Thanksgiving 2012: part two

Wow! I can't believe it has been a week since we celebrated Thanksgiving! Like last year, we were in Virginia for the actual holiday, but this year we had family from Georgia visit. Mr. Price's brother and sister-in-law drove up to the creek on Wednesday. On Thursday, bright and early, they started cooking our Thanksgiving feast.

This year we had a paleo Thanksgiving meal. Our Thanksgiving meal was delicious, but it excluded the bread-based stuffing and sugar-filled sweet potato pie. Here is what we did have:

A free-range organic turkey from Tendergrass farms. The chef butterflied it. This allowed the bird to cook faster and more evenly. It turned out juicy and tender!

Roasted Root Vegetables

Hasselback Potatoes

Sausage Dressing 

Roasted Brussells Sprouts with Bacon

Pumpkin Pie with a Walnut Almond Flour crust

I was sure thankful that Mr. Price's brother loves to cook, because it took us two hours or more just to pack everything we needed to spend few days at the creek. We were wiped out by the time we got there.

We didn't rush to have our Thanksgiving meal by any certain time. I think we ended up eating between 3 pm and 5 pm. Each of us had several helpings of food. How was your Thanksgiving day!? What dishes always make an appearance at your table?

Thanksgiving 2012: part one

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had some delicious food that I hope to post about later. Mr. Price and I tried to take time each day in November to think about the things we are thankful for. Then on Thanksgiving day, we shared them with each other.  After a few days of doing this excercise, it was hard for me to name just one thing each day. The list could go on for days, but here are just a few on our list....

We are thankful for/that...

My husband is a clean freak and loves to make spreadsheets. I love that he manages our budget and checkbook well.

Good Health

Friends like the Krauses who inspire and remind me to trust and follow God.

(this family is moving to Africa)

our cars

a serene place to retreat to...the creek

my spouse

our apartment

even though we are dying to get out of there, we have a place to live

to have such great in-laws

that we live in the United States of America

Panera Bread Women's Bible Study and Community Bible Study

for the sweet moments I share with my daughter right before I lay her down for bed

that my husband is okay with me not being as OCD about cleanliness as he is

that we live so close to many cool outdoor activites

(Blue Ridge Parkway, great hiking trails, and local greenways)

family

that I can stay home with my child and my husband supports this decision

The Word of God (the Bible)

and that it is still relevant truth today.

my loving and caring parents

my daughter goes to bed now with out crying

our Journey church family

Food and clean water

Hot water, especially for my showers

our daughter and her good health thus far

The beautiful colors of the leaves in the fall

Friends

My husband's job

God forgives our sins

the opportunity to be a mother. the hardest but most enjoyable thing I've done with my life

for my sister Susana



The Creek and Thanksgiving Plans

Occasionally when I write about our weekend plans, I mention going out to "the creek." However I don't think I've written a post specifically about the place. If you were to ask Mr. Price, my husband, he would tell you that it is a magical place. The first thing he wants to do with any free time that he has, is to head to the creek. In fact at least three generations of Price men are drawn to this place like moths to flame. Mr. Price's grandfather grew up on several acres of land along Craigs Creek in Virginia. Although his primary residence is now in Georgia, he still has a home on a piece of property overlooking the creek.

For many years the home on the creek was a single-wide trailer. The inside was spruced up a bit with new windows and a large deck on the back overlooking the best view of the creek. But a year and a half ago Mr. Price's grandfather built a cabin just two lots down from his existing home. To be honest, I am a bigger fan of visting the creek now that the cabin is there.

We now use the terms the creek and the cabin interchangeably. They both refer to the same place. The cabin is just a 50-minute drive from our home in the city. I always use the phrase over the mountain and through the woods to describe the drive from our home to the cabin. Because it is just that. You must navigate over a windy road up a mountain and then through the countryside.

