Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. I think this is because I consider it a super-holiday, a bunch of mini-holidays all rolled into one. The pre-Thanksgiving preparation is an event in itself; a day off of work (for me at least) to relax and get everything ready for the next day. Then you have Thanksgiving where you get to eat all day, watch football and just enjoy family and friends. Black Friday is one of those bucket list experiences that I like to partake in every year. I think it is the only day of the year when I don't mind standing in line and dealing with crowds, its just part of the festivities! Lastly, the Thanksgiving holiday is not complete without the FSU vs. Florida game on Saturday. So even though I am already getting sick of eating leftover turkey, Thanksgiving is always a highlight of my fall season. Plus, any occasion that provides me with a 5-day weekend, tons of delicious food, great family, shopping sales and amazing college football is a perfect holiday in my book.

Our Thanksgiving this year began with a few of my favorite traditions and a full house! Erika came into town Wednesday night to stay with us and Judy (calling him Christian in my blog would just be wrong) did too. Our morning started off with a continuation of our Harry Potter movie marathon (started the night before) and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade! We enjoyed mimosas and kielbasa sandwiches for breakfast (Jared's family tradition) with my parents, while Gina was en route from the Keys. After getting ourselves and the turkeys ready, we headed over to my parents' house for the festivities. My aunt and uncle were already there from Port St. Lucie and Gina arrived soon after. Time to get the party started with some brandy slushes!

Of course the snacking, drinking and good times began right away, while the boys got started deep frying the turkeys out in the driveway.

After a few hours of cooking and family fun, it was time to eat. So much delicious food to enjoy!

Our Thanksgiving dinner was amazing and thanks to my mother's efforts we were able to enjoy it together, all 13 of us at the one dining room table! After dinner, we enjoyed some awesome desserts, football and more brandy slushes.

That evening, we ventured down to Saint Augustine to see the Christmas lights. We strolled around the historic downtown enjoying the lights, Chris and Jared with cigars and bourbon in hand of course.

We made it home for a fairly early bedtime, as the girls had big plans for the next morning. A 4am wake-up time for Black Friday festivities! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, we sure did!

Brandy Slush

One of my favorite things about the holiday season is the tradition. Part of the fun in being married is getting to share your own family traditions and even create some new ones together. I want to share a tradition that comes from Jared's mom's side of the family. The "brandy slush" (recipe listed below) is a little something special that I learned from Jared's great aunt.

In December of 2008, Jared and I went to Colorado to visit some of Jared's family and go snow skiing. On our last day in Colorado, we went to visit Jared's great aunt (better known to the family as GAC). She offered us a signature cocktail of hers, described to me as a sort of "slushy cocktail". Of course I was all about that! However, I do not like brandy, so I was a little hesitant. She got a giant Ziploc bag out of the freezer and scooped its contents into a glass; I was confused. The only time I've ever seen liquor in a Ziploc bag is when it is being smuggled into a football game :) She took a cup of the slush, poured Sprite over it and handed it to me, and I was still apprehensive. Much to my surprise, it was so delicious and I ended up having about 4 of them. Thus was my first encounter with the "brandy slush".  

After enjoying a "brandy slush" for the first time :)

Perhaps the reason that I am writing about the "brandy slush" is because I am currently making it. I am bringing it to our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday and it needs to freeze for 48 hours before serving. I wanted to share this recipe because it is such a unique and fun seasonal drink. A perfect signature cocktail for a holiday party! Don't immediately assume that you won't like it because you don't like brandy; you can't even taste it. If you like Arnold Palmer's or the currently popular sweet tea vodka with lemonade drink, you will love this. It tastes sort of like a slushy version of that. The recipe is listed below, so try it out and enjoy! 

"Brandy Slush" Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 cups sugar
4 teabags
12 oz. can frozen OJ
12 oz. can frozen lemonade
2 cups brandy
2 liter Sprite
Ziploc freezer bag (gallon sized)

Directions:

1. Heat 5 cups of water and 1.5 cups of sugar until sugar dissolves

2. Boil 2 cups of water with 4 teabags

3. Let tea cool and then add tea to the sugar water

4. Add 12 oz. can of frozen OJ and 12 oz. can of frozen lemonade

5. Add 2 cups of brandy

6. Pour mixture into a gallon sized Ziploc freezer bag

7. Freeze for 48 hours

8. Scoop out a cup of slush mixture, pour Sprite over it and serve


Eat, Drink and Be Merry! Happy Holidays :)

I am thankful for...

