Eric's 21st birthday, Thanksgiving, and the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich

Eric turned 21 on the 20th...which was the day we traveled down to Vegas to spend Thanksgiving with my sister and her family and my parents. So, we had cake and ice cream on the 19th and celebrated Eric's last day of being 20 (there were only 20 candles on his cake) instead.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Andrew and Heather ran a 10K that Denise's ward has each Thanksgiving--Hannah hadn't brought her sneakers, so she just ran a short leg in her moccasins. Heather won a prize and that was even with her starting 15 minutes late!

We spent 5 days visiting, playing games, eating, seeing a the movie (Lincoln), shopping, and just really enjoying being together.

The main game we played was Andrew's new game, 7 Wonders. I loved it so much, we are going to get one. It is a bit complicated and I normally don't have the patience to learn complicated games, but I really liked it.

I had read a book, The List by Melanie Jacobson (thanks Hanna for lending it to us!), which was super cute and Hannah read it on our trip. In it, the main characters make the "ultimate grilled cheese sandwich." We had to try it. I loved it. It's grilled sour dough bread with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, pepper jack cheese, red onion, and fresh basil. The red onion probably wasn't necessary, since it had the pepper jack cheese, but it was divine.

Now, we are down to just 9 days before Eric reports for his Family History mission... wow.

fascinating post by Middle-aged Mormon Man

If you don't know the Middle-aged Mormon Man blog, you should visit it soon (click here to find it) . His is the only blog on my "Blogs of People I Don't Know" list that I faithfully follow and look at every post he writes. He does serious and funny and thoughtful and everything else in between. 

Today he posted something a friend of his wrote about Romney and the election. I thought it was great, so have a look if you are interested:

http://middle-agedmormonman.blogspot.com/2012/11/one-last-post-mortem.html

fall, funeral, Eric, pinstrosity, and cards

Alex

Becky and Hannah

Becky C and Hannah

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Eric and I attended a funeral in Sparks yesterday. It was for Ray Kelly, the father of my roommate from my freshman and sophomore years at BYU. I only met him a few times...in 1979 and 1980 I spent Thanksgiving there when Maralea and I were roommates (as Louisiana and New York were too far away for me to travel). He and his wife, Leona, were so kind to me. He was one of those wonderful "salt of the earth" men. Here's a link to his obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/rgj/obituary.aspx?pid=160760758#fbLoggedOut

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Eric is slowly getting ready for his mission. There still seems so much to do, but I think we'll get it done on time. Glen, Hannah, Alex, and I are speaking in Sacrament Meeting on November 11th. I consider this a downside to having a missionary, but it's a price I am willing to pay. Eric will speak with the High Councilman on November 18th.

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I discovered a website called pinstrosity.blogspot.com where they post photos and stories of people trying out different pins from pinterest.com and not getting the same results as the original pin. If you have a few minutes to kill, take a look and be amused. And if you have a pin that you tried and it didn't match the picture, send it in to them so they can post it.

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And, lastly, Friday night was stamping night:

Kristyn's card

Michelle's card

my card

Becky's card

Tina's card