Turkey Day and Black Friday

Thanksgiving was spent with family and friends at Eryn's newly remodeled house. Yummy!
After the turkey has settled, it's tradition for dad, Eryn and me to hit the stores early for Black Friday. We were up at 4 a.m. and traveled around the region to get the good deals (just doing our part to stimulate the economy, you know!). We got some funny looks...

He's a good sport! :)

In the evening, family gathers at our place to kick off the Christmas season with leftovers and our annual viewing of "Christmas Vacation." Best movie ever.

I hope your Christmas season is off to a great start!
-Liz :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

So what are you thankful for? At yesterday's potato feed in my CE2 class, the students started listing on a big white board things for which they were thankful. It was very touching, so I thought I should continue the theme with my friends and family.

Here are a few of the MANY (too many to ever list!) things for which I'm thankful every day:
-Liz :)

Cookie party!

In case you haven't caught on, I really like baking and I really like hanging out with friends. Combine the two and you have a winner!

Thursday afternoon started as a playdate for me and Kendra. The plan was to bake sugar cookies at her house and then bring them back to my place to decorate during our weekly "The Office" party. The guest list quickly grew, and Kendra's house was full of laughter and chatter (and wedding planning... congrats, Chris & Theresa!!) from a whole bunch of ladies. A couple guys also got in on the fun.

We packed up and several of us moved to my house to continue the party. More men were added, and we had a great evening of veggie chili (thanks, Lindsey!!), cookies, cheeseball (thanks, Kendra!!), and good times. By the way, I've never seen such artistic care taken to decorate a little sugar cookie!
YAY!

-Liz :)

Cookie Day: Pumpkin Pie

OK, apparently I'm a sucker. Kryistal convinced me that we needed to make pumpkin pies for Cookie Day this week... six of them... with real whipped cream! Together with Lisa and Sarah, we created six beautiful pies and fed the class a yummy pre-Thanksgiving treat.

-Liz :)

Advent Conspiracy

We saw this on our beach retreat this weekend and I must share with you all!

Do you do it right??

Turkey Feast '08

It was a busy week at the Wood house, prepping for the long-awaited Turkey Feast 2008!

Eryn and I spent Thursday evening shopping and readying the giant table.

Saturday was all about the cooking... lots and lots of cooking!Challenged by Kendra, we decided this year to bake our pies in homemade crusts. Brad took over the rolling pin and made several great crusts for our cherry, pumpkin and pecan pies.
You know what they say about a watched pie...
It apparently turns out like this! (If Brad's gonna do something, he's gonna do it right!)
Soon, our house was overflowing with hungry friends, and it was time to dig in.
When we were sufficiently stuffed, out came the pies.
You can always tell it's a good day at our house when the shoe pile takes over the entryway.
The aftermath... (thanks, Christine, for the cool pics!)

-Liz :)

Wildwood: Part 4, The Finale (sort of)

Our Wildwood adventure came to an end today, sort of. Tim, Laura, Brad and I set out Nov. 24, 2007, to hike the entire 30.25-mile Wildwood Trail... in consecutive sections... in one year. Today, we did the final leg of our journey -- from the Birch Trail on 53rd to the Vietnam Veterans of Oregon Memorial near the Oregon Zoo. A few people joined us in today's fun: Jacob, Karen, Sean, Chris and Chris.
About 2 miles from the end, we came across this:
The sign in Tim's hand says "trail closed"... shoot!! We debated going around the blockade, but the rule followers in the group decided against it. We took the detour and missed a section of under-construction trail. We assume it won't be open before our self-imposed deadline, so we're calling it good.
We made it to the parking lot! And then to Chevy's for reward dinner :)

-Liz

PS - So here's the next adventure... Tim, before really thinking it through, suggested that we hike the ENTIRE Wildwood in ONE DAY... at the summer solstice so there's lots and lots of daylight. We jumped on the idea and committed before really thinking it through ourselves. We're having some doubts, but we're encouraging each other to take the challenge!

So you join us! June 20, 2009... Solstice Stupidity :)

Jack update

Jack the giant pumpkin went home with Andy, one of our awesome CE2 teachers. Jack fulfilled his destiny by living out his days at Ava's preschool!

-Liz :)

Cookie Day: Sugar

Justine was the guest baker today in the CE2 kitchen. We whipped up a double batch of sugar cookies. We sampled several to make sure they were OK to serve to the class. YUM!

-Liz :)

WOOHOO!

:)

Happy Election Day!

88 Minutes

After a great day in the woods, it was time to curl up with a movie. We hastily chose "88 Minutes" with Al Pacino. It had familiar names and looked intense and action packed. It was intense, but also a bit comical. I enjoyed the story, which was a bit different. But the characters weren't believable. Their reactions to some really intense stuff were very bland. I expected more from the cast. We also had the mystery figured out long before the end. Still, it was an entertaining show and a good way to spend a lazy fall evening.

-Liz :)

Wildwood: Part 3

Today was a gorgeous day on the Wildwood Trail in Portland's Forest Park! Including the approach trails, we did about 10.3 miles on the third leg of our Wildwood adventure (completing the entire 30.25-mile trek in a year). We started today on Firelane 5 and finished at the Birch Trail parking lot.
In the middle, we saw a HUGE salamander standing in the middle of the trail. It was, maybe, 8 inches long and didn't seem too bothered by our presence. I think it's a Pacific Giant Salamander, but I'm no amphibian expert!
Another great day on the trail with great friends!
-Liz :)

We are... Tig-ard!

My THS marching band competed today in the championships at Autzen Stadium at the University of Oregon. It was a big field... 31 bands, including some with 100+++ students. Our little (but mighty!) band made it to today's finals competition and took 12th place! In this morning's preliminary competition, our percussion section took first (out of 17) in our single-A division!!

We have an awesome group of kids who have been working their butts off since August. Today, it all paid off with the best performance of the season.

We are... Tig-ard!
:)