Thanksgiving is typically a holiday of overindulgence. You
eat way too much food or way too many pieces of pie. You hang out with your
family way too much. It’s not supposed to be a holiday of discipline, but this
time, for us, it was a mix of excess and exercise.
Cold birds aside, Jason completed his race like a natural.
Jason and I have served as running coaches for our nephew since last August. He took on the ambitious goal of completing his first half marathon for a school class. That race, the Thankful 13, took place Thanksgiving morning. Although he was not always a consistent trainer and was sick the day of the race, he finished strong around 2:47. Jason also entered this half marathon; he pretty much did it cold turkey. (Yes, pun intended.) He finished in 1:50 at an 8:26/mile pace. I did the 5K and probably didn’t even burn the caloric equivalent of one of the many Magleby’s rolls I ate with my holiday meal; it was kind of a one-bun run.
It’s impossible not to smile after the completion of a long race, unless your mouth is otherwise occupied with vomiting.I only ran a 5K, so this victory shot may be more like a cheap shot.
Speaking of feasting, Jason’s family got together the
weekend before Thanksgiving, which made the holiday less stuffed for us both
literally and metaphorically. We were able to go to my family’s without any consumption
conflicts. My family’s gathering was sadly small this year. Siblings and their
families were on vacation, sick, or exiling themselves by choice. Still, the
small group present ate enough food to fill the gap.
The Sabin clan assembled rowdily the week before Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving provides a terrific excuse to bake fabulous things
that are too sinful and/or time-consuming to justify cooking otherwise. This time,
Jason and I made honeyed yogurt pumpkin pie with pistachio-coconut streusel and
a pumpkin pull-apart loaf from scratch and bought a marzipan cake from Gourmandise.
The cake was our nephew’s requested treat for completing his race. Even with the
heaps of cuisine available on Thanksgiving, our overeating didn’t set in until
afterwards. We consumed way too many leftover-turkey pot pies in the week
following the holiday, an easy undertaking when homemade crusts are involved.
We made a honeyed yogurt pumpkin pie with pistachio-coconut streusel. It was as good as its fancy name suggests.
Thanksgiving kept us running around and eating around but in the intentional sort of way. Praise be to dessert and dashing!
Our Halloween party just hit its 19th year. It’s
almost all grown up and ready to move into our basement… oh wait, that already
happened. Since we’ve thrown this shindig for nearly two decades, Jason and I
have the pattern down. We know when to start dragging out our masses of decorations,
and we also know we will have to use a steam vacuum on at least a few spots of
carpet afterward. Yet, like any loony endeavor, this bash still possesses flashes
of the unexpected. This year, we didn’t anticipate the overwhelming amount of
time it would take to conjure magical party favors, crafts, and catering, a
miscalculation that resulted in ocular convulsions and persistent ascents. Allow
me to share the twinge-worthy details.
Cornish pixies, a Demiguise, and all manner of magical creatures congregated in our parlor. We love when party guests steal into character.
We opted to do a Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts theme this
year. Although we did a Harry Potter motif last year, it was kind of a last-minute
decision. This time, we made it a mid-minute decision and went all in. I loved
the continuity the theme provided, but that connection did cost a spell. Being a fan of the
wizarding world, I got a little too absorbed in the enchantment I could summon through
details from Harry’s universe.
These matchbox suitcases were handmade in the UK and contained fantastic beasts. They were probably my favorite favor component this year.Another favor featured wands, wand permits, and Hogwarts Express tickets. Proper documentation is imperative after all.
Custom decorations, like a handmade Dementor, were just the
beginning of the magical madness. I assembled 79 party favors of six different
varieties. Everything from wands to fantastic creatures was included in these
charmed takeaways. In the end, only three of the 79 didn’t go home with a witch
or wizard. As if that mound of mystical trinkets wasn’t enough, I also conjured,
as a bonus, personalized gifts for the “VIP” children that have consistently come
to our bash for years.
With the right toiletries, one can bathe like a prefect.We ordered enough Advanced Wizard Potions from The Truffle Cottage to fill Snape’s storeroom. They were yet another favor possibility.
There were nine different crafts available to attendees this
year, most of them Harry Potter related. Ingredients for everything from Deathly-Hallows
house bracelets, mini spell books, wand boxes, and potion journals were offered
for the making. Finding templates for these crafts, getting the necessary
supplies and prints, and fashioning examples required a heft of effort and time.
Drat you Harry Potter for having so many darling DIYs!
Jason was such a convincing Newt, I did a double take a few times.
