Merry Christmas!!!

It actually snowed here in Dallas on Christmas Eve and so we woke up to a white Christmas in Dallas!! I think the newscaster said it was the first white Christmas in 80-some years! We had a relaxing and quiet day. We slept in, opened presents, made dinner and now I can't remember what we did... maybe watched a movie? In all, it was a nice relaxing weekend!

-Snow on the balcony

-Presents under out Christmas tree

-Joe roasted a goose!!

-Christmas dinner

-For dessert, we had the world's largest Reese's cup...

Merry Christmas!!!

Our Christmas tree!

And the wreathe I made from the branches they cut off the bottom of the tree at home depot:

Pecan picking!

The weekend of Thanksgiving, Jill, Christine, Joe and I went for an adventure picking the state nut of Texas... the pecan!

Basically, we went to a pecan farm, where this family has about 10 acres of land in front and behind of their house, to pick pecans. It was a little drizzly in the morning, but not too bad. Thankfully we went in the morning, because it was really raining by 2pm.

Out in the orchard:

Joe cracking shells:

Finally convinced Joe to take a picture of me with the pecans:

Of course, an artsy photo:

Hopefully pictures of the Christmas tree and my wreathe tomorrow! (or the next day)

It snowed in Dallas...how crazy!

On December 2nd (Happy Birthday Linda!), we woke up to big wet snowflakes! It was so awesome to see, but sadly they didn't stick since the ground was too warm.... maybe next time!

Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving, I ordered a heritage turkey, which is more like a wild turkey and wasn't bred/genetically engineered to have massive breasts. Pickup was at an organic farmer's market out in the suburbs, but when I got there, it turned out that the farmer's market was actually just a tent set up in the yard of a farm. But it was awesome, because there were chickens and guinea fowl running around the yard and let me get super close to them.

As I've done the last two Thanksgivings, I again brined the turkey for a day. Here it is drying before getting dressed and ready to go into the oven:

and getting dressed in a layer of butter and cheesecloth:

all done! :

getting carved up by Joe:

Our dinner guests, Pierre and Genevieve with Joe:Dinner table all set and ready to be served:

It's already November! Pt 3: Halloween #2- Christine & Anthony's party

boo, boo!! On Halloween, Christine and Anthony threw a joint 'housewarming/going-away party'.

-My pumpkin this year!

-Will(emina) and Joe

-Joe, the hippie, and I'm the she-devil

-Michael Vick, Easy Rider, and a witch

-GI Joe

-Bobbing for apples

It's already November! Pt 3: Halloween #1- Cedar Springs Block Party

boo! The weekend before Halloween, the gay and lesbian community annually throws a huge halloween block party. We hung out at Brenda's house, before walking over to the block party.

-Joe and I are hippies... yes, it's my same costume from 2 years ago

-Ingrid, Christine and Joe
-Bananas in Pyjamas, Jill & Anthony

-Innapropriate behavior from the Banana(r)s

At the block party, we saw all kinds of costumes: big and small; funny and serious; appropriate and only appropriate for the LGBT community...those I'll post only on flickr at some point, since they're not really appropriate for the faint of heart ;)

-somebody seriously owns an awesome Big Bird costume
-A couple dressed up as Sloth & Chunk from Goonies

-Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep (who also managed to shave their chests and legs)
-Not sure what these are....dalmatians or cows?...but I do think they're all men

It's already November! Pt 2: Arboretum

Joe and I joined the Dallas Arboretum and went a couple weekends ago with our Aussie friends, Jill and Anthony. It was an amazing day for their fall pumpkin festival, so we decided to go buy some picnic food and hang out at the Arboretum. The trees weren't too exciting, but there are also some flowers that were photo worthy, so I had a chance to play with my camera again, which I haven't been able to do in a while.

-Picnic lunch on the first good sledding hill I've seen in Dallas

-In the pumpkin patch

-Joe in the pumpkin house

-Neat backlighting from the sun through the veins of this leaf

-There was a huge expanse of butterfly bushes in the middle of the arboretum. Check out the bee in mid-air, top left.-My favorite and current desktop background!

It's already November! Pt 1: PA trip home

I swear the second half of this year is just flying by. The next thing you know, it'll be my birthday again and that is scary! Joe and I have been super busy at work and super busy every weekend in October. Earlier in the month, we flew to PA to see the families and some Swiss friends who were in Pittsburgh for a conference.

-At the new Hofbrauhaus restaurant in Pittsburgh with my mom. She was so excited to go, even if it wasn't the original in Munich.

-At the conference dinner in the Heinz History Museum with Jen and Susan
-Adrian playing goalie in the sports section of the museum

We also greatly enjoyed the fall colors on the drives between Pittsburgh and Milton. These were all taken out of the car going 60 mph, so there's some glare and blurriness.

And we got to meet baby Christian, Lance & Darlene's awesomely relaxed little guy. He was such a ham as soon as he saw the camera.

-Lance & Joe with a next generation Weis softball all-star player