Think back to when you were in school. Every November, teachers would make you write about the same exact thing year after year; what you are thankful for. It would just be terrible of me to deprive my students of this wonderful tradition, so thus was our warm-up question for today. Rather than have the my students write about this topic in a paragraph, I had them make a list on sticky notes. This way, I don't have to endure reading 65 crappy paragraphs, and the students get to play with sticky notes.

I put a piece of chart paper on the board with our topic written at the top. Each student was given 5 sticky notes. On each of their sticky notes, they had to write one thing that they were thankful for. I wrote "family" and "friends" next to the chart paper as the two things that they were not allowed to list on their sticky note. I told them that we would assume that everyone was thankful for their family and friends and that they had to come up with 5 other things to be thankful for. As the students finished their sticky notes, they added them to the chart paper.

Below is the compiled list of all the different things that my 6th grade students (ages 11-14) wrote on their sticky notes. Pictured below the list is the chart paper full of sticky notes from each class period.

I am thankful for...

• everything I have
• my house
• TV
• my dog
• Wii
• being born in the USA
• my computer
• medicine
• clothes
• my school
• money
• God
• my life
• cell phone
• Xbox
• electricity
• Florida State Seminoles
• animals
• The Lord
• texting
• Nintendo DS
• books
• music
• Florida Gators
• electronics
• my freedom
• food
• my birthday
• soccer
• dancing
• Mrs. Roche
• our military
• being in a good school
• fish
• football
• gum
• fresh water
• my cat
• shoes
• movies
• surviving
• Summer Break
• skateboard
• pictures
• my gerbil
• good health
• America
• stores
• my church
• anime
• weekends
• apple pie
• Playstation 2
• cars
• my education
• UF
• gangsta rap
• Jesus
• Xbox 360
• games
• teachers
• Snickers
• being popular
• roller skates
• the ocean
• oxygen
• beds
• being alive
• my hair
• flat screen TV
• FSU football players
• purses
• my mom having a job
• being able to travel to Alabama to see my family
• Comcast
• bike
• MP3 player
• myself
• girls
• my mom doing everything for me
• our principal
• being educated
• the NY Jets
• turkey
• no school on Thursday
• Playstation 3
• eating to keep from dying of starvation
• getting picked for a good team
• dirtbike
• my body
• being on Earth

FSU vs. Maryland

I've decided that I really am not fond of away games. Yes, I enjoy hanging out with friends watching football all day on a Saturday, but it's not the same as enjoying the day from our parking spot tailgating. Perhaps when we are older the Roches and the McGuires will buy an RV and road-trip it to every home and away game. Dare to dream :) I like to think that away game weekends are good for me because I have time to actually get things accomplished at home; however, that never happens, so either way life is set aside for only college football in the fall.

On Saturday, Jared was gone all day taking the 2nd session of his Certified Financial Planner licensing exam. With him out of the house all day, one would think that I would seize this opportunity to get all my school work and cleaning done without interruption, wrong. We had plans to go over to Boden's house to watch the FSU vs. Maryland game (8pm kickoff). Since I am a professional at coming up with absolutely every excuse possible to not have to clean my house or grade papers, I decided that I was going to make chili for our game-watching party. I do not like to cook. Cooking involves way too much effort and clean up. Plus, if it turns out bad then you have just wasted all this time, effort and dirty dishes only to have to order take-out anyways. Although I claim to be a terrible cook, there are a few things that I make really well. All of the things that I can cook are unhealthy, fattening, and involve red meat, but then again I'm from the South so what do you expect.

Perfecting my venison chili became my goal for the day. However, I did not have any venison available to me because no one in my family has been deer hunting thus far this season. So I enlisted my daddy to hunt down some venison for me from his buddies. He succeeded, as he always does for his little girl :) With 5 pounds of venison in hand, I was ready to perfect my recipe (listed at the bottom of this post). I read somewhere online that adding Kentucky bourbon to chili really enhances the flavor, and being that there is no shortage of bourbon in my household, I decided to add it to my recipe, hence the new name of my dish "Drunk Deer Chili".

I love cooking with venison because it tastes a lot like beef, but it is much leaner and better for you. If you can get over the fact that you are eating Bambi, it is a great substitute for beef. Don't get me wrong, I love beef, but venison is a nice addition to great seasonal (fall/winter) dishes. Needless to say, I spent almost the entire day preparing my chili and getting myself ready for the game. Of course, Jared was going to Boden's straight from his test so he put me in charge of getting all the beer and cigars ready for him as well. Therefore, I accomplished nothing else on my to-do list.

