Thanksgiving 2016

I I realize I'm several weeks late, but I've got to get this down before Christmas! We celebrated Thanksgiving twice this year, so that we could squeeze in both side of the family with ample time for each. We started with a pre-Thanksgiving feast at my in-laws' a couple weekends before Thanksgiving, and the baby experienced his first Thanksgiving dinner! Being the ravenous eater he is, he seemed to love it, and shoved food into his face as quickly as possible. We got some really cute "cousins" pictures of him and my niece, which I know we will treasure when they are older.

For that meal, C and I were in charge of pies. We went with one traditional apple and one chocolate pie. To go above and beyond, we made a homemade chocolate pudding pie following a recipe C found online, and it was insanely good - SO rich and chocolaty. Definitely could have used an espresso with that one!

For the actual Thanksgiving holiday, we traveled down to the lake house. We spent Wednesday - Saturday with my family, and had a wonderful time. The lake in the fall is one of my absolute favorite places, so I was really happy to have an extended weekend to spend there! We had a traditional meal on Thursday and everyone pitched in to get it cooked, so everything felt very stress-free and simple. Wednesday night was pie night, and on Thursday morning we watched the parade and ate pie for breakfast. I love that tradition, and I'm happy to be passing these things along to the baby!

The day after Thanksgiving, we did absolutely no shopping (I refuse), but did drive to Roanoke to check out Parkway Brewing. It was a really cool set-up and a beautiful day, and the beers were good, too! Can't beat that.

We opted to drive home on Saturday and do takeout for dinner, and then had Sunday to start getting out our Christmas decorations without feeling rushed. It was a lovely way to wrap up the holiday weekend and continue the relaxing. Returning to work on Monday was still rough - can't I just live in the mountains and be a lake lady?? Ha.

Lake weekending

You know the old saying, the days are long but the weeks are short? I think it generally refers to any amount of time spent at home with your kids, but I find it also applies to blogging... It never feels like much time is passing and then I look up and it's been 6 weeks since my last post. Oops.

The truth of the matter is, when I started this blog, I was semi-fresh out of college, working a job that wasn't entirely fulfilling, used to be super busy, and feeling like I had no hobbies or creative outlets. I still don't have a ton of hobbies and I'm no longer fresh out of college, but I obviously have enough going on to fill my days that I don't need blogging as much as I used to. That's not to say I don't still enjoy it when I do it - writing has always been good for me and special for me. So this little corner of the Internet will remain open for whenever I decide to pop back in. Like now. Hi. 

We went to the lake this weekend and had such a nice time. C took off on Friday and so we hit the road early after the baby woke up and ate, and we were at the house by lunchtime. My mom greeted us with BLTs for lunch, which is always awesome. C and I took the jet ski out while the baby napped, and we had a delicious steak dinner and watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Truthfully, the steak was actually awful, but the rest of dinner was delicious. Isn't it disappointing when you just get a terrible cut of meat and there's no way to solve it... Or eat it? C'est la vie. 

Quiet coffee on the screen porch on Saturday morning during the baby's nap - amazing!

Two of my high school girlfriends joined us on Saturday and it was wonderful to catch up with them. Normally our girls' weekends consist of wine and a fancy dinner in one of our hometowns, but this time around I invited them to join us at the lake and was so happy they obliged! We got lucky during a rainy, gray weekend and got a sunny afternoon, so we got to enjoy a boat ride and dock time with cold beers. As Lizzy said, this is actually the life!! We took the baby on the boat, and he promptly fell asleep the minute we left the cove and didn't wake up until we pulled back in. Apparently that is the best kind of white noise!

C put on his chef hat and whipped up homemade mozzarella sticks and chicken Parmesan for dinner, and my mom made peach pie for dessert. I do love eating good food with good people. 

We squeezed in one more boat ride on Sunday before heading home, and the baby actually stayed awake this time - and he loved it! He couldn't stop jumping up and down and squealing in delight - I do believe we are raising a water baby. I love these memories we are already making with him! 

