Thanksgiving Plate

Pumpkin dip

Thanksgiving

What an eventful Thanksgiving week this has been!

 

Monday morning I woke up at 1:30am with the worst throat pain I have ever had. It truly felt like I was swallowing razor blades. I made it ¾ of the day at work and came home to try and rest. Tuesday was my day off at work, but when I woke up I was in even more pain so Travis and I headed out to the CVS Minute Clinic. After doing a throat culture, the test came back positive in less than 10 seconds and the results were in… I had a violent case of Strep Throat. I was told not to go to work on Wednesday as I was still contagious. It has literally taken every bit of strength I have to swallow. I don’t ever remember Strep being this painful as a child, hopefully Travis won’t get it, but the doctor did say there is a good chance that he will…

 

I say all of this because we were HOSTING Thanksgiving at our house. I had 7 people to prepare and cook for. Now, who wants to eat some contagious girl’s food? That’s right…nobody, SO my AMAZING husband really stepped in and helped out. He was by my side the entire time as I directed him around the kitchen. He even cooked the entire 23 pound turkey by himself.

 

 

Below you will see a picture of the Pumpkin Dip that I put in a leaf shaped bowl with apples on the outside.

 

 

This picture is a shot from where I was sitting at our table. It’s not the best picture, but I still wasn’t feeling all that well.

 

 

The one positive thing about having Strep the week of Thanksgiving is that I am proud to announce I have lost 4 pounds…that’s right, not one pound gained during this gorging fest! I just hope Travis doesn’t get sick next!!

 

I hope everybody enjoyed their day of Thanksgiving with family and friends you love.

Girl's Only Weekend

 

This past weekend I got to visit 2 of my closest friends and Baylor roommates, Abbie and Erin. We try and get together at least 2 times a year for some much need girl time. This time was even more special as we got to celebrate Erin and Stephen’s recent engagement! The wedding is planned for September 12, 2009 in San Antonio and I cannot wait. I’ve even been asked to be the Matron of Honor!

 

Abbie and I got in around 11:30 Friday evening and tried so hard to stay awake while Erin was out at a law firm dinner, but we both crashed on the couch.

 

Saturday we spent a majority of the day eating and just relaxing which was so very nice and we all felt so refreshed. We started off the day by eating brunch at Hungry’s Café in Rice Village. It is delicious. Abbie had the croissant French toast that was topped with fresh strawberries and bananas, Erin had the Mediterranean wrap, and I had the Pueblo Chicken wrap.

 

 

Saturday afternoon we went back to Erin’s house and watched The Real Housewives of Orange County and I think we each feel asleep on the couches at some point. After a relaxing afternoon we got all gussied up and went to eat at Lupe Tortilla. Lupe has amazing homemade tortillas both flour and corn and the best beef fajitas I have EVER had.

 

 

They marinate their beef fajitas in lime juice and they are just so tender and oh so good. The 3 of us scarfed down the fajitas for two like they were going out of style…I cannot wait to go back!

 

Apparently we thought it would be a good idea to top off our already stuffed stomachs with TCBY. There is not one near us in Aubrey and the 2 in Waco closed down, so we each got our fix of White Chocolate Mousse frozen yogurt.

 

In all it was a great weekend and I will be working out extra hard this week to work off all the food we consumed. I love spending time with my 2 favorite girls. Our next reunion is going to be in Llano and we are going bring our boys with us!

 

Love you girls!

Thanksgiving

In just 9 days we will celebrate Thanksgiving and then the REAL countdown for Christmas can begin.

 

I love Christmas (more on that later)!!! It truly is my favorite time of year.

 

Now, this is my first Thanksgiving as a Riley and my first time to host the important meal at OUR house with both sets of parents attending…now, that’s a lot of pressure. I am really excited to get to use all of our nice China and some dishes we haven’t been able to use yet, but I have a fear that I’m going to ruin the turkey. It’s either going to look like the top picture

 

 

OR

 

 

It will look like the above charred turkey.

 

 I like to think of myself as a pretty good cook/baker. However, having the responsibility of cooking a 15+pound bird for your parents and in-laws comes with a lot of pressure. If the turkey fails, we will at least have lots of sides. A must have for a Huey Thanksgiving is green bean casserole and a must have for a Riley Thanksgiving is Cranberry Sauce. What are some of your family traditions at Thanksgiving?

