November was busy too

In November, I won tickets for Kent and me to attend a gala for the Veterans Community Project. We bid on tickets for the Hip Hop Nutcracker and kept bidding long enough to get the tickets. We also bought a slew of raffle tickets for a quilt—there were several quilts, but I was only interested in the one you see here. Yes, we won the quilt too.

And we made our last trip to Yuma for Thanksgiving. We knew we were going to go for a hike so I (finally) replaced my hiking boots. Dad had bought me an amazing pair years ago, but they were destroyed when we flooded in Boston. These are the same brand, although not quite as nice.

Alison has taught herself acrobatics and flexibility moves. She is truly a pretzel (and didn’t get that from me, that’s for sure).

Kent, Ben and Jordan finally finished out their customized game of Risk Legacy. Jordan got that a couple of years ago and as you play, you settle the rules, and there are only so many games you can play until the board is full. This was the final year. Kent says it was a really great gift and I know he’s enjoyed playing it with Jordan and Ben.

We had our usual amazing food for Thanksgiving, made even more amazing by the fact that Ben and Jen and the family were moving to California the very next week. So we enjoyed the food, the fire pit, seeing all my family together again, and especially enjoying having Amanda as our daughter-in-law now. It was a great trip.

We got back late the Saturday after Thanksgiving, just in time for the blizzard the very next day. Yes, a real blizzard. But things cleared up enough for us to go to that Hip Hop Nutcracker I mentioned earlier—and it was amazing!

October

I’m sure glad I take photos with my phone—it helps me remember what the heck I did.

In October, Kent and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. We had dinner at Freshwater, which is in Midtown. We opted for their tasting menu with wine pairing, and enjoyed it very much.

Also in October, I did what I do every few years and got a make up do over. I like to do that periodically because I think it’s easy to fall in a rut and then look dated. If you’re going to wear make up (and I am), then why not stay current?

Toward the end of October, Kent and I went to Choir Bar with a friend. He and I had dinner first at Le Fou Frog, which was good but too rich for my tummy. If you’re not familiar with Choir Bar, you can read about it here.

Since that session was the Friday before Halloween, people were encouraged to wear costumes. Kent went as a cow, and I went as Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction sans the hypodermic needle in the chest. Much to our surprise, we had a ton of fun. Here’s the video from that evening. Honestly the only downside was that we both had that song in our heads for weeks.

Then on the actual day of Halloween, a co-worker and I dressed the same on purpose. Even though we don’t really look like each other all that much, we get called by each other’s names, so we thought it would be hilarious to dress alike.

Kent made an amazing butternut squash recipe for dinner—the butternut squash “steak” is sautéed in butter, sage and a little bit of garlic and is absolutely incredible.

I resolutely did not observe the 9th anniversary of us getting flooded in Boston. But I remembered.

Finally, we both voted early and (yay!) some of our candidates won.