Mr. Price's grandfather makes frequent visits to the cabin, and he graciously allows us to stay during our weekends or time off. Mr. Price occasionally does handy work to "keep up" the place.

It is a very peaceful, beautiful and relaxing place to be. It is hard to be overwhelmed with life when sitting on the back porch listening to the ripples on the creek. In the summertime you can find the locals floating down the creek on big inner tubes. The water is crystal clear, perfect for finding just the right stone to skip.

I'm pretty sure Mr. Price moved to Virginia just so he would be close to the creek.

We will be spending Thanksgiving there with Mr. Price's brother and sister-in-law. I can't think of a better place to spend the holidays than a place where time seems to slow down.

Follow me on Instagram to see updated pics of the cabin/creek and our Thanksgiving dinner.

Monthly Review: October 2012

Our daughter turned 8 months in early October. Not much happened this month developmentally, although I think she is very close to cutting two more teeth. This girl is going to have at least six teeth by the time she is one year old. And she may be walking. She is gaining more balance on her two feet, but I think she knows she can get around faster by crawling. We like to call it turbo mode when she takes off crawling real fast! She takes one step and then squats down to start crawling. She's getting better at walking when she is holding onto the sofa or some other object.

Valrie's speech (babbling) has always come in spurts. She'll babble and coo for a week and then two-three weeks will go by and she won't have much to say. She started making the "b" sound first. And now will occasionally say "bye-bye" after we say it about a million times as Mr. Price leaves for work. 

She loves Veggie Tales! And I just introduced her to Blues Clues. I think she has a crush on Steve. 

One of her favorite things to play with now are books with flaps! Her uncle and aunt gave her a flap book. She loves lifting and often tearing off the flaps. It really keeps her entertained.

This month she also got her first illness. One night she slept longer than normal, (yes, we still have night sleeping issues) and when she finally cried out at 3 am, she was very hot to the touch. At 6:30 am I took her temp and it was 102.6. She wasn't fussy or cyring, and seemed to be okay. The fever subsided by the late afternoon. But four days later she was showing signs of her first cold. And another four days later we are still trying to get it to wear off.

We took our first long distance trip to Georgia in the beginning of the month. We are always so busy when we go down that it doesn't feel like much of a vacation. But we love being home and spending time with family. And now it is even more special to see what joy our daugther brings to others. Sorry to those people we did not get see while we were down!

When we got back to Virginia, we were greeted by the vibrant leaf colors in shades of organge, red and yellow. It is such a nice perk to live in this part of the country during early fall!

We also took our first trip to a corn maze and pumpkin patch this year. Every month our church plans a family event. We met at Layman Family Farms. Imagaine a huge open space of land with beautiful mountain scenery. There was a small animal farm with pigs, goats and sheep, a pumpkin rocket launcher, hayrides, cow rides, and a corn maze.

This year we strolled V around to see different things. I even managed to take her down an underground slide. That's us in the picture below. I had to lay down so I wouldn't hit my head, but didn't manage to get back up when the coast was clear for Mr. Price to get a good picture.

V was a monkey for Halloween. We didn't go trick-or-treating. Just dressed her up in a costume and tried to get a decent photo.

 During the last week of October I decided to start a new family tradition.  We are writing down one thing we are thankful for each day and placing it in this bowl. On Thanksgiving Day we will take out each paper and read them aloud. It has taken some self control for me not take a sneak peek.

I can't believe it is already November! We have a busy busy month. Mr. Price more so than me. So keep us in your prayers!

a few cool links

:: Christmas will soon be here. Enjoying this series by Frugal Mom about keeping Christmas merry!

:: Pin this for next year: The BEST children's Halloween costumes.

:: With the more than 500 pictures I have of just my daughter, I could totally relate to this article. Especially when it said, " We [moms] don't always have time to blow dry our hair, apply make-up, perhaps even bathe (ducking). The kids are so much cuter than we are; better to just take their pictures, we think."

:: Make your own memory game.