And then we went home...

One big holiday down, one more to go. We got to have two Thanksgivings this year - one with my family a week ago and one this past weekend with Isaac's family. The first one we rode the train down for, and that was an experience in itself. An extra two hours of travel time each way tacked onto an already long journey left us not quite sure if it was worth not having the stress of driving and traffic and such. But it was fun to at least do it once. We brought our laptop and dvds, books, and cards and spent a solid six hours side by side watching the beautiful fall colors sweep by. Dad picked us up in Vancouver and brought us home to see the star of our little Thanksgiving...Ava Grace! Or Olivia, I suppose, since no one else ever uses her nickname anymore. She's my sister's little daughter and she is cuuu-uuute. Perfect little spiral curls, a smile to die for, and all the adorableness of a two year old learning to speak like an adult. Of course, it was great to see mom and dad and we spent the evenings playing games with Debbie and Mike, but there's no denying we were all most excited to ooh and ahh over the littlest member of our family. Makes me want to have one...minus all the late nights and responsiblities that would come with it, of course. Highlight of the weekend - I taught Olivia to bat her eyes while asking mommy for something. I'm such a good auntie. Okay, so maybe that wasn't really the highlight of the weekend...there was time with the family, mom's amazing dinner she made, and the snow that fell on Saturday, but it's these little life lessons that must not go overlooked. All in all, a very nice family Thanksgiving.

Fastforward three days and we packed our Kia and headed back down south for the holiday with Isaac's family, which coincidentally also made me want to have little kiddos. Still minus the late nights and unending responsibilities, of course, but the little ones romping around the Hurst home are pretty adorable as well. Unfortunately, there were no pictures to document these events, but I will narrate them for you nonetheless. There was unending game playing, Thanksgiving dinner number two, a fantastic waffle party the following day, and unfortunately no snowfall to be seen the entire weekend. I got a treat Friday morning, though, when I visited Jolie at the Beauty School she attends and recieved the most amazing scalp treatment I've ever had (also the only one I've ever had, but nevertheless so nice). Then she ringletted my hair to perfection and I finished off the weekend a very curly blonde girl. We spent the night with Ian and Savannah the next night and got to snuggle and entertain Jayden and Daelyn the next morning. So cute. Then it was home to more games with the girlies, then back in our car for the long drive home. I could eat pumpkin pie every day for the rest of my life. Mmm, mmmm.

Alas, it is back to real life now in all it's glory. Eight to fours, grocery shopping, and no little ones. There is a bright spot on the horizon, though, as this week appears to be the week in which we shall acquire the Hurst Christmas Tree Number Two, which means more pumpkin pie, hot cider, and cranberry and popcorn strings galore. Christmas season? Yes, please.

Phyllo Creations...

If you're sensitive about your birthday being forgotten, special dates passing unnoticed, and Christmas presents being bought at the last minute, then I'm not the best friend for you. For some reason I can't keep birthdates in my head for anything, no matter how long or hard I try. And by default, remembering anything like an anniversary (other than my own) is completely out of the question. But I am blessed with a couple friends who are incredible at remembering all those special days, who will pop a little card in the mail wishing good luck on an upcoming final, who will send postcards to you while you're out of town on vacation, who never forget a birthday, Christmas, or anniversary. Not that I forget Christmas, but you know what I mean. Dear Morgan is one of those people...the Morgan of the Morgan and Tommy couple who is off gallivanting around Europe and Asia for the next several months. Now if I was taking an extended vacation, especially if it was one that spanned nearly a year's length, I would gladly use that as an excuse to not have to even try remembering everyone's special days back home...but not Morgan. Her brother's birthday was a few weeks after she and Tommy left town and I was emailed specific instructions on what exactly to make for him since Mo couldn't do it herself. And then Tommy's dad had a birthday last week and, once again, Morgan remembered will in advance and asked us to help her make it special for him. Mo and To were in Turkey at the time and wanted us to create Turkish Baklava for Tommy's dad so it could be like we were all there together. Lex took it a step further and made an entire Turkish dinner and we had Rick and Sherri over to Alex and Justin's to celebrate! There was a lentil stew that was incredible (no matter what Justin says), zucchini pancakes that had some other completely foreign name I won't even try to remember, greek yogurt, hummus and pita chips. A-mazing. Then there was the baklava for dessert. The only things that were missing were Morgan and Tommy, but we'll be with them soon enough, I suppose. Happy birthday, Rick!

The other thing you may have noticed is that I am now blonde. Very blonde. White blonde, in fact. And I have to say, I really love it. I won't be blonde forever...probably just a few months to get it out of my system and then I'll be a happy bruntette for the rest of my life. But until then, I shall very much enjoy the new look. You must gotta live a little every once in a while, right?

On cleaning, Little Miss Sunshine, and the wearing of the tights...

I must say, it's like a world record for me. Three and a half weeks ago I went on a cleaning binge and scoured every nook and cranny of our house. And I mean every nook and cranny. Every corner, every surface, every appliance, every wall...not an inch of the place was left untouched. Then on top of that we put everything that was lying out away, in its place. There were no more random piles of books or papers - nothing. Our house was cle-eeean. Now, it's not like we were total slobs before or anything. We just had little habits here and here that would help clutter our little house before we even realized it was happening. Like it would be two minutes before I had to walk out the door for work and I could find nothing to wear, so the bedroom would consequently be strewn with articles of clothing tossed pell-mell all over the floor as I frantically searched for the perfect outfit. Or we would have cooked an incredible dinner and then been too full and unmotivated afterwards to properly do all the dishes. Things like that. Consequently, our weeks would be littered with multiple twenty to thirty minute cleaning sessions as the mess got too much and we needed to restore peace and order for sanity's sake. So on this glorious Sunday three weeks ago, the house was sparkling like it had never sparkled before and we liked it so much that we decided to reform our messy ways. We challenged each other to see how long we could keep the house clean by putting everything away immediately after we used it, not leaving any dishes undone, just picking up as we went along instead of stopping our lives to clean and inevitably feeling like all we ever did was clean, clean, clean. Plus, we have discovered that I am much calmer when the house is clean and when Becky is calmer, life for everyone else is calmer. Trust me.

So I tell you all this just to report that our house has stayed clean for the past three weeks! I'm shocked, really I am. And my mother's probably just fallen off her chair in disbelief, but we've put our clothes away every time we've changed, done dishes even if it's just a cup or a fork, hung our coats up, put our shoes away as soon as we take them off...it's amazing! The things dear mother tried to teach me during all those years with her have finally rubbed off on me! Anyway, we're pretty happy campers about it all, as you can tell since I decided to dedicate two whole paragraphs to this success...

Halloween has come and gone once again, and I dare say we had quite the good time with Justin and Alex that night. Since they just bought a house and all, they decided it was only natural to stay home and greet the cute little trick-or-treaters from the neighborhood, so we joined them for the evening, ooohing and ahhhing at all the little butterflies and witches who stopped by. Two days previous we had carved these fantastic pumpkin faces to line their stairs with, but unfortunately we took the pictures with Lex's camera so I have nothing to show for it. They were great, though. After homemade potato chowder, pumpkin pie, and Carcassonne, we ended the night with a viewing of Little Miss Sunshine, then parted ways back to our humble abode. Happy Halloween to all.

And for the most exciting news of all...it is officially tights season! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, time for tights, skirts, and boots...my favorite time of year - fashionwise, anyway. I'm not one for the cold weather, but it does seriously help make up for the frigid temperatures that I get to wear tights anytime I want to.