In case this weekend sounds like it was all roses, I will have you know we experienced a major poop-splosion 15 minutes before we were heading out the door to go home... But then again, maybe it WAS all roses, because 15 minutes later and it would have been a car-poop-splosion, which is so much worse. Parenting wins, my friends. It doesn't take much. 

A Little Lake Weekend

When we opted out of going to the lake for Labor Day weekend, we knew that we would want to fit in a different fall weekend for some relaxing lake time before the weather got cold. We made great progress on our nursery projects, and the opportunity presented itself for some down time. We took advantage, and headed down to the house on Friday afternoon to meet up with my parents.

The weather on Saturday was absolutely gorgeous, and we had a picture-perfect day. After a leisurely morning, my mom and I went for a long walk. Several miles later, we returned to the house to whip up a pan of homemade macaroni and cheese with bacon - it was scheduled to go in the smoker for a bit before dinner, and it turned out really perfectly. For lunch, we took the boat out for a long ride and ended up at the Portside Grill & Bar for Cuban sandwiches and grilled wings. Delicious!

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching our Hokies beat up on Purdue (my favorite kind of game!) and smoking the mac and cheese and some chicken thighs for dinner. (PS - if you have a smoker and have never tried smoking things other than meats, you really must. The flavor on the mac and cheese was AMAZING!!)

On Sunday, we spent some time with coffee and books before another boat ride - have to take advantage while the weather is still nice!

We watched the Redskins game and had lunch before heading back home, (personally) feeling very rested and rejuvenated. After a busy few weekends, and several more coming up, it was so nice to be able to get away and have some quiet time. Our lakes weekend are limited while it is just the two of us still - I know there won't be many more trips before our party of two becomes a party of three!

I am so ready for fall weather, but it was great to take advantage of one of the last "summer" weekends. In case you are wondering, yes, I did manage to get a bit sunburnt on the boat on Saturday... even with SPF50 on! It never fails.

Five for Friday: the sad and the good

Five quick things, then we can all get on with our Friday. Before the fun stuff, though...

I would be remiss if I did not mention the tragedy that occurred on live news on Wednesday. I was horrified to see that two journalists were murdered, and saddened to see that it happened at Smith Mountain Lake. As many people know, my family has a house on SML, and we consider the lake to be a serene refuge from the "real world." Bridgewater Plaza, where the incident occurred, is a place that we have frequented over the years, and it broke my heart to see this tragedy unfold at a place that I consider one of my homes. It has been a sad week for the lake community, the news community, and the Hokie family, as one of the journalists was a VT grad. Keep them and the victims' families in your hearts, if you can.

Deep breath. OK. Let's do our five things!

1 // C made meatball pita sandwiches with homemade tzatziki on Tuesday night. I always kind of forget how much I love tzatziki, and then when I have it, I feel like I could drink a bowlful. Seriously. Garlic breath doesn't scare me. It's just so good. Try this recipe if you've never made it at home.

2 // We just bought tickets for a Hokie football game this fall, and I am beside myself with excitement. Can't wait to get "home" to Lane Stadium!! It will be baby's "first" football game (and possibly my first sober game... cough cough) and I know we will have a blast.

3 // In other baby news, a large package arrived on our doorstep earlier this week... we officially own a crib. Yikes. My in-laws were sweet enough to buy Baby W's bed for us, and while it's just going to sit boxed up for a while longer, I can't get over how intense that moment was when I realized that we have a crib in our house because a baby is coming.

4 // C is hosting his friends at our house this weekend for their fantasy football draft. It is intense and very, very serious, and I am very, very seriously vacating the premises for the weekend. I am planning to hightail it up to my parents' this weekend and spend some QT with them. It's my dad's birthday tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to celebrating, plus a few other fun activities with my mama. The boys will hopefully keep my house neat and tidy not destroyed, and I'll return home once the shenanigans are finished on Sunday.

5 // I've had some office requests for sweet treats lately, and it really has been a hot minute since I've brought any goodies in. May have to do some baking this weekend! Any suggestions for easily transportable favorites? I'm thinking brownies of some sort...

