a long weekend of thanks

our entire thanksgiving weekend was stellar. i'm posting a few of my favorite pictures of abby (in all her adorable, dimple-y cuteness). i know that i really should have taken more photos, but i was so busy enjoying the wonderful company all weekend that it was hard to remember to pull the camera out. in any case, i plan to keep all the warm memories tucked away for safe-keeping.

we spent thursday with my family in the cleveland area, and then went down to columbus friday morning to visit with mike's relatives. both were wonderful gatherings, full of good food and lots of fun (and football). on saturday we went to visit mike's grandma for a bit, and then went to see "bolt" with his brother and his family. we left earlier today, and though i'm glad to be back home, i'm so grateful for having such wonderful people to share the holidays with! thank you to all! we're already looking forward to christmas, when we will get to see some of the people that couldn't be with us this weekend - and a chance to visit again with the ones that were! hurrah for holidays!

rollin' rollin' rollin'

i couldn't resist posting a photo of the buttercrust flake-aparts. they turned out quite nicely (if i do say so myself). thanksgiving is one of the few times that i have a reason to pull out grandma's pie board, and i always think of her when i use it. i love hand-me-downs!

on a roll

luckily for me (and the rest of the family), i'm not in charge of the thanksgiving meal. my contribution, as in years past, is to bring the bread. so far i've made marjorie's whole wheat rolls, cranberry nut muffins, and oatmeal buttermilk muffins. i'm saving the buttercrust flakeaparts for tomorrow morning because i always think they're best the first day (though they're plenty tasty the next day too).

29 weeks

...and 4 days of ninja baby. the belly pic, as requested.

mmm... chocolatey...

yesterday i worked on mint fondants. these are dark chocolate. the white frosting is to help me remember which flavor center it is. otherwise, i might have to make mike take bites out of each one to check for me. he did do a taste test for me though, and they were approved. unfortunately i'm already out of dark chocolate, and only about halfway through my mint centers. oh well... on to the milk chocolate, i guess!

candy by football-light

my activity during the ohio state/michigan game this afternoon was working on fondants. the reason for this activity: a couple of my co-workers have instigated a cookie exchange, and we're each responsible for making nine dozen of some tasty treat. this seemed like a good solution because 1) the aforementioned co-workers "suggested" candy - which i took as a request, 2) the recipe makes plenty to fill my quota, and 3) they will be by far the easiest thing to transport on the train to work.
so...we went to bj's today to buy our 4lb bag of confectioners sugar and made a special stop for flavoring and candy melts. i'm just making two flavors to begin with. the green is peppermint (i think this will have dark and milk chocolate coating) and the pink is raspberry (i think this will get the white coating, but maybe a little dark chocolate also). i also bought maple flavor, but i'm not sure if i have enough time to do more yet. i'm really hoping for some profits to bring to some other gatherings, but may end up making another batch if there aren't enough left and i've got time to spare.
i'm hoping to do the dipping and decorating tomorrow.

ps - the buckeyes won and i don't think they even needed me to wear my lucky underpants (though i did)

soft and white and fluffy and cold

we've been getting our first real (sticking) snow of the season today. i admit that i wasn't quite ready to trade in my lovely walking shoes for my extremely comfy (but much heavier) snow boots when taking my daily strolls, but it is awfully pretty (and totally better than the nasty, cold rain that preceeded it). i'm hoping we'll have plenty of the white stuff for when missy and her crew are up for christmas. i believe there has already been talk of shoveling and sledding, provided the weather cooperates. it would be nice to let oscar get some snowball-making practice in while he can, not to mention snowmen and snow dragons and snow forts!