When it was time to go, I was still a little hesitant about my new chili recipe. It tasted good to me, but I was going to be serving it to 8 other people and there was no one at home to verify the good taste. My payment to my dad for going to get the venison for me was that I would save him a bowl of it. Therefore, I decided to take him his bowl before going to Boden's so he could be my taste-tester. After being reassured of the deliciousness of my chili, I made my way to Boden's house.

Once I arrived at Boden's, the boys went outside for a pre-game cigar. Apparently, Jared and the boys have smoked a cigar before every game that we have won this season; any game that we have lost they have not smoked a cigar prior to. The boys are a little superstitious with their FSU football, in case that wasn't completely obvious. The game began and the Noles were stressing me out as usual, but I had beer and chili to comfort me. The chili got rave reviews and I was excited. Everyone loved it except for Boden, he couldn't eat it due to him being so picky. I knew that Boden didn't like mushrooms, but everyone else does and they really make the chili taste good, so I consciously cut them very big so that he could pick them out. However, my efforts were not enough. Picking out the mushrooms was not an option and he wouldn't eat it at all. I don't like mushrooms either, but I just pick them out because I'm a big girl :)

During the game, we had the sliding glass door open because it was so nice out. Of course I started getting cold but no one wanted to close the door so I borrowed Judy's snuggie. This was my first experience with a snuggie and I must have one. It was so amazing that I immediately texted Erika and told her that I want one for Christmas. I was lying on the floor all warm in the snuggie, drinking my beer and texting on my phone wondering to myself, why didn't I invent this! Then I of course fell asleep on the floor because the game didn't end till midnight and my bedtime is 11. Luckily, the Noles got the W and the boys had their confidence restored for next week's big game against Florida.

I am already starting to get excited for this upcoming week! Jared and I are in charge of the turkeys for Thursday, so we are venturing to Costco today to pick them out. I only have to work two days this week (Monday and Tuesday). On Wednesday, all of my siblings and my grandparents will be in town to help get ready for the festivities. Jared's mommy and my aunt and uncle will get into town on Thursday and we will be celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents' house! The girls will be conquering Black Friday starting at 4am and Friday night we will be making the drive to Tallahassee for the FSU vs. UF game on Saturday. There will probably be a lot of blogging this week because I will be so excited for all the fabulous Thanksgiving festivities! Let the preparations begin :)

Listed below are the ingredients for my chili. I do not cook my chili according to a "recipe" per say, just a list of ingredients that I throw together in a stew pot and let it all simmer on low for a few hours.

"Drunk Deer Chili"
ground venison (season with wildlife seasoning)
tomato sauce
tomato paste
light red kidney beans
green pepper
sweet onion
white mushrooms
garlic cloves (minced)
chili powder
black pepper
sea salt
cumin
Kentucky bourbon (I used Maker's Mark)
Louisiana hot sauce
shredded cheddar cheese (for topping)

FSU vs. Clemson

Perhaps the most important "investment" that Jared and I have made so far in our marriage is our FSU season tickets and Seminole Booster membership, seriously. College football is a religion in the South and I'm pretty sure that if Jared and I became homeless, he would insist that we set up our tent in Doak Campbell Stadium. This is our second year as season ticket holders and our first season as Seminole Boosters. Since we now get our own parking pass for gameday, we have graduated from the yard tailgate at the frat house to our own "grown-up" tailgate. Perfecting our grown-up tailgates is a work in progress this football season. They get better and better each week. I am honestly afraid of what kind of crazy ideas the boys are going to come up with for next football season...

This past weekend we made that oh so familiar drive to Tallahassee for the Clemson game. I was a little nervous about this game since we were coming off a loss from last week's game against UNC. I was also really excited for our first night game of the season and that we were going to have food brought in for the tailgate instead of cooking it ourselves. We left Jacksonville around lunch time on Saturday with Michael Boden and tailgating equipment in tow. The 3 hour drive to Tallahassee was painful as usual thanks to the lack of scenery on I-10 and the horrifying music selection by Jared and Boden. My only saving grace was our routine pit stop at the Krystal in Live Oak. Those little cheeseburgers never fail me :)

Once we arrived in Tallahassee, we headed straight to our tailgating spot on the top floor of the medical school parking garage. Everyone else was already there, beer and food awaiting our arrival. I really think I could get used to this catered tailgate idea. The best part about gameday is that for a few hours we get to pretend like we are back in college with all the people we shared so many good memories with.

After a few hours of fabulous tailgating, it was almost gametime. However, before going to the game we all had to change outfits thanks to our notorious fall Florida weather. Even after living in North Florida for my entire life I still have not figured out how it can be 80 degrees in the afternoon and 40 degrees as soon as the sun goes down. We managed to make it to the stadium before kickoff for the first time all season; usually we get a little too wrapped up in our tailgating festivities. I love being in the stadium right before kickoff, the Seminole spirit is amazing and I still get goosebumps everytime I watch Chief Osceola throw the flaming spear down into the middle of the field. It is traditions like those that make college football so special.

