glo{w}

my grandma grew up with twelve siblings, two boys and ten girls. they grew up and had their own children. but they stayed as close as could be and in their later years, the sisters, including my grandma, always traveled in a pack, traipsing between birthday parties and lunch dates. i remember when "the aunts" would arrive at our birthday parties. they would get out of the car and walk up the walkway together, all in a row, purses dangling, just waiting to kiss your cheek and give you a trinket. "the aunts" included ellie, connie, pat, and gloria, or as we all called her, aunt glo.

aunt glo was beautiful. she had the biggest, rosiest cheeks and bluest eyes. she was sassy and would sometimes tell a naughty joke and then wink. her eyes always seemed to sparkle like magic and the i realized that she just laughed so hard and so often tears would form her eyes. when i was growing up she always sent me a birthday card with a crisp five dollar bill. i used to wonder how she remembered all those birthdays, surely there were over fifty of us little ones.

she died in early november. the last time i saw her was at my bridal shower in april. she had given me four, perfectly crocheted dish towels. her cheeks were rosy that day. and when she hugged me goodbye she pinched my bum and giggled. i treasure those dish cloths even more than i did the day she gave them to me.


so the rodrigo clan gathered at my grandma's house last week to remember the life and times of our aunt glo.

everyone brought food and dessert to share. there were many of our family's favorite dutch treats, including speculaas and boterkoek.

there were so many aunts, uncles, cousins, many of whom we had not seen in years. one member of the third american rodrigo generation (my generation) even had welcomed a new baby, beginning a whole new generation. the baby was a girl, of course :)

as i drove home, my heart felt heavy for my grandma. she had lost one her closest sisters. again. i was reminded of how short it all is. again.


i reminded myself that aunt glo had lived, loved and had left her mark and when this view came into my sights i was comforted...



it was undeniable: the sky was glowing. and part of it always will. for her.

giving thanks

we were greeted with a lovely rosemary, pear spritzer...festive!

we shot skeet. because that is just what we do on thanksgiving. at casa de awesome.

we strolled the grounds, accompanied by two very american labradors. and i got a leaf stuck on my boot.

i admired my mama's decorations and perfectly simple and elegant table scape.

i marvelled at the rocha's ability to whip up a roux on a camp stove. in the driveway. for their delicious brussel sprout gratin.


we ate...

and ate. it was one of the best meals of my adult life. this is not a lie, nor an exaggeration.

everyone contributed to our feast...turkey and stuffing by grandma, second turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy and desserts by mama and daddy, homemade rolls by rachel (best ever!), queens beans by tante heidi and tia (one of my favorite dishes of all time), and salad and brussel sprout gratin by the rocha's.

as we do at every thanksgiving, we also had the punch. my grandma has always made it and it is still one of my favorites. ginger ale and grape juice...it is heavenly.

we embarked on a long, chilly walk and then posed for a family picture.

and a silly one too.

we hugged one another, grateful for another year of bounty, dessert and fantastic wine. and then we had a dance party in the kitchen.

the day ended with coffee, homemade pies (as in pumpkin pies from SCRATCH, courtesy of my mother and uncle joe) and a rousing game of catch phrase.

how wonderful it is to spend a day immersed in laughter, incredible food and some of my favorite people in the world, all while realizing that our greatest gift is love - of all forms.

i am thankful. for it all.

it's the little things...

during thanksgiving week, i am always thinking about the things i am most grateful for in my life, like my mister, our family and friends. i also think about other things like health, paychecks, shelter, air conditioning and transportation.

but today, i thought i would give a shout out to the little things, the things not necessary to survival or the pursuit of happiness, but which still add tremendous joy to my little life.

**********

1. hair products. i simply hate the feeling and look of my hair without them.

2. white, fluffy towels. is there a better way to end a hot shower?

3. jillian michaels. i love to hate her but am thankful for the workout she can give right in the comfort of my very own living room.

4. the jam my grandmother makes for our entire family every year. every type of fruit and combination you can imagine. my favorite is strawberry rhubarb.

5. toothpaste. i actually think this is a necessity for me. i am flat-out addicted to teeth brushing.

6. my go-to blanket. made by my Dinha for my eighteenth birthday and treasured ever since.

7. flowers delieverd by my mister on a random saturday morning, just because.

8. two dollar sparkly, holiday treats found at target.

9. shoes and the ability to make my legs move.

10. avocados. because everything is better, and richer with a chunk or two of this magical fruit...burritos, salads, sandwiches...etc.

birthday girl

today is this lovely maid's birthday.

my cousin, Amanda.

top ten reasons to love her:

* she is a fascinating and brilliant mother. one of the best i have seen.

* she will never forget to send a thank you note or a note "just because".

* her house is always impeccable and organized. at least, every time i have seen it.

* she is such a gracious hostess, like a true southern belle. seriously, you should stay the night at her house sometime, it's like resort living.

* she has a voice like a lullaby, which i think she got from her mother, soft, soothing and empathetic. but she can yell like the sailor too.

* she is as tough as nails. one strong woman she is.

* she baked banana bread on the morning of my wedding and convinced me that i needed wedding day perfume to always remind me of that day. and then she bought me some.

* she used to play make-believe with me when we were tiny, even though she is four years older than me.

* she has always given me really good advice about boys.

*she knows me really well its almost creepy.

