Tag Archives ⇒ thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2019

· Lauren

Thanksgiving Eve
I was still on medical leave over Thanksgiving and I was struggling with fatigue, like always. But the day before Thanksgiving I had a full schedule of things to do so I couldn’t stay home and nap. First of all, I had a rheumatologist appointment in Pasadena. Having to drive that far the day before a major holiday wasn’t ideal, but it was the only time I could get an appointment before December. And to make things worse, it was raining. Adding precipitation to already busy freeways is a recipe for disaster. Fortunately it only took me an hour to get to my doctor’s office Pasadena, which is pretty average. (The first photo above was taken from the parking lot when I got there. The storm made the foothills very picturesque.) Things got crazier afterwards, though. I needed to pick up my OC Turkey Trot race packet in Laguna Hills which, if you’re unfamiliar with Los Angeles geography, is nowhere near Pasadena. Plus, it was still raining. That drive took me 1.5 hours because I was on the road with everyone trying to leave town for the holiday weekend. The race bib and shirt pickup process was a breeze, but then I was faced with another long drive back home. I spent nearly 4 hours driving that day, but I got everything done that I needed to. Including going to boot camp class at 8 PM.

Thanksgiving Day
OC Turkey Trot day! And it was still raining. Had I not committed to driving some ladies from my running group to the race in Irvine I would probably have stayed in bed. Even though I had paid to run the 5K I would have had zero qualms remaining warm and dry inside my house that holiday morning rather than venturing out into the winter storm (by LA standards only). I crossed all of my fingers and toes that it would be merely sprinkling by the time we arrived at Irvine College for the race, but I didn’t get that lucky. It was not only raining fairly heavily, but it was also cold and windy. So while the other ladies in my carpool braved the inclement weather to earn their medals, I chickened out and stayed in my car the whole time! I was a little disappointed in myself for bailing, but I knew I would have been miserable running without any proper rain gear.

My plan for the rest of Thanksgiving was to go to my happy place. You guessed it – Disneyland. So after I got home from the turkey trot, showered, and packed an overnight bag, I drove to a hotel in Anaheim to spend the next two days. Surprise, surprise, it was still raining. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when we get much-needed rain in Southern California, but it was seriously impacting my holiday. Before leaving my house I put on my circa 2010 rain coat only to discover that it is too small. Ugh. Like I needed another reminder that I’ve put on weight lately. Since I couldn’t zip it up I got pretty soaked walking from my car to my hotel room with my backpack and duffel bag. I was completely fed up at this point and had no desire to leave the room again that night. The rain still hadn’t stopped so I blew off my dinner reservation at Disneyland and ordered room service instead. About 20 minutes later I got a call to tell me that my food was undeliverable due to flooding on the path between the kitchen and my building. I walked outside to survey the situation and there was indeed a sizable lake that hadn’t been there when I checked in. To avoid going hungry that night I removed my shoes and socks, rolled up my jeans, and waded to the hotel restaurant for dinner. Room service couldn’t come up with that simple solution, of course. My Thanksgiving dinner consisted of a mediocre pepperoni pizza and a Coke. Not very festive, but it was the only food I had access to that evening. The rest of my holiday was spent watching TV in bed, which could have been worse, honestly.

Black Friday
I took advantage of the Black Friday online sales to buy a couple of new rain jackets from Columbia. I wasn’t going to get caught without a properly sized rain coat again!

The following weekend
I finally had a festive Thanksgiving meal at my BFF’s in-law’s house over a week later. I made my usual homemade cranberry sauce and pumpkin dip to share with everyone. It was wonderful to sit down and eat turkey and all the trimmings with a lovely family that has adopted me as one of their own. I got to hug not only my BFF, but also my precious goddaughter, which is the best medicine in the world. I had been in a bit of a funk since my disastrous Thanksgiving Day and spending time with people I love helped immensely. And of course they sent me home with delicious leftovers too! Next year I am going to be in Hawaii with my own family over the holiday so that’s something I’m really looking forward to. Hopefully Thanksgiving 2020 will be much better than 2019!