I told you this would be quick! What are your plans for this weekend? Send me your favorite baked goods recipe! Please :)

linking up with the five on friday girls:  Darci, Christina, April,and Natasha

linking up with karli and amy

4th of July at the Lake!

We had such a fun 4th of July weekend... so much fun, in fact, that we extended it extra long!

Happy 4th of July - from the three of us!

Our regular plans for the 4th were not to be this year - usually, C's parents have a huge shin-dig at their house, complete with pool party and water balloon fight, but they decided this year that they weren't able to do it. No worries - we moved the party to the lake!

My favorite place <3

We packed several of our favorite couple-friends into my parents' lake house for the weekend, along with my parents and my sister and brother-in-law, C and I headed down to the house on Thursday night to meet up with my parents, and everyone else came down on Friday afternoon. We got so lucky with the weather - it was overcast with some rain on Friday and Sunday, but Saturday was sunny and perfect. What more could you want?

The whole crew! Dogs included, kind of.

C got a smoker for his birthday, so for our patriotic feast, he and his friends smoked ribs and chicken wings, which we paired with baked beans and macaroni and cheese. Is there anything better than the smell of hickory smoke alllll daaayyyyy long? I think not.

Men at work

We spent the weekend playing corn hole, floating in the lake and jumping off the dock (not this girl, ever), laughing our way through a few hilarious rounds of Cards Against Humanity, and SUPing around the cove. My sister just got this stand up paddle board as a gift for her husband, and we all put it to good use! It was ultimately determined that the girls are far better at using the SUP than the boys are... we all managed to stay standing while they all ended up in the lake. Winning!

C and my dad put on a fireworks show down by the water once it got dark. There were fireworks being set off all around the lake, and listening to the booms echo down the water was kind of amazing. We couldn't really see any except our own, but we had a soundtrack going the whole time.

My aunt and uncle flew in from California on Saturday night to spend the week at the lake with my parents. C and I planned to head home on Sunday with the rest of the crew, but we made the executive decision to stick around one more night and visit. I'm so glad that we did! There was enough sunshine on Sunday to take a long boat ride to get lunch at one of our favorite lake restaurants, and I managed to get my first sunburn of the season. Whoops. We rounded out the day with dinner at some family friends' house and watching the USA crush Japan in the World Cup final - does it GET any more American??

Freshly painted boat-house doors! USA!

I was bummed to have to head home on Monday afternoon, that's for sure - I would have loved to spend the rest of the week with the fam hanging around the lake. Not in the cards this time, but it was definitely wonderful to get to spend several full days relaxing and visiting with friends. It was a great way to spend the 4th of July!

cookies, steak, and stick-to-your ribs meals

Since we had yesterday off work, C & I took ourselves down to the lake for a long-weekend getaway. It was the kind of cold weather and cozy weekend that just screams for delicious meals, and we certainly delivered. I've got to say, we did some of our best cooking over the last few days! #winning

We both got home from work a little early on Friday, and loaded up the car and headed down. We took our time getting there, stopping for dinner and to grocery shop as we went. We also popped into an adorable little wine shop, which we've passed a million times and never stopped at. As it turns out, In Vino Veritas does free wine tastings on Friday night, so I got to start the party early!! We picked a couple of bottles that we liked, and splurged for a Valentine's Day treat. We don't do V-Day gifts, so wine is good for both of us!

On Saturday, we made a leisurely breakfast, then hung out relaxing by the fire for a few hours. Valentine's Day breakfast calls for mimosas. I have my priorities in order: cheap champagne and expensive orange juice. The perfect combination.

Have French press, will travel.

After an excursion to The Fresh Market in Roanoke for some fancy dinner supplies, we settled back in at the house and enjoyed a little happy hour.

We cooked steaks and scallops as asparagus for dinner and proclaimed it one of the top 5 meals we've ever made together. We loosely followed Kristen's advice for cooking the steaks and making a red wine pan sauce, and the filet mignon was just absolutely buttery. We actually made baked potatoes, too, but ended up putting them back in the fridge! We were stuffed from the rest of the meal. Very successful Valentine's Day, if I do say so myself!

