First Turkey + Go Buckeyes

It's hard to believe, but this Thanksgiving was the first time that Todd and I made a turkey from scratch at home. We've been married for, well, a long time. But we spent Thanksgiving at Todd's parents house when we lived in Ohio. In California, up until four years ago, we spent Thanksgiving at my parents' house. After my mom died, Thanksgiving wasn't the same. My dad often traveled overseas during Nov/Dec, so it was just me and Todd. We were too lazy to cook a whole Thanksgiving turkey meal for just the two of us.

This year, was different. My dad and Shelly were coming for Thanksgiving. A few days before Thanksgiving, Todd and I watched the Thanksgiving Feast Throwdown between Bobby Flay and The Pioneer Woman on the Food Network. We decided to make our own turkey from scratch, using Bobby Flay's Herb Roasted Turkey Recipe, mainly because it looked easy. We also made garlic mashed potatoes, pumpkin muffins, and Bobby Flay's Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranates and Vanilla-Pecan Butter.

Dad and Shelly arrived Thursday around 11:30am.


For lunch, we had homemade fried rice and my famous homemade cream of mushroom soup. I forgot to take a photo.

After a walk at a park near our house, it was time to get cooking for dinner.

Lovely turkey before preparation.


Todd rubbing the homemade herb butter on the turkey.


Beautiful turkey out of the oven.




Carved up turkey.


My roasted brussels sprouts with pomegranate and vanilla butter.


Garlic mashed potatoes and sage gravy.


After dinner we cleaned up, then watched "Toy Story 3" together. It was awesome! I cried at a couple of different points in the movie. Yes, I cry at animated movies and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

The other days this weekend were fantastic too. But what was Todd most excited about? His Coach Tressel sweater vest shirt, and the Ohio State Buckeyes beating the Michigan Wolverines 37-7 yesterday. This was the 7th year in a row we've beat our rival Michigan! Yaaaaaaay!

Under The Tree + Winner Announced!

I'm excited to let you know that my holiday kit, Under The Tree, has been released at both my Listgirl Designs and Little Dreamer Designs stores! I worked on this kit for a while. (A lot of times listening to my favorite holiday music!)  I'm particularly fond of some of the hand-drawn elements in there.

(LGD | LDD)


A more detailed view of the papers:


And the included word art:



I also released a separate coordinating alpha called "Berry Twig".
(LGD | LDD)


Both products are on sale for 20% off at both my stores until this Friday, 11/26.  

For a limited time only, my newsletter subscribers will receive a discount code to get "Berry Twig", the coordinating alpha set for free, with the purchase of "Under The Tree". Just add both items to your cart and input the coupon code upon checkout. Not yet a Listgirl Designs newsletter subscriber? You can subscribe here!

The winner of my "Under The Tree" giveaway is:





Congratulations, Side by Side! Please email me at listgirldesigns (at) gmail (dot) com to redeem your prize!

Sneak Peek & Giveaway: Under The Tree

It seems that I've been a busy little bee lately... or in this case, maybe Santa's helper is more appropriate... I thought my designing muscles have atrophied or something, so I picked up my drawing pen (of the digital kind) and started creating again. I was inspired by the colors in some photos of holiday cookies on Flickr. Leave it to me to be inspired by cookies! :p I was also inspired by the magic of waking up Christmas morning and finding the gifts under the tree.



You can enter for a chance to win this digital scrapbooking kit by leaving a comment here in this post from now until Monday 11/22 at noon Pacific time. If you post about it on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog, you can come back and create separate comments with links to your posts. That way you have more chances to win!

I will announce the winner of "Under The Tree" on Tuesday, November 23rd, when the kit goes live in both my Listgirl Designs and Little Dream Designs stores. :)

*Comments are now closed.  Winner will be announced later tonight!*

Oh Yes He Did!

Have you ever heard of the Krispie Kreme Challenge?  It originated in North Carolina in 2004.  Well, we've got our own here in San Diego:  Krispie Kreme Challenge West.  It's not nearly as big as the one in North Carolina, where the Krispy Kreme doughnut was invented.  But it's here in San Diego.