Just how crazy was I with crafts and favors this year? Well,
on Etsy alone, one of my favorite sites for unique handmade pieces, I bought 52
different types of items from 30 distinct sellers. As in, the Harry Potter mask
I purchased three dozen of was just one of those 52 items. The total number of objects
procured was well into the hundreds. And then, there was all that stuff that
came from Oriental Trading… someone Imperio me!
A Niffler’s naughtiness produced my favorite nook this year.We ministered some magic by covering our walls in a dozen proclamations and around 50 wanted posters.
In an atypical bout of organization, Jason created an Excel
document to manage party tasks this year. It had 78 to-dos on it, but it didn’t
cover everything. Despite Jason’s uncharacteristic coordination, we got a
little behind on necessary assignments in the days leading up to the event,
more so than any other year in the recent past. This can mostly be blamed on my
self-inflicted craft and favor overload. Seriously, why are there so many possible Potter projects out
there? According to my Fitbit, I climbed 130 flights of stairs in the 48 hours
before our party. Was I hiking a mountain? No, I was decorating and setting up magical
merriment. Somewhere in those 130 flights, my right eyelid started twitching. By
the day prior to our party, that spasm became constant. Give me a break eye! Tina
Goldstein’s eyes don’t twitch! That’s not part of the costume!
No awkward fanfiction moments here- unlike when we dress as Frodo and Aragorn.
Yes, Jason and I dressed to match the motif this year. Jason
made a terrific Newt Scamander, dare I say fantastic? He got his hair cut and curled
so his tresses would look their bestest. Not only did he impeccably look the
part, but he also acted the part, “forgetting” his suitcase frequently for
others to find. Being Tina was somehow appropriate for me. I’m uptight but
still likeable, right? Although Jason and I don’t include ourselves in the
costume contest at our shindig, Jason won first place at his office’s costume
competition.
Our mantel embellishments this year were the Muggle-born offspring of two brains, Jason’s and mine.Catering for our event included Butterbeer cupcakes, Golden Snitch pops, chocolate wands, Goldstein’s hotdogs, pumpkin cheesecakes, and Queenie’s apple strudel. Although imaginative, some fares fared better than others in the taste department.
How did the party itself go? We had 90 attendees this year,
a record we weren’t trying to hit. How did 90 bodies fit inside our modest
home? I have no idea. There were some magical moments that night. I heard a
little kid excitedly tell another kid, “They have a swamp! Come see the swamp.”
I saw newcomers eagerly taking pictures of decorations. I laughed at a group of
tweens acting terribly tough as they tried to take down the piñata. One of my
nieces asked me, “How long did it take you to do this? It seems like it would
take a really long time.” She was right, and I appreciated the appreciation. It’s
the little moments like these that justify the immense effort involved.
We weren’t the only ones feeling charmed this year.My brother had the excellent idea of transforming this skeleton into a Hogwarts student. He did not have the similarly-excellent idea of finishing what he started.
Once again, our Halloween get-together was a beast. Many
thanks to the friends and family members that selflessly helped us turn it into
a fantastic beast and to the Halloween enthusiasts that joined us. Incidentally,
my eye stopped twitching after about two weeks, and Jason hasn’t curled his
locks in a couple months.
Mwahahaha! Oh, the horror of Halloween! Too many entertaining fall activities and too little time! (See my next post if you don’t understand the basis of that scarcity.) Temporal constraints notwithstanding, fall activities, oddly enough, can only be enjoyed in the fall. You’ve got to carve when the pumpkin is bought, so carve we did.
A dragon puffed smoke into the Forbidden Pumpkin City.
We checked out Pumpkin Nights at the Utah State Fairpark. Pumpkin Nights was a gourd paradise with seven themed lands featuring over 3,000 carved pumpkins. The photo opportunities were plentiful, and staff members were on hand to render awkward selfies unnecessary. We had a bewitching time dipping under the sea and squirming through massive spiderwebs. Who knew aquatic dwellers and arachnids are all part of the squash family?
Evermore was also jacked.
On another weekend, we invited our nieces and nephews to come to Evermore Park with us as a Halloween gift. Evermore is a one-of-a-kind, interactive experience that just opened in September. Its story and setting change with the seasons. Crypt vampires, leaf monsters, Victorian ghosts, cannibal witches, and dark curses all materialized in the park’s autumn haunt. Our evening was teeming with sundry screams and shrieks of laughter. Many of us became squires of the realm and got to fire the town’s cannon accordingly. Fantastic!
Per tradition, Jason and I made a menacing Halloween meal together. This time, it consisted of ghoulish chowder and monster claws.
No matter how much madness our Halloween party brews, we always manage to make room for a few more fall spooks.
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