November Time

Let's face it: California is not Utah.  It it wonderful in its own way, but one thing it lacks is seasons.  Once November hit, I was desperate for fall weather, but our 90 degree days just weren't cutting it.  So, we headed up to Mt. Baldy to find a bit of fall.  It was perfection.  We went on a hike, played in the leaves, and collected fallen acorns and pinecones for upcoming decoration/craft projects.

Raquel and I made our annual Thankful Turkey.

For the first time in her life, we took Raquel to a parade.  We went to our very own Rancho Cucamonga's Founder's Day Parade.  There were probably only 3 floats in the entire parade, but we still enjoyed it.

 On Thanksgiving Eve, while Luis was at work, Raquel and I made a pilgrim hat (aka I made a pilgrim hat and bribed her to sit at the table with me by giving her snacks).  She did help put on the stickers, which I thought was a nice touch.

Of course, we didn't want Daddy to feel left out, so we made one for him too.  He thought it was a lot less obnoxious to wear than last year's hat.  By the way, have I mentioned that this is my our tradition?  Each year, the kiddos and I are going to make Daddy a special hat to wear on Thanksgiving Day.  Luis is very pleased with this tradition.

On Thanksgiving Day, we cooked (of course), tracked down a newspaper to see the ads, and then enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with our friends the Mohlmans, and Mallary.

By the way, let me tell you about Luis and the fact that he is totally wrapped around the fingers of our little girls (even the unborn one).  I have been in total preparation mode these last few weeks, so by the time Thanksgiving Day came around, I had all of our Christmas shopping done.  We still like looking through the ads though, so as we were rifling through them during Raquel's nap, Luis found a large play set of food that was on sale for $5 at Walgreens all day on Thanksgiving Day.  He like it and knew Raquel would too, so he went out and bought it. 

The one thing we were after on Black Friday was a Christmas tree.  We found a stellar deal at Home Depot, so Luis volunteered to wake up early on Friday and go get it.  As he stood in line, waiting for the doors to open, he was looking through the Home Depot ad to pass the time.  In it, he saw a rocking horse on sale for 50% off and decided our girls needed it.  So, he purchased that too.  It really is adorable and I'm quite delighted that he bought it, though I'm not quite sure where it'll go in our one bedroom apartment;)

Californian Thanksgiving x 3

One day, while browsing through some Thanksgiving crafts, Raquel got an idea.  Her idea required crayons.  It started out great...

 

...but quickly turned to this...

...which then evolved into this (note who is and who is NOT using the crayons).  What was this craft, you may ask?  Keep reading and you'll find out!

But first, on to our Thanksgiving!  This was our 3rd Thanksgiving here in California.  Last year, we got together with some fellow Utah-transplants and had a Thanksgiving feast.  We decided to go ahead with that same plan this year and have a Moreno-Mohlman-McGary feast! 

 

We were in charge of the turkey this year, which meant basting every 15 minutes for a couple hours.  Thankfully, we only had a few other dishes to worry about since the other families were doing the rest, so it wasn't too bad.  Luis played some football in the morning this year which I actually supported (I know right?  Usually I'm too clingy-especially on holidays.)  After that, it was parade time, which I LOVED!  Then it was the dog show, which Luis LOVED!  (Snooze.)  Although this year, I admit that I did get into the action and soon found myself taking a few trots around the apartment with my little puppy.  

During another moment of non-basting, Raquel insisted that we look through the Black Friday (aka Black Thanksgiving) ads so she could point out a few toys with which she might be amused.

 

387 bastes later, we were carving our turkey with the best of them with the use of our NEW (okay, slightly pre-owned) electric knives... thanks Medicos!

And then, our feast commenced.

 

 

Remember the craft I mentioned at the beginning of my post?  (If not, then your memory is slightly worse than mine.)  Well, it's time for the big reveal...

 

Ta-da!  Luis got his very own turkey hat with Raquel-hand feathers!

I think he loved it.  Can you say, "Thanksgiving tradition?"  (he he he)

 

We have so much to be Thankful for this year.  Obviously, having Raquel with us all year long has made this year the best yet!  We are also grateful for amazing friends that help fill the void of not having family close to us.  They take care of us and we love them so much.  It's humbling to realize we would never have met these (and many other) wonderful friends if it had not been for the gospel.  We're especially grateful to have the truths of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in our lives.  It is true and we know it!  We love our dear, loving, brother and Savior, Jesus Christ.  The more we realize how hard it is sometimes to be good, the more we come to admire His perfect life.  We're grateful for our knowledge of our Heavenly Father.  Life would sure be different if we didn't know we had such a loving Father.  Goodness, our list (like yours) could go on and on about all we are thankful for this year.  We are very blessed.

A Whirlwind Thanksgiving

Once again, Luis and I found ourselves far from family for Thanksgiving, but thanks to wonderful friends and special visitors, we had a beautiful weekend.

On Thanksgiving, Luis signed us up to go with a group of Western Students to put together meals for needy families.  I admit that the idea sounded great, but I kind of thought I would rather stay in my bed.  However, knowing this would be the last year for a long time that we would be able to do this sort of thing helped me roll out of bed.  We showed up at 6 and began our arduous task of bagging rolls. (I guess they could tell we couldn't handle anything much more than that.)  We only stayed for a few hours, but it was very satisfying to participate in some service.

Next, we bought our copy of the Black Friday ads, turned on the parade, and relaxed for an hour or two before beginning our meal preparations.

Since we were getting together with 3 other young families in our ward, we gathered up our food items and headed off.  Cute Jen did an amazing job creating a beautiful Thanksgiving table that felt very "Better Homes & Garden."

Our feast was delicious and we had such a fun time being together for the holiday.

But of course my favorite part was watching my darling Luis entertain the kids.  It makes me smile to think of him playing with our own kids and I know they will just adore him!

Although we bought the ads and looked through them for hours, we ended up NOT shopping at all on Black Friday.  Lame.  I know.  However, we did get to sleep in, which is a rarity these days.  Luis was thrilled to learn that I planned for him to help me put up the Christmas decorations:)  We also had our family pictures taken, which I will post soon, and went out to a local taco joint with a Hispanic family in our ward.  We walked away from that experience with an authentic Mexican cookbook and brand new tortilla maker bestowed upon us by Gigi, the very generous mother of the family.  You better watch out because I'm turning more Hispanic by the day!

On Saturday we picked up my sister, Charisse, and her husband, Jason, who were in town for a cruise.  Since we got them all day, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving feast at our home.

By the way, here was this month's bulletin board.  So the head is a bit too small and the wings are a bit low down.  I thought I did a great job at free-handing my huge turkey.