoyed her alone time with us and her school's Thanksgiving feast!

Each of the girls got a little splash of Champagne with their orange juice at dinner so they could say they had Mimosas too. 

We began prepping for Thanksgiving the weekend before. This involved the task of "prepping" our turkey - in that we had to kill it, de-feather it and gut it. This process would be the determining factor on whether we want to raise turkeys this year. 

I missed this girl while she was gone!

I'll leave out the gory details, but be rest assured, both Thanksgiving and Christmas (the turkeys) went quickly. Unfortunately, we didn't realize just how big these two had gotten and the plucking process turned into a large job. The pot of hot water we had wasn't big enough, nor was the water hot enough. We spent a majority of the day plucking because of this. We even gave up on Christmas and just breasted her out. Thanksgiving got his revenge in the end, too. When I had finally finished plucking him and moved him to the fridge, I wrenched my back. Gutted and plucked, he weighed 40 lbs! We think Christmas was about 30.

This was taken before I was completely done plucking. Almost too big for the cookie sheet. 

I wasn't sure I'd be able to run my annual Run to Feed the Hungry run on Thanksgiving, my back hurt so bad for the next few days. Luckily, rest and time in our hot tub healed me just in time. It was a cold, bright day that morning, so I bundled up for the run. I should have known better. No matter how cold it is, I don't need an extra jacket over my long-sleeved shirt or gloves, I warm up so much during the actual run. And now I know exactly what time to arrive, and where to park, that I only have to wait 15 minutes or so before the start of the run any how. Later that night, while we watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, I learned it had been warmer in New York that morning than in Sacramento! It was 50 degrees there and only 34 degrees here!

Other than that, Thanksgiving was pretty low key. London spent the week with Grammi since she was off of school and we had to work. Both arrived on Thanksgiving in time for dinner. Since I have my run in the AM, and I know the turkey will take up most of the oven prior to dinner, I do most of the cooking and baking the evening before. We have our little dinner down to a science after just 2 years on our own for this holiday. I find the whole affair quite relaxing and look forward to our Thanksgiving at home. I did start prep this year, two days early, only to make the brine for Thanksgiving. We read that for turkeys as large as 30+ lbs they should be brined to ensure moist meat for eating. 

This smelled heavenly - it's the Pioneer Woman's Whiskey Maple Brine

Believe it or not, it only took 5 hours to cook Thanksgiving. And the verdict - he was beyond delicious. We will be raising turkeys again. And we may even let them get this big again - we'll just make sure to have more people join us for dinner! We had turkey leftovers for days - four 1-gallon zip lock freezer bags full. Two are still in the freezer. 

We only carved half the turkey for dinner. What we didn't eat we sent home with Vicki and to Cameron's sister, Carrie!

Cameron even got to enjoy a Disneyland-sized turkey leg. Unlike the Disneyland turkey legs, though, this one was so big Cameron wasn't able to finish it!

Celebrating Fall

While the Christmas decor is going up in the stores, and Christmas music is already playing on some stations, I refuse to give in. And I applaud Nordstrom for not decorating until Black Friday and REI for paying their employees to spend Black Friday outside.

To me, now is the time to celebrate Fall, Harvest and Thanksgiving. The Fall Decor is still very much up in our house and I am determined to pass my love of Fall on down to the girls. 

That's why I have planned Fall activities each weekend leading up Thanksgiving. Usually, one craft and one baking activity, because Fall, to me is a yummy baking season. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I have a strict rule that I only listen to the music after Thanksgiving dinner is over. I can't say that about movies - Hallmark is running Christmas movies not stop and I may or may not have recorded several over the weekend and watched a few with the girls. What can I say, I'm a sucker for sappy love stories and even worse when Christmas magic is included in the plot. 

And I'm thinking forward to Christmas and prepping where I need to. Thanksgiving isn't that far away, which means Christmas is right behind it. Plus, watching the movies has me moving on my next stocking. 

Any how, this past weekend, the girls and I thought up all the reasons we have to be Thankful this time of year. I got the idea from Pinterest, of course. And by girls, I mean London, as Sydney isn't quite there intellectually. 

London came up with a great list of 11 items long, that included Friends, Family, Food and Pets. From there, we traced hands and London and I cut them out, then London labeled them. Sydney worked on her scissor skills on the scrap paper and both colored too. I cut out the tree trunk and let them go at it in taping the hands up. Their enthusiasm was uncontainable. 

Before I knew it, they were taping up the scraps of paper, anything they could get their hands on. They were so proud of it and couldn't wait to show Daddy when he got home from hunting Sunday evening. While I know the tree doesn't resemble the nice ones you see on Pinterest, I love it that much better because the girls had so much fun with it. 

And on Sunday, we started the process of making pumpkin thumbprint cookies. Unfortunately, I started it so late and and didn't read the directions ahead of time, so the dough and filling are still chilling in the fridge. But we'll get the cookies made soon, I'm sure. 