On Sunday, my parents and my uncle joined us at the lake. It was miserably cold, so C made chicken Philly cheese steaks for lunch, and we watched movies all afternoon. For dinner, I made a big batch of Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew.... possibly another top 5 meal! I served it over garlic mashed potatoes instead of noodles, and it was the perfect stick-to-your-ribs meal for a cold night.

Yesterday, we headed home much earlier than usual, because it was already starting to snow at the lake. It's a good thing we did, because it snowed the whole way home, and the roads and traffic got worse and worse as we muddled along. A drive that should have taken us 3.5 hours took almost 7! C and I were almost ready to kill each other by the time we got home... we pulled into the driveway just in time to save our sanity.

Thank our lucky stars, they decided to just go ahead and make the announcement to close the government today before 10 PM last night, and we were able to relax and go to bed knowing that we got to sleep in a little. We don't get snow days, just telework days, but it was still nice to not have to get up and mess with trying to go to work! We got about 6" of snow, and I know my team members in Boston are just laughing at us. Sorry, guys!

There should actually be a porch railing there... we came home to some wind damage!
We were going to replace it this spring anyway.... guess that will be sooner rather than later :(

I always try to bake on snow days, and after looking through the pantry, went with two different types of cookies. I have the dough for Nutella cookies with white chocolate chips chilling in the fridge, and the best ever chocolate chip cookies are baking as we speak. I halved the chocolate chips and threw in rainbow sprinkles for the rest of the add-ins. They are going to be amazing.

Snow days call for hearty meals, so I'm going to make a batch of my mom's chicken and dumplings tonight for dinner. I got my workout in earlier this morning by shoveling the driveway, so I'm looking forward to just settling in in my sweatpants and letting other people deal with driving. No, thank you! Mom sent me pictures of the recipe... aren't the best ones pulled from old, wrinkly cookbooks with food spills and stains? I take that as a sign that they are well-loved recipes. I'm already excited for dinner. It's been years since I've had this!

Hope you are staying warm and dry, wherever you are. What is your favorite hearty, cold weather meal? Comfort food is the best.

LDW 2014: lake life!

I am SO HAPPY that it is September... call me cliche all you want, but fall is my fave-fave-favorite season and I always flip out when it's finally here. Bring it on! (Despite the fact that we are having a nasty hazy-hot-and-humid heatwave... ew.)

We had such a fun weekend at the lake. It was forecast to be rainy and gray most of the weekend, but it turned out to be gorgeous almost all weekend (a few clouds here and there, and a ten-minute downpour while the sun was shining on Saturday). Great times had with family and friends - such a great way to "end" summer!

C and I got down to the house relatively early on Friday evening and made some grilled chicken nachos to enjoy while watching Iron Man 3 with my parents. Saturday morning, we all slept in a bit and then I made a knock-off Huevos Rancheros for breakfast. It was bangin' and I'm looking forward to sharing the recipe!

We puttered around and ran some errands before getting down to the dock for some time in the sun. We had to be back in the house by 4 for the day's main event: watching our Hokies play win! Great way to start the season - can't beat a win at home!

My mom made a huge feast for dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday, and we rounded out the day with "Angry Ball" shots and chocolate pudding cake. Great combo, if I do say so myself!

We were all feeling a bit rough on Sunday  (shocking) so we got off to a bit of a slow start. My sister, her friend, and I eventfully made our way to Mango's for Bloody Mary's, and I perked right up after that. It was a fun, lazy Sunday - so enjoyable for a holiday weekend! 

Monday morning we got in a few last jet ski and boat rides before heading home after lunch. C and I commemorated the "end" of summer with grilled pork chops and a trip to SweetFrog... In reverse order. Dessert first is never wrong, my friends!

I loved being able to spend the long weekend with some of my favorite people, doing my favorite things. Is there any better way to spend time? It is so good for the soul. I meant to check my work email last night, but just couldn't bring myself to log in... Couldn't spoil the sparkle of the weekend! Who could blame me? Ha!

