Every year since we got engaged, Ray and I have hosted Thanksgiving for our family at our house.  This is year number seven, and over time our numbers have increased.  Last year our good friend Tonya announced that she wouldn't be making it home to Seattle for Thanksgiving, but in fact would also be hosting a pair of cousins who were attending schools on the East Coast.  As always, the more the merrier, so we invited them to join us.  This year, Tonya's two cousins turned into three cousins, plus we had a pair of Champlain students (who Ray works with at the EMC) who also had no home for turkey day.  The irony of Thanksgiving for us is that I don't eat turkey, and Ray is allergic to it.  So while he makes a wonderful meal, we have a ton of leftovers that we can't do anything with.  Tonya and her Hoffman cousins have become our dependable leftover handlers!

Unfortunately, the McCarthy side of the clan was unable to make it.  My brother and his girlfriend, Katie, hosted turkey day in their first (solo) apartment together, and my folks headed out there.  While we missed the four of them, we fully understood how long the trip was, and we know we'll see them for Christmas!

Thanksgiving is probably Ray's favorite holiday, and he spends days (and weeks) planning the menu and cooking.  And he creates quite the feast!  First, thing out of the oven this morning was a lovely apple pie.  It was so lovely, it didn't look real!  Fortunately, it turned out just as yummy as it looks! 

The only real rule on Thanksgiving is that no one is allowed in the kitchen but Ray (and very occassionally me, if something needs to be dished up and brought to the table).  Here is Ray threatening me with the sprayer to stay out of his kitchen!

The other Thanksigiving tradition in our house is football!  The Cowboys always play on Thanksgiving, so we plan dinner and dessert around kick off.  In another ironic twist, this year the Cowboys were playing the Seahawks!  Tonya and her Washingtonian cousins wore there team colors, and were great football company!  Fortunately, the 'Boys pulled out a victory, but here's a shot of Liz, Tonya and Christopher watching the game.

  (Thanks for the two pictures Tonya!)

And Andrew (Tonya's other cousin) sitting with Rafi and Dan, the Champlain students.

All-in-all it was a great day, the company was excellent and the food was even better!

This is kind of a late post for Halloween, but I had some great photos to share and some time to quickly document the day.

So I walked into the quiet EMC, dressed as Rick Astley, ready to rick-roll the students.  We have a TV at the center that I tapped into from my computer at my desk, however, after playing the youtube video once, the computer kicked the bucket.  I guess it didn't appreciate being rick-rolled.  However, I found another way about it and got the video to play really loud and after several students entered the workplace, the rickrolling began! 

Why did I dress as Rick Astley and rick-roll people?  Well, the office came up with the idea to dress up as internet-mimes:

...Ken Howell as Chuck Norris...

...Sarah Jerger as the hamster of "The Hamster Dance"...

...Ann DeMarle as an lolcat...

...and I dressed as Rick (as mentioned before)

Oh yeah, that photo above of me was a shot of me rick-rollin' the whole dining hall at the college (twice)!!! 

On a completely different tangent, this is one of the reasons why I love working with the students we have at the center... 

 

Back on subject, as the day continued to pass, some other students started to appear, dressed up as well:

Look familiar?  That's not me, that's Dan dressing up as me!  I docked his pay...

Mike and Rob dressed up as the Team Fortress 2 Spy and the Joker (creepy!)

Hussam dressed very holy

Alex came in to work his wizardry at work

Tim's costume was pretty friggin' hilarious!

This is Tim freaking out once I told him his game production deadline was nearing

A group photo of a Cactus, Pirate, Bruins Hockey player, small fry and Rick

(Amanda, Nichole, Dan, Time and Me)

Only if my workers were all this small...

America's going to be re-writing history today:

• Oldest President and first woman as V.P. to be elected?
• First Black President to be elected?

Does it matter?

Kind of...

...

...But once the media stops covering these "firsts", hopefully the rest of the nation will be in the hands of a President elect who will lead the country for its people, the world and not for themselves for the next 4 years.  It's an exciting, scary, emotional, thrilling, proud time to be an American at this point in US history as we still have the voice to elect the best leader for our country while breaking the thick, glass ceilings that may have held this country back for so long.

Times like this make me very appreciative that my ancestors fought for the freedoms that I have today.  The ability to have a blog site and to vote are just a few of those freedoms.  It also makes me proud of my parents to have raised me to be the educated, *hopefully* intelligent person that I am today with the ethical values I retain and utilize on a daily basis.

I am a very fortunate individual and pray that the future continues to be brighter and better for the world and the people who live in it.