Happy holidays 2018

· Lauren

It’s Thanksgiving week and I am officially overwhelmed. Not only am I still fighting my usual chronic health problems (I need to call two of my doctors tomorrow for some follow-up information), but I also have a lot of other things on my plate right now. I haven’t written about most of them yet (not being secretive, just waiting for the dust to settle), but they have been dominating my time nonetheless. And of course the holidays are front and center right now which doesn’t make anyone’s life any simpler. First of all, there’s Thanksgiving on Thursday. I am running a combination 10K/5K turkey trot in Dana Point that morning, and then heading to dinner at my best friend’s house in Pasadena in the afternoon. In order to make the food preparation a little less stressful I whipped up my homemade cranberry sauce last night. Two batches even – one with diced apple and pear, and one without (to cover everyone’s dietary requirements). I also signed up to make a couple of desserts so those have to get done by Thursday afternoon. ‘Tis the season for time-consuming holiday obligations! And that’s nothing compared to the rest of the year. I swear time speeds up starting on October 1st and the next three months pass in the blink of an eye. As much as I love it, this time of year is very difficult. The shopping, the parties, the decorating, the eating, the travel, etc. Even with most of those activities being thoroughly enjoyable, it all piles up. And I’m already fighting exhaustion 24/7! So in an effort to minimize the drains on my already dwindling energy reserves, I am taking a break from blogging until January. Since I still have quite a few subjects that I want to write about I will continue to craft posts whenever I find the time and inspiration, but I don’t plan to publish anything until 2019. Hopefully this respite will make the last six weeks of 2018 a little bit easier. So here’s wishing all of my readers a lovely Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Let’s make the rest of this year the best it can be!

Happy holidays 2018

· Lauren

It’s Thanksgiving week and I am officially overwhelmed. Not only am I still fighting my usual chronic health problems (I need to call two of my doctors tomorrow for some follow-up information), but I also have a lot of other things on my plate right now. I haven’t written about most of them yet (not being secretive, just waiting for the dust to settle), but they have been dominating my time nonetheless. And of course the holidays are front and center right now which doesn’t make anyone’s life any simpler. First of all, there’s Thanksgiving on Thursday. I am running a combination 10K/5K turkey trot in Dana Point that morning, and then heading to dinner at my best friend’s house in Pasadena in the afternoon. In order to make the food preparation a little less stressful I whipped up my homemade cranberry sauce last night. Two batches even – one with diced apple and pear, and one without (to cover everyone’s dietary requirements). I also signed up to make a couple of desserts so those have to get done by Thursday afternoon. ‘Tis the season for time-consuming holiday obligations! And that’s nothing compared to the rest of the year. I swear time speeds up starting on October 1st and the next three months pass in the blink of an eye. As much as I love it, this time of year is very difficult. The shopping, the parties, the decorating, the eating, the travel, etc. Even with most of those activities being thoroughly enjoyable, it all piles up. And I’m already fighting exhaustion 24/7! So in an effort to minimize the drains on my already dwindling energy reserves, I am taking a break from blogging until January. Since I still have quite a few subjects that I want to write about I will continue to craft posts whenever I find the time and inspiration, but I don’t plan to publish anything until 2019. Hopefully this respite will make the last six weeks of 2018 a little bit easier. So here’s wishing all of my readers a lovely Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Let’s make the rest of this year the best it can be!

Turkey Day 2017 (NaBloPoMo day 25)

· Lauren

Thanksgiving was two days ago and I’m just now sitting down to write about it. Holidays are always busier than I imagine. But today I’m resting in preparation for a 20 mile run (or attempt, at least) tomorrow morning so I finally have time to finish this recap while I’m sitting on the couch watching Star Wars movies.

