Fancy Feast

Last Sunday my tummy was happy, oh yes it was!  

Ashlee and I decided to have an early Thanksgiving party at our place.  Neither of us had ever cooked a turkey before, so we knew we were in for an adventure.  Luckily our mom's have been cooking turkey's for years and helped us along the way.  

We went all out decorating the house-we think Martha Stewart would be proud.  We spray painted pumpkins and gourds gold, we had a million candles everywhere, white lights on the ceiling, good music, good food and most importantly good company-about 30 in total.  The evening was wonderful and for first time turkey cooks I would say we got an "A" on the assignment.

{Yes we pulled out the construction paper and had our guests make pilgrim hats and Indian head dresses-one is never too old for construction paper fun!}   

Hot drink, Sweet treat

I think I have mentioned before my weakness for the smell of coffee. Well since I am LDS and can't have coffee I like to substitute with other delicious hot drinks that I can have. I made a real yummy one the other day. I got gingerbread spice herbal tea, honey and some soy milk. Oh dear friends please do try it, you will just love the taste swirling around in your mouth. I just made some and am really enjoying it while I study and listen to Christmas music. Yes you heard that correctly Christmas music...I couldn't resist.

Family Pictures

A few weeks ago we took family pictures.  In true Santamaria fashion, the minute we got there it started raining as our photographer was telling us where to pose.  We took a couple pictures and then went to our cars to wait it out.  Luckily the rain stopped after about 20 minutes...feew!  

Here are some of my favorites.  I need your help.  My mom can't decide which one of these three she wants to put up over the fireplace mantel.  What do you think??

Today

Today I felt God's love for me.

Today I really enjoyed my morning jog, feeling the crisp air on my face, and hearing the leaves crunch beneath my feet.

Today I caught a vision of who I really want to be and where I'm going.

Today I gained a deeper appreciation for good friends.

Today I got super excited for my trip to Kauai...18 days and counting!

Today I said a little prayer in my heart for all those I love, that all will be well with them.

Today my mouth watered as I had thoughts of an amazing Thanksgiving feast...I love Thanksgiving food.

Today was a good day, because I made sure that it would be.

Autumn day in the park...

Happy Halloween

I know I am a grown up, but I still love dressing up. It's the funnest thing to be a new person for an evening. I totally got into my role as Pocahontus.

No worries me and my friends don't go trick-or-treating. We do know where to draw the line.

Happy Halloween and have a good weekend!

SpOoKy

October is the month of everything scary. Well I guess not everything is necessarily scary, pumpkins are cute right? But you know all that goes along with the Halloween spirit. Ghosts, witches, men in scary white masks. I actually love Halloween and all it entails. I've been getting into the spirit of it all as usual. Apparently so has my family. Let me tell you a spooky story.

Last week I went over to my parents house. I wanted to show my mom my sweater I got for our family photos on Saturday-to make sure it coordinated with the color scheme she had chosen.

I walk in the house, the lights are on. I yell, "Mom!" Nothing, not a sound.

I thought to myself, "Hmmm...Marta is going deaf, I should yell louder."

"MOM!!!"

Nothing.

So then I started yelling other names of family members.

Nothing.

I look down the basement stairs, it was dark. So I thought, "I bet she went on a walk."

I decided to warm up some food and wait for her. While warming up the food I hear very loud music coming from the basement. I look down the stairs and see the lights on and the computer on playing super loud music. At this point I was wondering if I was going crazy, because I could have sworn the lights were off a second ago.

I thought it was a fluke thing. So I run down the stairs turn the music off and lights off and run back upstairs to eat my food.

Two minutes later the music starts back up again and the lights are on again.

That's when I began to freak out a bit...okay actually a lot.

I called my brother Peter's cell phone. The convo went something like this.

"Peter where are you?"

"At the neighbors, why?"

"There is something freaky going on here at home, where's mom?"

"She's with me."

"Get home now, I am freaking out!"

At that point I hear two people coming up the stairs chuckling. Who else but my lovely mother and Peter. They were laughing and laughing and oh-so-proud of their prank achievement.

I could have killed them, but of course I had to laugh at the joke as well.

See everyone's getting into the Halloween spirit this year-including my 60 year old mom.

Well it started off the weekend on the right foot. Last Friday night I went to another spooky but amazing event, Thriller put on by the Odyssey Dance Company in Salt Lake. It was spectacular!

{These zombies were everywhere before the show, don't they look scary? They were, trust me.}