Thanksgiving. Bird Watching. Bread Baking. Sewing. Snow. Cookie Making.

It’s been quite a couple of weeks around here, what with finals and the beginning of the holidays…
But my second to last semester is finished, and I can spend the next month being creative, and dangit I’m jumping in head first!
My husband and I celebrated our fourth anniversary the day before Thanksgiving and I was thrilled to have him up here for an entire week.  It’s hard living in separate cities, but it’s only six or seven more months and I’ll be able to move down there…
My sister and her family came to visit for a week during Thanksgiving and we had such an amazing time.  They are a beautiful, incredible family and I am so proud that they are part of ours.
For Jason’s and my anniversary, which is always the day before Thanksgiving (whatever day that falls on), we had a wonderful dinner – yes, we like any excuse to eat!

For Thanksgiving, Mom and Suvetta put out the good linen and dishes, we all pitched in with the cooking, and it was absolutely lovely…

The other day, just as the weather was turning, the birds came out in full force.  I throw seed on the ground just outside my french doors so I can get a close look (and to entertain Godfrey), so I planted my butt on the floor with the camera and tried to get some shots.  None came out terribly well – I need a better camera for that – but I thought these were rather pretty:
Red Bellied Woodpecker…

Tufted Titmice…

Black Capped Chickadee…

There are two things that I’m really excited about now – one, I am back in the studio sewing.  No pictures of current projects, but I’ll tell you that I’m working on a fitting block dress.  I’ll explain more when I post pictures.
The other thing is that I’m back in the kitchen.  Yesterday I started a loaf of sandwich bread using Michael Ruhlman’s recipe from his blog.  Mom baked it last night, and I’m about to tear into it for lunch. Reviews to come!

Then today after I came home from work I made chocolate chip cookie dough which will rest in the fridge for a day or two before being baked.  I also made some spritz cookies with the cookie press – now I just need to glaze them…

I also have cut-out cookie dough in the fridge and will probably bake those tomorrow. Yes, it’s cookie time – we’re getting ready to make our gift baskets.  What a great excuse, huh? 
I almost forgot something huge – an extremely generous coworker and avid deer hunter gave me an entire deer, skinned, gutted and moderately butchered.  It was unbelievable!  Beautiful, beautiful meat that Mom and I spent several hours finishing and vacuum sealing. We made a roast that night which Mom and Bill didn’t care for, but I absolutely *loved*.  It was incredibly mild, but I guess they don’t like venison at all.  No problem – Jason and I will enjoy it, and we won’t have to buy any red meat for at least a year.  Now *that’s* the way to do it.
To top everything off, I woke up to snow this morning – a beautiful white blanket of snow…

Anyway, aside from my stress over finals, it’s been a lovely couple of weeks. 
Now on to our regularly scheduled program…