We made our way to our "alternate" seats up at the top of our section. The only bad thing about being a Booster is that your seats are in the Booster (aka: adult) section and we are still a little too rowdy for the Booster section. We still like to stand and yell for the entire game, so we just re-locate our seats away from everyone else so that we don't bother/offend anyone. Plus, some of our friends have seats in other sections and since we have more room at the top of the stadium they can come sit with us. The game was rather nerve-wracking and I was praying for a win. Not just because I want us to win (obviously), but because when we lose the boys are so miserable to be around and I don't want the rest of my weekend to be ruined. Although I love my Noles, they are notorious for keeping me on the edge of my seat. I've almost had a heart-attack at pretty much every game this season.

With 3 seconds left in the 4th quarter the game was tied 13-13. Here we go again, I remember thinking. It had once again come down to a field goal, which cost us the game against UNC last week. Thankfully, Dustin Hopkins decided that he didn't want another loss to be blamed on him so he got his act together. As soon as that kick made it through the uprights, I grabbed Christina for a huge hug. We were both so happy that our husbands were going to be in a good mood for the rest of the weekend. Boden jumped into Jared's arms with excitement, which made for a rather compromising photo...

 
The final score was 16-13 for another Seminole victory! We made our way back to our spot for some post-game tailgating and celebrating :) After the gameday traffic died down, it was time for some quality time at the bar. The ladies headed over to Ken's for some celebratory sake bombs. Of course there was an uncomfortable amout of people in Ken's so we bailed on that plan after a short while. Plus, Erika and I had gifts waiting for us at home...Chubby's chicken finger boxes, delicious :) It was the perfect way to end another successful gameday!

Sunday morning came too soon and it was time to grab some Cracker Barrell breakfast and head back to Jax. Of course prior to leaving Tallahassee we had to stop at 3 different gas stations so that Boden could stock up on boiled peanuts and a variety of other "very healthy" snacks for the car ride. The trip ended just as it began, at the Krystal in Live Oak. However, I'm not sure if the Krystal is still there after Boden threatened to blow it up because he asked for jalapenos on his Krystals and they put ketchup on them instead. Thankfully, Jared was driving because I'm pretty sure Boden would have turned the car around and gone back to throw his Krystals at the girl working the register.

Overall, it was another great weekend with great friends, good food and Seminole football. I can hardly wait to be back in Tallahassee for our final home game against Florida. Go Noles!

I can't believe I'm blogging...

I never and I mean NEVER in a million years would have ever expected myself to have a blog. Not that I seriously think that other people really care about what I am doing with my life, but I know that at least my mother-in-law will probably read and enjoy it :)

I will admit that I have stolen this idea from my friend (and fellow young bride) Christina McGuire. I just started reading her blog about her first year of marriage to my husband's best friend. While I may have missed the boat on blogging about my first year of marriage since Jared and I have been married for 1 year and 5 months (holy cow that flew by!), I figured that I could jump on the blogging bandwagon anyways. Since our husbands always have to deal with Christina and I planning out our futures at our FSU tailgates every weekend, I think they can deal with us reporting our lives to everyone we know over the internet too :)

I am very lucky to live in close proximity (only 1 exit south on 95) from my parents, but Jared and I have other family and friends who live very far away. Thanks to technology, it is easy to communicate with the people we don't get to see very often. If you know me, you know that I hate talking on the phone. Trust me, you will get a lot more out of me in this blog than you will in any phone conversation.

I have also decided to practice what I preach. As an English teacher, I force my students to write journal entires at least a two times a week. Studies show that journaling improves your writing skills and it also serves as a sort of therapy, blah blah blah, etc. Therefore, all this research tells me that I make my students write journal entires because it is good for them, not just as an English student but as a person. So I decided that what is good for my students is good for me too. This way, I can write down all my stories about my crazy students and if no one wants to read them, oh well, I still feel better having written them down. Plus, Jared won't have to listen to my crazy stories when I know all he wants to do when he gets home from work is watch tv and plan his fantasy football line-up for next week.

In conclusion, judge me if you will because I'm still not so sure how I feel about this whole blogging thing. We'll see how long this lasts because I am notorious for starting a project and never finishing it. Plus, you never know when one of my students will throw a desk, or write a cool rap, or when Sadie might chase the fat kid on the scooter down the street. So until I decide that I need to procrastinate from grading papers again, adios!