Touring DC with the Schwabs

Julie, Austin and Caleb came up Thanksgiving night to spend some time with me and to see some of the sights of DC. It was so great to have them here! We got to go and see Mt Vernon on Friday, which was great because they had just decorated for Christmas. Unfortunately the weather was not that great and we ended up having to wait in line in the rain, hail and bitter cold wind, of course it was sunny when we got there so I left my jacket in the car, not smart!

That night we practiced our culinary skills and cooked a turkey for the first time, it took awhile but it eventually cooked and it was so delicious! On Friday we got up and made a terrific pancake breakfast and then headed out for more adventure. We first went to the US Capitol and walked around a little bit outside, then we walked over to the Air and Space Museum and hung out there for awhile. We took a quick break for turkey sandwiches and then explored the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials. It was still a little cold but not too bad. On our way back to the car we also made a quick stop at the Albert Einstein statue. It was great to spend a few days with Julie and her family, so fun!!

Amazing Thanksgiving Dinner

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family and although I missed being with my family this year, I still had a fabulous Thanksgiving. A couple of guys in my ward hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at their house and it was incredible!! The set up was beautiful, the food was delicious and the company was terrific! I was in charge of bringing the rolls and the pumpkin pies for the occasion, they weren't as good as mom's, but they turned out ok. There were about 14 of us there, and I only knew about half of them when I got there, but it was so great to meet everyone else-including Artie who is the nice old man from up the street who was home by himself for Thanksgiving-he never lacked for anything to say, even during the blessing on the food! :)

Donut Extravaganza!!

Sunday night we celebrated two birthdays for girls in my ward. What better way to celebrate than with homemade donuts? I made two batches of dough and covered the kitchen table with cutout donuts. I underestimated how long it would take me to fry all 81 donuts, plus about twenty or so holes. I only have a small deep fryer and could only cook two at a time! What I thought would take me an hour or so ended up taking almost three! We had the party at my friend Melissa's house and I ended up taking my fryer, glaze and donut dough over to her house so that we could finish cooking them there for the party. It worked out pretty well because then everyone could have fresh hot donuts. I had a wonderful time visiting with people in the kitchen and I think that everyone seemed to enjoy their donuts, even if they had to wait a bit!

My friend Jake helped me fry the donuts.

Pre-Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl

This morning the Colonial First Ward (my ward) took on the Colonial Second Ward in the annual Turkey Bowl. In lieu of this event we sisters got together early for a Relief Society 'meeting' and worked on our football skills. We had some fellow brethren there to instruct us on rules and techniques. While it was very helpful at the time I will admit that when I was in the heat of the moment I didn't think 'hmmm...should I curl or should I blitz?' I basically thought, just run away from the other team. We had enough people from our ward show up to make three teams and still add onto the Colonial Second Ward's team, who only had a few people show up. We had a great time playing though. What a great way to kick off the week before Thanksgiving!

This is a picture of my team, go Gators!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh my!

So yesterday was a fun and eventful day. One of the things I got to do was go to the DC Zoo with some friends. We parked the car a few blocks away and decided to take the 'shortcut' through the gate that suggested 'pedestrians prohibited'. We split in half to see which way really was faster, and although the shortcut lost, we did get to experience a lovely trail covered in beautiful fall leaves along the way. The zoo here has lots of unique animals to see and we even got to see some of them do some crazy stuff. In the reptile center we saw a legless lizard (looked like a snake) attacking another one. It had blood on its mouth and the other lizard didn't ever move again, I like to think that it was just resting after the attack. Moving on to the elephants. There were two elephants that were separated from each other and one of them was going nuts, it made the loudest noises (which actually sounded like the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park), and then it kept trying to kick the metal door in. We got to see a mother ape with her baby, which was so cute, it acted a lot like a normal toddler. At one point the mother grabbed her by the arm and through her over her back and took her inside, I assume that either was either nap time or she needed to go to time-out. So all in all, it was a great afternoon spent at the zoo.

Happy Halloween!!!

So for Halloween some friends from my ward and I dressed up as characters from the board game, Candyland. I couldn't believe how much fun it was. I think that themed costumes are the best! My character was 'Mr Mint'. I went to two Goodwill's and couldn't really find what I was looking for, I wish we had a DI out here. I ended up going to Target and I found a pair of red and white striped pajama pants and a scarf. I wanted to find a big candy cane to add as an accessory but there was none to be found. Instead I got a shower curtain rod and wrapped some red electrical tape around it. I thought the whole ensemble turned out pretty well (although someone did ask me if I was the North Pole...who dresses up as the North Pole? Maybe that can be next years costume). Everyone in our group looked great in their costumes! We went to a big barn dance up in Maryland for all the single folks in the DC area, it was huge! I had a lot of fun!

Candy Corn Cookies

These are the cookies that I made for a Halloween party. I cut sugar cookie dough (which I colored orange) out in the shape of triangles (I didn't have a cookie cutter so I made one using some heavy cardstock). I baked the cookies and then dipped the big end in chocolate and let that harden. Then I dipped the pointy end in white chocolate and let that harden as well. It was a fun little festive treat!

Pumpkin Custard

On Saturday afternoon Jenny and I went to The Dairy Godmother for some traditional pumpkin custard. Oh my goodness, it was SO delicious!! The Dairy Godmother is a cute little parlor where you can get custard, sorbet, cookies, brownies, etc. They are always rotating their flavors and for Halloween they made pumpkin custard. I savored every single bite of it! Mmmmmm...