catching up: thanksgiving

Okay, blog, I'm sorry for peaceing out on you for so long. I sort of broke up with blogger for a while I guess.  We got into a fight, you see.  I had this incredibly eloquent and interesting post (just kidding, but seriously...) in which I poured out my heart & shared what the Lord was showing me through Jack Kerouac and apple pie and pursuing a new career adventure. The post took at least a week to write, and when it came time to publish and share it with the blogging world... blogger failed to save the post...and failed to post it... so we ended our relationship on pretty bad terms. 

BUT, I love the holiday season waaaay too much to not take some time and document our adventures.

I forgive you, Blogger.  Maybe another day when I have more time to rewrite the aforementioned incredibly eloquent and interesting post I can share that story, but for now we will just have a simple and slightly cheesy recap of Thanksgiving.

Here are a few pics from our time with my family in beautiful San Jose, California. 

I'm saving my favorites for another post, but this is a start.  

{p.s. please excuse my extreme editing on some on these photos.

i like to get a little carried away sometimes}

Ross & my dad enjoying some cigars and manhattans while frying turkey # 1.

best.turkey.ever.

Our beautiful table!

JB being cool.

Fancy cheeses at the girl & the fig in Sonoma. 

 Wine cave in Sonoma.

Decorating for Christmas!

Some years we have over 30 people to celebrate Thanksgiving with.  This year it was just the 6 of us and was so much fun.  My dad planned out the whole well balanced week of staying home and cooking, exploring new parts of California, going out to eat, having an extreme bocci ball tournament, visiting my brothers new school, playing games, watching movies, and going on family walks.  It was perfect.  Ross and I were so grateful to just spend time together and take a much needed break from work. 

Can't wait to fly back on Friday! How is Christmas sneaking up on us so fast?!

the new addition

we stayed true to our plan:

wait until we've been married a year before we get a puppy.

so when an email went out on the med school list serve about a lab mix puppy needing a home, 

we knew he was the one we had been waiting for.

enter roux pinson:

we LOVE this little guy!

happy mothers day!

dear mom,

thank you for always giving us a pretty home, food to eat,

overstuffed christmas stockings, perfect easter baskets, brown bag lunches,

and chocolate chip cookies on the first day of school.

thank you for always feeding & walking freckles,

even though we promised you would never have to.

thank you for providing such a great example for emily & i.

thank you for loving dad and being a faithful wife for over 25 years.

thank you for your paintings and sketches that now hang on the walls of my new home.

thank you for being the nicest & cutest mom in the whole world.

you are the best!

...and we're back

it's official: i am back online.  

this weekend ross & i left little ol' college station and headed to the familiar city of houston.  friday night we celebrated my cousin mary catherine's birthday at a swanky mexican restaraunt downtown with a marathon-long table with seats filled with family and friends from every corner of the country (and a little ways out of it, too).  margs, chips, guacamole, laughs & stories were shared for hours, and the party continued on at my uncles house nearby, where we celebrated with pretty cupcakes and an a good time. 

we woke up early saturday morning to share a incredibly tasty breakfast at the hotel with my parents, and made room at our table for more as other family members trickled in... and we might have scared away a certain celebrity with our excited whispers.  several cups of coffee later and with fully satisfied appetites, my amazinghardworkingdiligentmedschoolhusband studied in our room at the houstonian all day saturday and i got to spend the afternoon with my parents wandering around the galleria.  

thanks to an incredibly generous gift from my dad, i am now blogging from a shiny new computer.  to say i am grateful & excited is a severe understatement- not just for my parents giving hearts and generousity, but for the way they always believe in me. they are brilliant examples of the kind of people and parents that ross and i pray we'll become.  but the best part of the shopping trip was when my mom and i walked out of j.crew to find my brother brother sitting on a bench, his leg acting as a pillow for my very asleep dad.  

that evening we attended the wedding of my uncle kent to his finace sarah.  once again, we spent an entire night enjoying beautiful food, wine, and company.  one of my greatest joys in life is when the whole crazy family is together, or at least most of them, and we can talk about old memories while making new ones.  toward the end of the night, ross, my cousin william and i straight up crashed the other two weddings that were going on at the hotel.  our criteria for wedding crashing evolved into several must-do activities:  walk around the reception, get a diet coke, make small talk with the photographer & get your picture taken, and finally leave- with a wedding favor in tow... all in good fun. 

it was such a happy weekend.  one of the sweetest parts of being married is seeing your spouse with your family.  ross and i are a family now, and it's so fun to see how much the rest of my family loves him too.  he's the man. 

anyway, i'm officially back to trying to be a graphic designer & photographer through this rockin new computer, but more on that later.  in the meantime, here's some inspiration i found while soaking up my long-lost friend, blogosphere... don't even laugh- you're obviously friends with it too. 