Loving lake life

Happy day-after-Memorial Day! Hope you were able to spend some time with friends and loved ones, and took a moment to remember those who've served, who the day is really about. We enjoyed a lovely long weekend at the family lake house on Smith Mountain Lake, and flew our American flag with pride.

hashtag no filter.

The weekend was filled with idyllic sentiments of summer: sunscreen, burgers & hot dogs on the grill, morning (and afternoon) boat rides, Firefly and lemonade over ice, country music playing on the iPod. We were finally able to spend some much-needed time together as a family, the first that we've had since April, before either of my grandparents had passed away. It was nice to unplug for a few days and find a little peace and quiet.

We were joined by my friend, Michelle, and her husband, who finally got to see the house and the property for the first time. I was so glad that we got beautiful, sunny days to enjoy with them - any time at the lake house is great, but it's so much better to have nice weather. We had so much fun, essentially doing nothing - sitting on the dock, eating and listening to music, just enjoying the company of those around us. Whoever really takes time to do that?

It was glorious.

And then my mom dropped her phone in the lake on Monday morning. It now resides under 20 feet of water. Sigh. No perfect weekend can be too perfect, right? Gotta keep it real!

hearts, hockey, and Cady Heron

Someone please tell me that it's not just me who's feeling a little disjointed today? Between two snow days last week and a long weekend (yay President's Day!), it's no wonder that I'm a bit out of sorts. Five days out of the office was a delightful little mini vacation! We should always get a week away in February. Can that please be a thing?!

We had plans to head to the lake on Friday afternoon, but the snowstorm had other ideas for us. We ended up staying home Friday, cooking a little dinner and hanging out with my sister and her husband. Not our original plan for V Day, but still fun! C surprised me with flowers that he bought when I wasn't looking, and we traded cards - we have a tradition of buying two each for everything, a funny one and a serious one - so we've got Valentines galore at our house.

typical.

We woke up early Saturday morning to watch the USA Men's hockey game vs. Russia - who else watched?? If you didn't, you missed out on some serious excitement. What a game! My sister made us a round of Bloody Marys for good luck in the third period... it must have worked!!

We left for the lake later than planned since the game went on and on, but still made good time and met my parents at the house by early afternoon. With Monday being a holiday, we still had plenty of time to relax!

The rest of the weekend looked a lot like this:

Sitting by the fire, watching movies, cooking a couple delicious meals, getting sucked into several episodes of West Wing, and playing a million rounds of dominoes. My mama and I even got out for a long walk on Sunday afternoon - it was fantastic to get some fresh air! It wasn't too cold, but everything was still blanketed in snow, so we got to see some beautiful lake scenery while we walked. Though cut a bit short, it was just the weekend we were looking for!

We got home yesterday afternoon just in time for me to throw myself together and head out for a fun Monday night event: girls' night! Some of the girls I've been going to book club with had the great idea to make the most of the government holiday and plan an Italian-themed potluck evening, and were sweet enough to invite me to come hang out! I straightened my hair and put together some "Chicken Parmesan Chicken Nuggets" in a matter of minutes and then I was out the door.

BTW - I totally pulled a Sandra Lee with my contribution to dinner, but I really thought it worked - I baked some chicken nuggets, then topped each with a spoonful of marinara and a little bit of provolone cheese and stuck them back under the broiler for a few. Ta da... mini chick parms! It wasn't my finest cooking moment, but it was delicious... I'll definitely keep that "recipe" in my back pocket for a quick snack or potluck dinner!

We spent several hours chatting, eating, painting our nails, and watching Mean Girls... because why the heck not?! It was so much fun, and I enjoyed getting a chance to see some friendly faces. It was a great way to wrap up the long weekend!

Essie "Chincilla" plus a little sparkle

So tell me....

• Did you get a long weekend? How did you spend your day off?
• Do you have a go-to recipe for potlucks? Something easy to make, transport, and share? Help me out!
• What's your favorite brand of nail polish? I like the colors that Essie has, but I don't actually think it's very good quality... (I just heard several people gasp in horror. Sorry not sorry!)