On Thursday I woke up at 4 AM so that I could get ready for the Oceanside Turkey Trot. Of course I picked one an hour away so I had a bit of a drive to get drive down there, but luckily the traffic was nonexistent that early in the morning. I was even able to use cruise control. I took advantage of that time to listen to my “Hamilton” soundtrack because I want to be adequately prepared for the show at the Pantages next month. The Oceanside 10K started at 6:55 AM. This was the race I ran with a friend two years ago in order to earn a new personal record. It was tough, but she helped me reach that goal. This year I had an idea in the back of my mind that I wanted to try for a new PR, and without too much effort I was actually doing well for a majority of the race. But then my mile 5 was a full minute slower than it needed to be due to a couple of hills and running on the uneven planks of the Oceanside Pier. That pretty much ruined my PR attempt because I didn’t have enough buffer to make up for the slow down. In the end I finished faster than I did in 2015 (1:08:05), but about 1 minute slower than my current 10K PR from the Avengers 10K last year. It was a valiant effort, but I just couldn’t keep up the right pace for the full 6.2 miles. After getting good and tired during the 10K, it was time to walk back to the start line and run the 5K! It was basically my cool-down and I ran much slower than usual to recover. After that race was over I picked up my shirt, walked back to my car, and started driving home. Much to my surprise the traffic going north wasn’t bad at 9 AM, and I had enough time to finish the “Hamilton” soundtrack.

The second half of my day was dedicated to Thanksgiving dinner. Before I left for Oceanside I put a block of cream cheese out on the counter to warm up so that it would be at room temperature a few hours later. The plan worked perfectly and I was able to mix up my pumpkin dip appetizer shortly after I got home. (It’s basically cream cheese frosting with some added pumpkin and spices. Not exactly healthy, but it’s definitely seasonal and everyone loves it. Even the kids. My goddaughter ate a whole bunch of ginger snaps with pumpkin dip before we even sat down to dinner.) I watched some of the Mystery Science Theater annual Turkey Day Marathon online while making my final Thanksgiving preparations (i.e., slicing apples and pears for the pumpkin dip and throwing everything in a bag for transport.) It was a scorching hot day for late November (95 deg at Natalie’s house) so I decided to wear a dress to dinner. Pretty fancy for a work holiday! I had another long drive to get to Pasadena, but I must have made offerings to the right gods that day because I had very little trouble with traffic once again. Folks driving south on the 605 weren’t as lucky, though. Poor souls. Thanksgiving dinner with Natalie and her family was amazing. I ate a whole plate full of the traditional dishes (turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, potatoes, etc.) as well as a lot of delicious extras. Baked brie with cranberries, roasted Brussels sprouts, and even some bread pudding for dinner. I was completely stuffed afterwards. It was a great time, even with the ensuing food coma. Eventually I had to drive home (my fourth and final extended journey of the day) and go to sleep after such a long and eventful day. Thanksgiving 2017 was quite the success. Now it’s time for the Christmas season to officially begin!

Can I buy stock in Pyrex? (NaBloPoMo day 24)

· Lauren

It’s Black Friday, but I didn’t do much to contribute to the growth of the economy today. After realizing that I’ve already spent a lot of money this month I decided to avoid taxing my credit card on the biggest shopping day of the year. Now that the day is almost over I can say that I was fairly successful. Besides the breakfast I bought at McDonald’s this morning, the only other item I purchased was a plastic lid for one of my Corningware casserole dishes. Exciting, huh? With all the cooking I’ve been doing this fall I’ve discovered that I don’t own enough containers to refrigerate and freeze all of the leftovers for future consumption. It didn’t help that until recently I didn’t have any plastic lids for my Corningware casserole dishes at all, and the glass lids weren’t satisfactory for freezing food. It’s actually been quite an ordeal trying to find a plastic lid for my larger Corningware dish and I had to return two I ordered from Amazon on separate occasions because they weren’t the right size, in spite of their online descriptions. Very frustrating. So today I broke down and ordered a lid directly from the Corningware website. Let’s hope the third time’s the charm!