Sometime during the day on Friday, Todd excitedly IM'ed me and said he just found out that there's a Krispy Kreme Challange in San Diego the next day, Saturday.  However, registration had already closed.  He was sad, but he emailed the race organizer anyways, hoping he could still get in.  Lo and behold, they let him in!  He was SO excited, LOL!  All he had to do was bring an unwrapped new toy (to benefit Toys For Tots) and $10 registration fee (to cover the dozen donuts) on Saturday morning.  So Friday night we went to World Market and bought a toy to bring to the event.

On Saturday morning, we got up around 6:15am so that we could make it to the 7:30am Krispy Kreme Challenge West start.  The race took place at Hospitality Point at Mission Bay.  What did the race consist of, you ask?  You run 2 miles, then you eat one dozen Krispy Kreme donuts, then you run another 2 miles!  That's the classic division.  If you enter the "Doughnut Man" division, you have to run 2 miles, eat a dozen donuts, run 2 miles, eat a second dozen of donuts, then run 2 miles to finish.  Only 3-4 guys entered into the Doughnut Man division, and Todd was not one of them.

Upon arrival, Todd picked up his "bib" number.  Well what do you know?  It also doubles as a barf bag!  :p


Officially, entrant #28 of the Krispy Kreme Challenge West!


Boxes upon boxes of dozens of Krispie Kreme donuts, waiting for the race participants to eat them.


The start of the race.  The race organizer gave a pep talk, which included a count of the amazing cast of participants.  Among them are some 100 and 150 mile ultra-marathoners, and one guy who has done EVERY SINGLE Ironman Triathlon in the world!


More pep talk. 


And the race starts!


Todd still looking energetic and happy.


Todd finished the first mile with a time of 7:46.


Some of the fast runners already got their donuts and started eating.  The area with the pink tape is the donut corral, LOL.


Todd finished 2 miles and got his dozen donuts.



The first couple of donuts tasted good, he was hungry!


Nom nom nom... a donut Todd Shot!


Halfway done... 6 donuts left!


Go Todd go!


The last four donuts were the hardest.  By now he's hating donuts.


Forcing the donuts down.


Only one more bite left!


Yes, for the win!


Todd turned his empty box in and started running again.


It took him over 16 minutes to eat a dozen donuts.  Kobayashi he was not!


Here's one of the men who entered the Doughnut Man division, and he's eating his SECOND dozen of donuts!


Todd finished the 3rd mile!


And finally, he's done!  And he didn't even throw up!  So happy!  Way to go, Todd!


I took this a few seconds after he finished.  Todd's offical finish time was 48:32.


Here were the top three finishers.  The guy with the sheep outfit was the overall winner.  He finished in 31 minutes.


From left to right:  top male finisher (and overall), top female finisher, and top under-18 finisher.


A happy Todd after the finish.  What a fun race and what a feat to complete!

Chargers vs Patriots

A week after we got back from Wisconsin, we went to the San Diego Chargers vs New England Patriots game on Sunday, 10/24. We had gotten tickets months ago. The previous week it was raining here the entire week, but it cleared up on Sunday just in time for the game!

The major attraction of going to one game every year is to tailgate with Lee, my friend from work. He puts on the BEST Chargers tailgates! My favorite is his marinated grilled chicken wings. Many have asked for his recipe, but Lee is very tight-lipped about it, LOL. I look forward to his chicken wings every year!



Todd in front of the large food table. Everyone brought something to share.


Lots of awesome sweets.




Todd made his famous homemade caramel popcorn (recipe here).

There were a couple of excited people who flocked to his popcorn, heh heh.

Lee took a photo of us in front of the stadium.


Flag and national anthem before the game.


Chargers getting ready to start on offense.


More shots during the game.




Tom Brady getting ready to snap the ball.


Charger girls.


Some of the Patriots heading into the locker room at half time.


The Chargers ended up losing to the Patriots 23-20. We left a little bit early to beat the traffic out of the stadium. It was fun to see a game with the tailgating crew again this year!