family

With Thanksgiving passed, I want to say I am thankful for family. I have been blessed with grandparents who live across the street and aunts and uncles who I grew up with taking me out on dates. I may say I wish I had a big family, but truly I wouldn't trade my family for the world. I am lucky we are small enough to be close and big enough to fill a dining table. And Thanksgiving only reinforced my love for them and family gatherings.

Here are a few photos from our fun Thanksgiving.

 

Half the spread...
My parents destuffing and carving the Turkey.
"The kids" chipping in on helping with the dishes.
My grandmere and I. I can't tell you how much I love her. 

photo of the day

So I've never done a photo of the day before, but I really wanted to post one today. This is one of my favorites from Chicago. I don't even know why I love it so much, but to me it's very prettiful. And yes, I am well aware that is not a word. :)

Have a lovely day!

out of town...

The last few weeks were a bit of a daze and I finally have landed back on my feet after giving myself a few nights of rest this week. But in more exciting news, the reason they were a daze was because I was out of town, first for my ISF retreat which I hope to write more about and second — I went on vacation! Better yet, I went to Chicago and visited one of my best friends. Here's a photo teaser, and I'll be back with more to say, especially in photos.

the cake

My Dad turned 60 years old on Halloween. He doesn't act or look like a sixty year-old in my opinion, but I knew he should at least have the kind of cake grand enough for a sixtieth year birthday, so I searched and Deb from Smitten Kitchen as usual had the perfect cake - Chocolate Butter Cake with Raspberry Filling and Bittersweet Brandied Ganache. If your mouth isn't watering already, here are some delicious photos of the baking process and finished highly acclaimed (by birthday party attendees & my Dad himself) finished product, pretty much the best chocolate cake I've tasted in a long time.



I affectionately call this cake dust, which often occurs when you press mix without patting the flour, sugar down a bit. Oops.


The recipe called for a cup of freshly brewed coffee so of course I used it as an excuse to go to Starbucks - a cup for the cake & a cup for me.






So I really wanted to decorate the cake, but I began to run out of time and my attempt to move the cake from my "frosting board" to cake platter wasn't looking too successful so I ended up just decorating the frosting board. Good learning experience?!?

oh my starbucks

And the holiday season has officially begun. Starbucks Christmas cups are out and I was overjoyed when I got mine this morning. Lovely red cup, how I love you. And the theme this year, Wish, is quite bright and nice.