Thanksgiving

This year we weren't able to celebrate Thanksgiving

with my sisters family in AZ as we have done in recent

years or how we did in CA in the years before that, so we

stayed in UT and gathered at my parents house.

Late morning consisted of making candy and gingersnap

turkeys while watching the Macy's day parade

and then playing outside with

my nieces in their new peacoats we got for the

2009 family picture. I loved how the day was

full of warm sun and cool air.

Then we set about cooking our feast, Kate made

a delicious cinnamon bread wreath. My mom made

yummy mashed sweet and regular potatoes and a fantastic

cranberry jello salad, and my favorite veggies peas and corn,

(I love mixing my peas and corn in my mashed potatoes)

My dad cooked the perfect turkey and his traditional

orange cranberry sauce and then there were the pies...

pumpkin and cherry. (Isn't the cherry beautiful)

Kate made the centerpiece and decorated the table,

it was festive and beautiful.

I cooked the old fashioned stuffing balls.

It was so good having all our family's traditional

thanksgiving dishes, I haven't had them for almost

8 years now.

After our meal we had the much needed nap and then

we went out to the movies and saw the new Christmas Carol

in 3D.....creepy.

Im thankful for so much and I worry about making

a list in fear of leaving something beloved out but here is

a quick one:

my family*my faith*my dear husband* my healthy and strong

body* temples*my saviour*my camera* opportunities*

my education* the roof over my head* my dream job*

an endlessly beautiful world to photograph and enjoy*

sweet friends*my determination*my cats (most of the time)*

extraordinary examples*

Autumn Feast

For my Culture Club's October/November event

I hosted an Autumn Feast.

The evening was all oranges and blues,

oranges, clementines, and persimmons and

I used my blue willow-ware that I got when I was

married along with all the other blue and white

plates that Reece and I have collected in our travels

(we like to look for one on every vacation to take home

as a souvenir and to add to our collection)

I was pleasantly surprised that Costco had not just one, but

three shades of orange roses as well as

some budding tuberoses that I added for

their amazing smell and height in the arrangements.

My mom recently gave me her colonial fruit topiary stands

(green wax cones with nails poking out to stick fruit on)

I decorated them with clementines and filled in the

bare spots with eucalyptus and

topped them off with pineapple tops

(Now my house smelled amazing, citrus, eucalyptus,

and tuberose, ahhhhh)

I also made a milk chocolate pound cake bundt as well.

Angie brought a very scrumptious cheese platter,

I loved the lemon white cheddar the most.

Libby cooked a bacon wrapped stuffing stuffed lamb,

Cassandra brought a creamy pumpkin soup served with

lemon yogurt, and Crystal cooked us buttery rolls and

a fruit salad with candied nuts.

After dinner and games, Angie cooked us a

Cherry Clafoutis and surprised me with adorning it

with birthday candles.

Thank you CC ladies and your husbands it was a

delicious evening.

I found a picture of a party that my mom decorated with

the colonial fruit topiaries back in 1987. She is party

decor central, she has a wondrous collection of

pretty things for entertaining, and she sure

has a gift for putting it all together.

Recognize her pewter-ware... I borrowed it all

for this event...

Backer's Cakes

(Ever since Nora was born she has helped

everyone in the family blow out their candles.)

This was my cake at my family birthday dinner this year,

like always we had a Backer's Cake.

Ever since I can remember we have had Backer's Pastry

Shop bake our birthday cakes, it started with them

keeping up with all our themed parties over the years

and now we usually just get the huge frosting flowers and

sometimes little leaves on the sides (the ones my sisters

and I like to pluck off and eat secretly before dinner...

even now).

Everything about these cakes down to their buttery

frosting aroma reminds me of my childhood birthdays.

My mother would help us pick a theme for

our party and then she would decorate the table

to the hilt with decor centered around that theme.

We would then act out our theme in play

version before opening presents.

When Jenny's theme was 3 little pigs... I was the wolf.

At my Cinderella party...my dad was my prince....

and jenny my coachman :)

It was always so magical to have a huge cake that

matched the evening.

This has been a very tasty tradition, one that I love.

Here is a sampling of some of the beautiful and yummy creations

Backers has made for us over the years...

(and so you are not confused, I was a blond for most of

my life)

Kate and Dad's Halloween cake 2009

Kate and Dad's Cakes 2008

Jenny's Three Little Pigs Cake 1985

Jenny's Dinosaur party 1987 (Jenny always had the more

adventurous themes, I loved this one, all of the

family were cave people....and Jenny was a stegosaurus)

If you look closely the cake is an erupting volcano

with palm trees and dinosaurs crawling all over it.

My Cinderella Cake 1988

My Ballerina Cake 1989

My Little Mermaid Cake 1990

Kate's Calvin and Hobbs cake 1992

Jenny's Oz Cake 1992 (My mom decorated the table

with her beautiful vintage Oz books and set a place

so the life sized Jack the Pumpkin Head that Jenny

made could eat with us)

My Aladdin Cake 1993 (the start of my ugly years...

which unfortunately lasted a long time)

Jenny's horse cake 1995 (love the waterfall)

My Alien space cake 1995

My BYU vs U of U cake 1997

(still a U fan at heart)

Oh and wait... this is one of the years that

my birthday fell on thanksgiving (2001) so my candles

were stuck in the pumpkin pie....but I got to be

with my cousins that year so... even trade.

Now our husbands even get Backer's Cakes...mmmm,

even more cake.