{above 3 from marina at makina, found via ohjoy!}

{via design*sponge}

first married christmas: check!

christmas shopping in the galleria

{moments before being yelled at for taking a picture- worth it.}

present wrapping & christmas movie with my family at our apartment

dad's annual christmas cd

complete with ridiculous cover art {but quality music}

christmas eve dinner @ pappasitos

my family's tradition for about 15 years...

but our first time with ross!

{our first} christmas morning at the lake

emily looking like christmas morning

candy canes!

crazy christmas pug

{not ours...but we had fun playing}

more christmas pug

and more

and finally, christmas ducks.

we drove home from our holiday excursions feeling

overwhelmingly blessed and full of love.

we are all so grateful and blessed.

all dogs go to heaven

every year, for more than half of my life, my parents would see two recurring desires listed on my yearly  letter to santa: 1. a puppy and 2. snow.

in fact, even after the kids at school told me santa wasn't real, i still wrote letters wishing for a puppy so that my parents would see it and feel moved to make my one true christmas wish come true. 

but chasing the dream of owning a family dog wasn't limited to christmas time. desperate measures were taken.  once, i cut out a picture of a dog and taped it to a large, framed family portrait in our hallway to show my parents what we were missing. 

mom was always hesitatnt, though she loves and grew up with dogs & horses. dad was different- he was interested but had never had a dog before.  when he was growing up, his mother refused request after request my dad and sisters made for a puppy of their own. her answer was this: "we can't have a dog, because he will know i don't like it, and when you kids are at school, he will kill me." my dad realized there was no arguing with this logic, and was happy enough with a turtle for a pet. 

finally, one weekend during 7th grade, my mom and sister went away on a girl scout camping trip.  dad, john byron and i went up to the town center to check out "dog days in the park." shelter representatives and vendors lined the area, and there were puppies everywhere.  i can still remember seeing a tiny, fuzzy, speckled puppy at one shelter's booth with a bright red balloon tied to his collar. 

we approached the lady holding his leash, and she let us walk him around the park. the next thing we knew, we were driving home with him for a "trial weekend." imagine my little sisters delight and mom's shock when they came home that sunday afternoon.

ten years later, freckles has become an irreplaceable member of our family. he is by no means a perfect dog. i like to say he's more of a free spirit than 'well trained.' he ran out the front door and back gate more times than anyone can remember.  he's petrified of fireworks and hates the chinese delivery guy, trash-men, and UPS trucks.  time after time my parents threatened to send him back to "the slammer" (the shelter) because of his relentless escapes.  

but he loves us, and especially adores my dad. my brother and parents love taking him on long walks in their new neighborhood, and he even has his own stocking on the mantle for christmas. he is happiest when the whole family is together, particularly eating dinner and sending scraps his way. and we love him. 

and now it's time for him to leave us, all of a sudden. we could tell he was sick over thanksgiving, but we never thought cancer, especially not an advanced form. i wish i could be with my family, especially this morning, and say goodbye to him, and hug my mom, sister, and dad while they deal with the hole in their hearts that i'm feeling now. i'm just grateful i got to pet him & hold his paw one last time before we flew back to texas. 

ross mentioned tonight at dinner that he's scared for us to get a dog because of the loss and sadness we will inevitably feel someday. but we both agreed thats just the chance you take with life and love, and that's it's always better than never loving at all.  especially with dogs, because all they do is love you back. 

can it be thanksgiving forever?

still basking in the warmth of our amazing thanksgiving week, and devouring the images we captured.  when i'm in a particularly beautiful place or happy moment, i try and hold onto it tight & store it up... like a squirrel with acorns (did i just compare myself to a squirrel?). whenever work gets monotonous or college station is gray, these mental snapshots & videoclips get me through.  and having actual photographs doesn't hurt either. seriously- how beautiful is northern california? 

my family moved to a gorgeous city named, of all city names, pleasanton.  bless her heart, this cheerful name only fed the cynical fire that was stirring up in my 17 year old sister's soul.  who would want to move for their junior & senior year of high school? understandably, she even briefly changed the title of her blog {gasp} from life in technicolor to life in exile. but honestly, the city really is beautiful.  drastically rolling hills straight out of a dr. seuss book & gorgeous vineyards line every road and neighborhood.  my dad's taken to pointing out all of his 'vistas' and the 'real ducks' in the pond at the entrance to their neighborhood.  {not pretend ducks?}

these past several months, every member of my family jokingly adopted a new motto: no sympathy.  moved to a new city? have to make all new friends? miss your old home? "join the club," we say to one another. "oh, you didn't want to move? guess what: you get zero sympathy from me."  it may sound harsh, but it helps us laugh about the inevitable struggles that come with change & transition. the "zero sympathy" attitude is also a great reminder of how lame self-pity is. 

anyway, i'm happy to report that my family is taking all the challenges in stride. my sister already has a great group of friends. even though she would rather be back in kingwood with her beautiful community, she's in pleasanton for a reason and i think she knows that. hopefully she'll be back in texas as a proud new baylor bear in just a couple of years.  but until then, i hope she knows that i don't feel sorry for her in the least. but i am mega proud of her.