thanksgiving + first snow

Today we awoke to a thin blanket of snow. Our first thought: we couldn't wait to take Joey out in it! He was born in March and has never seen much cold or snow so this winter is going to be quite the introduction for him. We threw ourselves together and I grabbed the camera and started snapping.

 Ben put Joey's new sweater on getting him ready to go outside and check out this winter phenomena. He was quite excited when he realized how excited we were.

My mom made him the little blue sweater seen in all these pics. I found a pattern and she made in in a flash and it turned out great. He likes it very much too!

first sight of the white stuff

 His first steps into the snow were with great excitement. He had no idea what was going on but he had to just get right into it and check it all out. This was just out side the entrance to our apt. building.

I love it! I even have snow in my beard!

hiking up the steps to the school yard behind our apt.

Ben + Joey playing

ruuuuuuun!

sniffing around

all our footprints in the snow

found a stick buried in the snow, what fun!

I made a snow ball and he have fun licking it.

We weren't out for very long before little Mr. Joey was shivering and freezing cold. His beard and paws got wet and icey and he was not a fan of that part in the least. He started whimpering and whining and that was the end of that. It was so fun to see how much he enjoyed it though. He and Ben ran and ran and played and he just had such a good time being his curious little self. 

We're now back inside and I decided with snow comes turning on our electric heater. I'm wearing way to much clothing indoors to not have heat on. Ben and Joey are snuggled up in a blanket on the bed watching a movie. I'm about to join them.... 

We enjoyed getting to see our family on Thanksgiving via Skype. If I was ever thankful for something useful over the past year it was definitely Skype. Being able to talk and SEE your faces means soo much to us. 

I made plans for a decent Turkey Day meal after which I had forgotten that I would be teaching and would have no time to cook. Our back up plan consisted of ordering fried chicken, thawing out and baking some rolls I made a few weeks ago, making a box of stuffing I'd been saving for a few months, and finally a pumpkin pie with an oatmeal brown sugar crumble topping that wasn't really pumpkin but rather squash. 

All in all it wasn't too bad but I definitely missed seeing family and having a relaxing day. We rushed home from school and I rushed to make everything so we could eat it and Skype everyone. We had our dinner at about 11:00pm on Nov 25th. 

The "pumpkin pie" made from squash was an absolute success, if I do say so myself. I though I bought chunks of pumpkin as they were sitting next to the pumpkins in the store and when I got home and roasted them in the oven I realized it was squash. I decided to go thru with winging it. I smashed it up and added some milk, brown sugar, and pumpkin pie spices. I added an egg and baked it and it turned out just as I'd hope, it set like a thick custard and I didn't even mind that it was a bit stringy it added a nice texture and was very VERY tastey. I cut myself a piece thinking if its good I'll probably just eat the whole thing. Ben doesn't particularly like pumpkin pie but when he got a taste of my creation he couldn't resist. We ate almost all of it. I was just so proud I was able to figure something out to quell my craving for pumpkin pie. Earlier in the fall I made an acorn squash puree with spices to add to coffee to make a pumpkin spice latte and oooo that was good. So if you're ever in a pinch squash is a miracle veggie! who knew!

our Thanksgiving dinner: fried chicken (with corn and hot sauce) + stuffing

 squash pumpkin pie with oatmeal + brown sugar crumble

me enjoying my squash pumpkin pie creation!

the star of the show Korean fried chicken

the last of fall, the beginning of winter

one of Joey's favorite toys even in the snow

guess who was checking out this lonely leaf in the snow

Hope you all had a blessed, happy, and relaxing Thanksgiving!