Regarding Pyrex, which I referenced in the title of this post, I have another story to tell. Late on Tuesday night I reluctantly headed to Target to do some last-minute shopping for Thanksgiving necessities. I hated going anywhere near a store that close to Turkey Day, but it was sadly unavoidable. I had prepared two batches of my homemade cranberry sauce that afternoon in preparation for the Thursday feast, but afterwards I realized that all of my Pyrex smelled like chili! Apparently my leftovers have infused the containers with a distinctive smell that was decidedly incompatible with the cranberry sauce. So as I was picking up a few things at Target I added four new Pyrex dishes in my basket – two for cranberry sauce and two for pumpkin dip (as shown above). A couple of them were even Christmas-themed! Very festive. This is in addition to the two Halloween-themed containers I bought in October while I was cooking up a storm for Whole30. All told I have acquired six new Pyrex containers in the last two months and I had limited kitchen cabinet space to begin with. As one of my co-workers pointed out, I should have bought stock in Pyrex beforehand! I guess I’ll have to keep cooking massive amounts of food throughout the holiday season to justify my purchases!

Giving thanks (NaBloPoMo day 23)

· Lauren

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Continuing the trend this week, I’m sitting down to write this blog post much later than I wanted to and I’m completely exhausted. It’s been a really busy day. But in spite of its hectic nature, Thanksgiving 2017 has been fantastic. I ran the Oceanside Turkey Trot this morning and then spent the afternoon and evening at Natalie’s house for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Come to think of it, a lot of my time was spent driving today. I guess it wouldn’t be a real holiday without a lot of travel! I’ll share more details tomorrow when I have a little more time and a hopefully a lot more energy. But right now I can’t stop yawning! Goodnight, Thanksgiving 2017!

Thanksgiving 2008 (NaBloPoMo day 22)

· Lauren

It’s Thanksgiving Eve and I have no idea what to write. My day certainly hasn’t been interesting enough to fill even half of a decent blog post. I basically worked all day, didn’t exercise, and wasn’t even able to make the pumpkin pies I intended to. What a mess. Tomorrow morning is the Oceanside turkey trot so that’s not going to help me find time to do any baking before I need to leave for Natalie’s house. I’ll reassess the situation when I get home from the race. But tonight I figured I’d share a photo from the spirit of Thanksgiving past. I was going to go back a full decade, but in November 2007 Dan and I went to Texas to spend the holiday with his mom’s family. That trip was pretty much a disaster because I caught the stomach flu and actually ended up in the hospital on Thanksgiving Day. So the next year we decided to stay in Los Angeles – specifically, Thanksgiving at Disneyland! This was back before I had an annual pass and only went to the parks about twice a year so it was a real treat. This was also before we had iPhones so I have very few pictures from that visit. It’s a shame because I remember we had a great time. Our Thanksgiving dinner at Napa Rose, the fine dining restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel, was amazing. That was in sharp contrast to the single piece of bread I was able to choke down the year before! (And, FYI, it didn’t even stay down.) I bought one of my oldest Disney pins that day and I still have it on one of the cork boards in my bedroom. Disneyland always provides great holiday memories!

Thanksgiving prep begins (NaBloBoMo day 21)

· Lauren

Once again it’s late and I have very little time to write anything. I have a feeling that’s going to be the theme for the rest of the week. The holidays are always crazy – I’m not sure why I expected anything different this year! I left work at 6 PM today with a very long list of things I needed to do, but I fell asleep on my couch instead. I was so stressed out about getting everything done before Thanksgiving that all I wanted was to shut down and rest. So I decided not to go for my nightly run and forgot about all of my obligations for a little while. Eventually I got up off the couch, went to Target to buy that extra pie dish that I needed, and made two batches of cranberry sauce in preparation for Thursday (one with diced apple and pear and one without). I regret skipping my run, but my legs could certainly use a rest day after an intense lower body day at boot camp last night. I’ll make up for it this weekend. Right now I need to start thinking about going to bed so I can tackle one last day of work before Thanksgiving, but first I need to wash a dink full of dishes so they aren’t waiting for me when I get home tomorrow night. ‘Tis the season to be sleep deprived!