Halloween

We started celebrating Halloween Friday evening as soon as I finished my run for the evening. Sydney's daycare was holding it's annual Halloween carnival that night. It was much later in the month than it has been in past years, but it got the girls geared up and ready for Trick-or-treating the next night. 

London wanted to go as a Mermaid this year. She's quite interested in Mermaids this year and really wants to see a real one. I recently found the DIY for a Mermaid Tail Blanket on Pinterest, so guess what both girls will be getting from Christmas. I'm thinking of making London a pillow that says "A Mermaid Sleeps Here" as well. 

We recycled London's old Minnie Mouse costume for Sydney. Unfortunately, it was on the snug side for her. London wore it when she was just 2 so we were almost a year late on passing it along to Sydney. The ears were definitely too small so they kept popping off her head. I felt a little bad, but a the same time I think this is our last year telling Sydney what she will be. Her opinions are growing so I'm sure she'll want to pick out her costume next year. 

I wanted to make sure we carved pumpkins this year, as this was my favorite thing to do when I was little. I bought each of the girls a carving kit and designs at the grocery store during our Saturday errands and as soon as we were done unloading the groceries, we set about hollowing out and carving the pumpkins. The girls each picked out their designs, and making the marks necessary for me to follow along with the knife afterward. Sydney chose a Goblin and London choose a witch. Unfortunately, the candle in Sydney's wasn't strong so I wasn't able to snap a picture, but London's turned out nicely. 

Since we don't get trick-or-treaters, we took our Jack-o-lanterns with us to our old neighborhood, as we had plans to go out with McKenzie. This was Sydney and McKenzie's first official time trick-or-treating, after all.  We went over early to have appetizers, drinks and tacos for dinner, then got the girls dressed up in their costumes. We made a simple loop, but the girls raked it in. Each girls' plastic Jack-o-lantern was at least half full when we got done. 

London and Sydney were really into it, and by the end of the night so was McKenzie. Although, I think all the girls had even more handing out candy back at McKenzie's house after we got back! Each girl would give each trick-or-treater a handfull of candy and we were soon out of it, which wasn't so bad, The lights were off by 7:30 pm and we just sat around catching up while the girls played. We were home by 9:30 pm with all of us falling into bed quickly. 

London definitely can turn it on some time - I just wish I could get this reaction out of her every time I want a picture! And I wish I could get Sydney to stand still more!

Best Friends!

And boy did we all enjoy that extra hour of sleep the next day.

I also did what I could to excite the girls about Halloween throughout the week. This mainly involved watching new movies, including Hocus Pocus and Casper. London is a fan of both now. I may have to start building a Halloween DVD collection just so we don't have to deal with commercials any more!

Now, bring on Thanksgiving. I have grand plans to celebrate this "lost in the shuffle" holiday. We'll see how well I actually do! 

Fall Decor Tour

Dining Table

Happy November! Can I just say how happy I am October is over?! While it is usually a fun month, 2015 was not exactly kind to our house. While we had fun celebrating Sydney's birthday and Halloween multiple times in multiple ways, it was also a trialing month plagued by illnesses, a dying appliance and busy schedules both at home and work. 

I have pumpkins scattered throughout the front yard

We still don't know what had the girls sick off and on throughout the month, but a bland diet mixed with probiotics seemed to kick it in the butt, finally. But 4 weeks of off and on illness with many interrupted nights' sleep left both Cameron and I exhausted. Add in the fact that October was a warmer than usual month and all I can say is I am ready for "cuddle on the couch with a heavy blanket and relax" weather more than ever. 

My lamp is hidden in this display at the front door

Then again, I've been ready for that weather since before the First day of Fall! I even decorated for Fall back at the end of September - and I still haven't even gotten my Fall Decor out of storage. I have mainly used what I grew this summer! And I had a nice, quick weekend project of painting an old oil lamp Cameron's mom gave us to give it a little more pop. 

The "Before" of the lamp"

And the "After" - this baby is going to find a home in the house permanently once Fall is over

I harvested all my gourds and pumpkins at the end of September and have been able to decorate the inside and outside of the house, using them all and even sending my mom home with a few!

This is the display I have under the TV

My Fall pumpkin spice candles have also be lit many an evening or weekend and at London's request we did make Chili and cornbread for dinner one night. And luckily, cooler weather seems to have arrived. On November 1, we work up to clouds and it was soon raining consistently into the evening, throughout the night and when we woke up yesterday. I hope the rain returns soon. 

Two cake stands that sit on a console table behind our loveseat in the Family Room

It also appears I chose to harvest the last of my tomatoes, jalapenos and peppers on the right day - Halloween. We haven't watered in a month, but these plants have still been producing like crazy. But I finally called it quits for the year, going so far as the butcher the plants in my last harvest attempts and pulled up all the tomato gates. Now I'm just trying to preserve the last of these vegetables. 

Dining Room Buffet - the dried gourd we found on our property the first year we lived here. 

The two green pumpkins were my favorites. They were huge and heavy!