Giving Thanks

Last year, Matt came up from San Diego to spend Thanksgiving with my family in San Francisco. He experienced his first Thanksgiving with my family, a small San Franciscan condo filled to the brim with family members and all types of food (turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, rice, sweet and sour pork, noodles, etc). Then we drove over to Reno and did Thanksgiving all over again.

What a difference a year makes. 

This year, we are sitting at home in our own apartment in San Francisco, watching football, prepping some side dishes (twice baked potatoes and sweet potato casserole) and waiting for my mom to pick us up to head over to my aunt's house near Pier 39. Same thing as last year. Tomorrow we'll be driving to Reno to do the same thing with his family.

We live together (in the SAME city) in San Francisco, all the time. We commute to work (him to Sausalito, and me to Mountain View). We both have full-time jobs at companies we adore. He has (finally) graduated. Last year, he was still in school, and I was still hating my job at Morgan Stanley. This year, he works at the firm that he has been interning at for two summers. I work at LinkedIn and my coworkers are some of my closest friends now. Matt bought a car that he couldn't be more happy with.

I'm grateful for the little things in life, having the day off today; our casual walk to Starbucks and grocery store this morning; how beautiful it is in the city today; seeing my brother in a few hours.

I'm also grateful for the things that are constant in my life: Matt, my family, his family, my friends, my job, our home. I love all you amazing people and thank God for you every day in my life :)

I'm excited to see what the next year brings (including a new niece or nephew!).

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year (like last year) we are spending Thanksgiving with Matt's family. His family makes five turkeys...two for leftovers, three for Thanksgiving dinner, so clearly this was an easy decision. We are about to get tryptophan-ed out, so wish us luck! We just wanted to wish everyone a happy thanksgiving! Nothing makes for a better day than family, friends, turkey, food, drinking, football, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (Congratulations to the Homestead cheer team and marching band...I saw you guys on TV. You make me so proud!!), and being together. Hope you guys are enjoying time with your loved ones and being as gluttonous as possible.

We are ready!!!!

Thanksgiving with the Evans

I promised you a Reno update....

Okay I know I promised you a Thanksgiving update soon...and it's already been like 5 days. But in my defense, I've been a little busy....I have finals next week and I started a new job this week (more about this later...).

But let me just say, it was definitely one of the best Thanksgivings ever (even if I spent a total of almost 18 hours traveling for 4 days). So I left Sunnyvale on Wednesday morning, catching the 6:52AM Amtrak to Sacramento. If you are ever bored and simply want to enjoy the amazingness of the bay, please take this train while the sun is rising. It is SPECTACULAR. After my train ride, I switched over to a bus to get to Reno. Well, this whole trip, which was supposed to take 6.5 hours ended up taking almost 8.5 hours. So my trip had a rough start (especially since Matt was late picking me up :-P). Anyways, I got in around 3 and we headed to sushi with Josh and Abby (remember Yen Ching?). As always, sushi was awesome :) Later that night, we met up with his other brother, Brian, and his wife Brandie (wow...wife, that's weird to say) to grab drinks at Flowing Tide. If you recall any of my other Reno posts, this is pretty much routine for us. Sushi and late night drinks.

Of course, the next day was Thanksgiving at the Evans. His mom woke up pretty early and popped her turkey in the oven. Did I mention that Connie's turkeys might be on my top 10 favorite things to eat ever? We spent most of the day watching football (of course)...Oregon won :) I think that I am officially an Oregon Ducks fan now. I decided this a while ago....it's mainly because Matt went there and I've been to a game there and because they have REALLY cute jerseys!! Anyways, Matt and I were in charge of peeling, boiling, and mashing 15 pounds of potatoes. Let me just tell you...it may not seem like hard work, but it was! The Evans have a pretty large Thanksgiving, there were 18 people at the table: the Evans family + me (8), his grandparents (2), his aunt and uncle (2), and Basim's family (6). It was so traditional...his mom made these cute nametags with pilgrims on them, there were all the classic Thanksgiving fixtures, and all of this was followed by a group activity (Mafia of course!). The food was spectacular and the company was even better. Needless to say, we had the best mashed potatoes! Anyways, after everyone was stuffed to the rim (Matt gained 9 pounds in the course of that meal), we played mafia...Matt killed off everyone as the lone mafia :( but it was still a blast!

The rest of the weekend passed in a blur, we went black friday shopping and scored biggg (Us: 104325, Black Friday: 0). We ended up getting the only portable hard drive at Walmart at 5AM because we had gone there at midnight to buy movies. When we were there, we hid one of the hard drives in the sporting goods section (behind golf balls). Thank goodness we did because otherwise, we would not have been able to find a hard drive. I ended up with at least 8 new movies :) (including Harry Potter 5 & 6). We saw Unstoppable (with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine) with Brandie and Brian...it was awesome. I recommend it to anyone who loves Denzel Washington! Or Chris Pine...because he is really cute! We also went to this British Pub, called Firkin & Wolf after the movie. They have a decent happy hour (although we only got beers). It doesn't really feel British inside though...because the decor on one side of the room doesn't really match the other side. But overall, it was pretty pleasant. And I got a Boddington's! Did I mention they put up Christmas decorations. The Evans house is now lit up in Christmas lights and their first tree is in place. I love this tree...his mom started collecting these ornaments from Hallmark, the Nostalgic Houses series and has ornaments dating back to 1984. It's really awesome :) and the tree is so cute, filled with all these mini houses and buildings. His mom also made turkey pot pie (yummmmmmmm) and I beat the Evans in 2 games: Chicken Feet and Perquackle (spellcheck that?). For the most part, we didn't do anything crazy and exciting. It was just nice to be able to hang out, relax, spend some time with my favorite boy and my second-favorite family! Thank you for the awesome Thanksgiving weekend Evans family :)

PS. Did I mention that it snowed? It SNOWEDDD!!!!!

turkey pictures

pictures from thanksgiving dinner....

i picked a winner

also, check out all the movies we're looking forward to

movies we want to see
invictus
up in the air (debatable)
valentine's day
sherlock holmes
shutter island
the blind side....again

movies i want to see and will probably drag matt to.
the princess and the frog
the lovely bones
letters to juliet
dear john
the last song
the twilight saga: eclipse

happy thanksgiving :)

So it's the big day. happy thanksgiving everybody :) we are thankful for each other, our family, our friends, the giants, the lakers, and our first thanksgiving meal together!

thanksgiving menu

so it's our first thanksgiving together...and both of our first attempts at making a turkey. so we'll see how it goes, but for now, here's our planned menu

the menu

crock pot turkey
mashed potatoes
green bean casserole
cornbread stuffing
croissants
pumpkin pie

ooooo and i found a new blog. it's called "a year of slow cooking" and it's written by a woman who used her slow cooker for an entire year!!!! i love it. we're gonna make our turkey using one of her recipes :)