 

I will be serving a pumpkin dip as an appetizer that is to die for…seriously…it’s amazing (thanks Amy H!!!).  This is best served with apple slices or graham crackers…

 

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 (15 ounce) can solid pack pumpkin
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon frozen orange juice concentrate

DIRECTIONS

1.  In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Gradually mix in the pumpkin. Stir in the cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and orange juice until smooth and well blended. Chill until serving.

I am REALLY excited to have both parents at our house, not having to travel, and to show off all of our wonderful wedding presents. I’m even going to wear my cute Apron! I love hosting parties, but this is by far the biggest one we have been in charge of. Wish us luck J

 

Also, as of today just 37 days until Christmas!!!

Below are some reasons of why I love Christmas:

 

it makes me think of my family and the fun times we had growing up, skiing in Keystone, driving to Baylor bowl games (that was a LONG time ago), celebrating mom and dad’s anniversary (even once at Whataburger), Jesus’ Birthday, tamales on Christmas Eve, candlelight Christmas Eve church service, my birthday on the 15^th, my dog, Coon’s birthday on the 19^th, and Rusty’s birthday also on the 19^th, going to my brothers basketball games (MT Rice tournament), breakfast casserole on Christmas morning, and many more…

 

Happy Birthday Mommy

 

Happy Birthday to my MOM!

 

Tomorrow, 11-11-2008 my amazing mother, Susan Huey, will be celebrating her 56^th birthday. We were able to get together to celebrate her special day last night at The Cheesecake Factory in Dallas. We definitely stuffed ourselves on the delicious food. I even had leftovers today for lunch! They give portions that are just way too big!!! Somehow, Travis and Trent managed to finish their entire slice of cheesecake, too!

 

 

Dad bought mom a new Iphone and oddly enough Trent and I BOTH got mom accessories for her new Iphone. Travis and I got her a rubber case AKA “phone bra” and Trent and Kourtny got mom another type of carrying case for her to use when she is at Special Olympic track meets being the awesome coach that she is J

 

Mom, thank you for being such an incredible person. I look up to you for so many reasons. These are just a few: You are always putting others before yourself, you are a true woman of God, you love serving other people, you are a gift giver and always remember everybody’s birthdays, you are still in love with dad, like I imagine you were when you first met, you always have a smile on your face, you love all of our pets, you took time out of your schedule to go help Granddaddy every Wednesday with paying bills and spending time with him, you did an AMAZING job planning our wedding ( I still don’t know how you did it while working and were SO organized), you are an incredible teacher who has such a soft heart for autistic children, you love Special Olympics no matter how tired you might be after a long weekend away from home, you could spend every day at the beach just sitting under the rainbow umbrella reading a book, you have date night with Daddy every Friday.

 

I hope you have a very special birthday and know just how much we love you.

 

Thank you for being such a wonderful mom and role model to all of us!

 

 

Ouch!!

Travis went to the roping pen this afternoon and was bucked off our
horse. I immediately thought of a head injury or something pretty
serious.

I get a call from him at work asking me "what card do I use?". I kept
asking what card and he said medical ID card. I was freaking out, but
thankfully all we have is a dislocated finger.

2 Gross Hogs

These are thwnasty hogs we got in the trap. Unfortunately, the big
brown hog got out and Rusty took care of the little black one. Travis
and Rusty had him fir lunch...Gross!

Opening Weekend

Travis and I headed to Llano for the weekend to partake in opening weekend of deer season. I was able to leave work early on Friday which meant we got to town in time to eat dinner at Cooper's BBQ! It was a great start to a fun weekend.

We checked the trail camera to see who had been visiting us. Below you will see some pictures of our guests in Llano:

these hogs are cute, but very mean and bad for the ranch! we caught 2 in the hog trap, but one got out!!!

Unfortunately we didn't see anything good enough to shoot, but we heard about 13 shots around us for the weekend, so we know they are out there...

My sister in law, Kourtny, shot a 9 point buck at their ranch in Crawford!!!

It was a nice weekend in Llano with Travis and his parents. They joined us on Saturday morning. During the day on Saturday we watched College Football and listened to the Baylor game on the internet. It was a nice relaxing weekend...my favorite! Hopefully next time we'll be able to report that we got a deer!