November Snapshot
posted in Friends, Family, Et Al., Running, The Kitchen Sink, Trips, Weighty Issues |Can’t believe 2009 is ending already! November just flew by. I threw a birthday party for T’s 30th’s in early November. Inspired by the recent pizza-making party we went to, I threw a panini-making party. We bought tons of breads, meats, toppings, and cheeses. I prepared some appetizers (bacon wrapped dates, crab rangoon, and stuffed mushrooms), T grilled up some steaks and we had friends make their own paninis. I’d also prepared some crepes so we had crepes and ice cream cake for dessert. As usual, we bought way too much food and had leftovers from the party all week. I’d originally wanted to host a nice sit down dinner, but when the guest list started growing, I realized my plans were exceeding my limited cooking abilities. In fact, I almost failed to pull the panini party off, but fortunately several of T’s friends are excellent cooks and, more importantly, arrived early enough to help get everything ready.
The next day, we headed out to Disneyland to take advantage of their free-on-your-birthday promotion. It was fun, but exhausting. I don’t know how parents are able to spend all day with their kids running around that place – we were tired by 5pm and had to head home!
The following week we were off to Maui for my friend K’s wedding. It was such a great trip. T and I rented a three bedroom condo we shared with friends who were also attending the wedding. The wedding itself was perfect. Small and intimate on a golf course overlooking the ocean. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there, we relived part of our honeymoon by laying by at the Westin’s pool, went snorkling at Molokini and Turtle Town, got massages, drove to the top of Haliakala, ate plenty of shaved ice at an amazing shaved ice place, and went to the Feast of LeLe, the best luau on the island.
Got back late Wednesday night and drove up to San Jose bright and early Thanksgiving day, with a stop in Fresno to pick up Alfie from T’s mom (who was dog-sitting for us). My parents and sisters went all out on dinner and totally outdid themselves this year. Delicious turkey, broccoli and cauliflower sides, home made buns, stuffed mushrooms, pumpkin cake, etc. In fact, my parents spent the entire weekend preparing all of our favorite dishes. We both came back 5 pounds heavier.
The best part came at the end of Thanksgiving dinner, when my littlest sister’s boyfriend proposed to her in front of the entire family. It was so sweet. My mom brought out a brown package at the end of dinner and told L someone had left it for her on the porch. Staring suspiciously at her boyfriend, she opened the package only to find another box inside it, and another, and another…we all started staring suspiciously at H at that point. But the boxes kept getting smaller and smaller and soon it was too small to contain an engagement ring. He denied any knowledge the entire time. At the end, she got to a tiny box with a note in it, he got down on one knee, pulled a ring out of his pocket and proposed. We were all in tears, it was so sweet! So now we have two weddings in the family to look forward to! Can’t wait! I love weddings.
Needless to say, all to this eating has been horrible on my diet and my running. I’d gotten up to a comfortable 18 miles before we left for Hawaii, didn’t run much in the subsequent weeks, and had to struggle through a 14 mile run yesterday. Hopefully, I’ll get back in shape soon. I’m really looking forward to this marathon and the new route, so I’d hate not to be ready for it!