A Seal Beach Christmas (NaBloPoMo day 20)

· Lauren

I don’t have a lot of time to write today because I just barely got out of work in time to grab a snack, change clothes, and hustle to boot camp. Then on my way home I made one last Thanksgiving grocery shopping trip to get cranberries, apples, and pears. The store was basically empty tonight so assuming I didn’t forget anything I shouldn’t have to deal with the Turkey Day food rush. Too bad I still need to get another pie dish at Target tomorrow. That might not be as pleasant. I just finished scarfing down a bowl of chili for dinner, but now I need to wash a bunch of dishes and get ready for bed as quickly as possible. The next two days before Thanksgiving are going to be really busy and I need to get to work early both days. I’m trying to get as much prep done before Thursday as possible so I can relish the holiday. Isn’t that my goal every year? This time of year always goes by too quickly and I want it to be as enjoyable as possible!

Weekend before Thanksgiving (NaBloPoMo day 19)

· Lauren

Considering it’s the weekend before Thanksgiving I should have been a lot more productive. I did check a few things off of my to do list, but not nearly as many as I planned. First of all, I slept in yesterday morning and skipped my weekly run with my Galloway group. According to my training plan I needed to run 7 miles this weekend which was more than the group had scheduled, and I also just wanted to get some more sleep for a change! I did get up in time to go to Target just as it opened to pick up a few items before the store got crowded. (Too bad I didn’t realize that I need another pie dish ahead of time. I’ll have to go back this week.) I also hit the Ralph’s next door to cross a few more Thanksgiving ingredients off my grocery list before the holiday rush later this week. The only other thing I still need to buy is cranberries and other fresh fruits that I don’t want to purchase too soon. I’ll make one more shopping trip tomorrow or Tuesday. When I got home I got started on some boring but necessary chores – laundry and cooking. While performing these tasks I watched Friday’s episode of “Once Upon A Time” (still one of my favorite shows) and the first few episodes of “The Gifted” that I’ve been hoarding on my DVR since it premiered. Much to my annoyance, “The Gifted” seems to be pretty decent. Don’t get me wrong, I love most anything associated with the X-Men, but I certainly don’t need any more shows to watch this season. Eventually my laziness caught up with me and I had to force myself to run those 7 miles I skipped in the morning. Fortunately the Seal Beach Christmas tree lighting was taking place last night so I was able to experience it on my run. I actually went past the event at the pier three times before I was done with my exercise. I love running in my little beach town when the Christmas tree and other festive lights are up. My Saturday night ended with me making an unexpected and major purchase. I was chatting with my friend Natalie and she reminded me that “Hamilton” will be at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood starting soon. Back when the tickets originally went on sale I wasn’t nearly prepared enough to acquire one that way, but I figured I could browse the secondary market and get a single seat for myself for one of the shows. So I went on StubHub and spent way more money than I should have for the opportunity to attend the matinée show on December 30th. But I got a seat on the first row of the mezzanine so I’ll have an unobstructed view. I’m so excited!

My Sunday was decidedly less interesting, and slightly less productive too. I had to go back to the grocery store because I realized that I didn’t have any broccoli for my lunches this week. And when I got home I had to roast said broccoli (as well as some carrots for good measure) and put my Pyrex dishes of food together for the week. Luckily I’ll only need three lunches, at most, since we have Thursday and Friday off. I might leave work early on Wednesday as well in order to make my pumpkin pies. I’d like to avoid baking on Thanksgiving Day if I can help it. Now it’s getting late on Sunday night and I still have to eat dinner, fold some laundry, and wash some dishes before I can go to bed. Holy cow, where did the weekend go? I was hoping to put up my Christmas tree before Thanksgiving (because why not?), but I guess it’ll stay Halloween in my house for a little bit longer. Now excuse me while I finish up my weekend chores by the glow of jack-o-lanterns!