* she is the older sister i never had.

i love you dee. a lot. and i hope your birthday is perfect, even though you are stuck painting. which i know you don't like.

would it help if i baked you a cake?

game night

saturday was a rainy night! so we agreed to hunker down with pizza, beer, apples to apples and the wedicks!


such a lively combination...

i was nervous at first to introduce a game no one had played before. what if they hate it but feel obliged to play and be good guests?


luckily, the wedick's are very good at reading directions (something us kelly's are pretty deficient in) and we played for almost two hours! the boys beat the girls real bad. landra and i thought they were cheating at first, but then just agreed they were on the same weird wave length.

we laughed so hard at one point i was afraid i would scare everyone away with my "real" laugh. hint: its not pretty.

then we watched home alone. one of my favorite movies of all time.

i am thinking game night is a monthly must do...

hair envy

erika created this little gem and posted it on facebook last week.


and i can't stop staring at it.

suprisingly, my obsession has nothing to do with the pale skinned vampire clutching my waist, but has everything to do with those long, luscious locks i am sportin'.



how do i get hair like that?



anyone?

date night.

last night was date night. and we headed to espanol, which confuses me because it is an italian restaurant. anyway, this place has been around since 1923 and you know i love all things retro.


we have come here before and sometimes i pretend that we are sitting next to mobsters who are discussing grisly murders and illicit business deals in a cryptic, accented tongue. sometimes i even see tony and carmella soprano.


but last night, i only saw ryan.

but i also saw the huge plate of raviolis and authentic pesto that was placed in front of me and the never ending bread supply. heaven, i tell you.

after our meal, we headed to the grocery store, which is not really a chore but more like date night, part two. we had cheese and milk on our list but ryan snuck some little debbies in the cart and expressed his happiness that nutella has made its way to the states. not really. he hates that stuff.

homeward we headed and we went out for a nice, long walk. we agreed that the air was still, the sky was clear and what a great night it would be for a telescope. ryan picked me an apple from a tree and i eagerly bit into it only to discover it was unripe orange. as i pried the bitter rind from my teeth i asked ryan to see how far he could throw that pre-mature orange. he did. and it was far.

once home, we curled up on the couch and watched some stupid movie about the end of the world. but i couldn't pay attention; wrapped in my favorite blanket, with my head on ryan's shoulder and the smell of citrus still in my nose, all i could do was take one moment to remark on how cozy i felt, how i loved pesto and cuddling almost equally and how much i hated unripe citrus before i slipped off into dreamland...

tardy weekend report

i spend saturday watching playing with these little darlings...we watched sponge bob, which i cannot stand, colored for hours, walked and played at the park.

sunday was spent in the kitchen, preparing a cold day classic: pot roast.

i chopped, seasoned and browned in between a couple frantic texts to my sister for advice about potatoes. bless her.

i think the rosemary is the star of this dish and i love a meal that feels "old world" or very english...which this one did to me. And what is not to love about a one-pot meal.

katie came for dinner. she brought wine, lilies, a hand-me-down iphone for me and even cuddled my disturbed cat - now that is a good friend.

katie is one those glorious types of friends that stretches my brain, exercises the debater in me and encourages me to think. i love that. we talked about lofty goals, our thoughts on big issues like religion and psychology and then small things like being pisces, disney, cruises, running and our disappointment with target's fall collection. and then she went home.

****

after i watched her drive away, i settled in and watched four episodes of in treatment. have you seen that show? i am completely intrigued by it. there is something i will always love about "crazy" and the process of figuring out how another person is wired. i am also very fond of gabriel bryne ever since i watched him steal Jo's heart in little women. he always looks so weathered and pained, like his life story is composed of one tragdy after another. maybe it is. but his eyes remain so soft and kind.

that, and i am just a sucker for an irish accent.

scone love

friday night, i got the urge. the baking urge. i have been trying to stave it off because having baked goods lying around my house seems to be troublesome. but i feel better if it the baked goods are of the breakfast variety, rather than of the cake, cookie and pie variety. you know what i mean?

cranberry orange scones, courtesy of my BFF, ina garten.

i have made blueberry scones thrice before, they are my mister's favorite after all, but they always came out a bit too dry, a bit too tough. but with a bag full of cranberries and ina's recipe at hand, i indulged in the urge. ina rarely lets me down.

i even had a helper to assist me with all that orange zesting and juicing! and pretend like you don't see all that butter. it is just a mirage. i promise.

dough makes me happy. and i love when on her television show, ina moves a lump of dough around on the board, pats it, listens for the susequent "gentle slap" noise, and says, "there, just like a babies' bum". it's such a sweet sound.

i was proud of these beauties...proud enough to bring them to the office to share in fact. they were light, flaky and i think the orange zest made all the difference. that and the orange/sugar glaze!

good to the last crumb.

heroes, hair dye and oprah

thanks to my uber cool boss...we ditched the office on thursday to celebrate veteran's day. veteran's day in my house means we fly our american flag, take many moments throughout the day to think about those who serve our country (particularly this hero), and then we dye hair.

trevor came to visit and i woke up early curious and excited about what type of trouble we would get into...

we power walked for miles at mckinley park...how lovely to be outside, on a thursday, at eleven in the morning.

and then we hit up chipotle because that is just what we do when papa comes to town. i had planned to take a beautiful picture of my salad, but i guess i just couldn't wait...so a bowl of scraps and a crumpled up napkin is what you get.

we ventured to target...scoured the dolla section, flipped through magazines and tried on funny hats and winter coats.



and then we let the computer tell us what color i should dye my hair. strange, but cool.



brunette express here we come. did you know trevor is a master colorist? he, erika and i have been on his "little box of hair colour" train for years...and every time the first whiff of chemical hits my nose, i am brought right back to high school and our hair color experiments (and disasters).



it was a little darker than we thought but i am a big fan of raven colored tresses. we then made a bet on whether or not my mister would notice.

for the record, my ryan did notice, first thing, and then he said that it looked so pretty. what a guy. i lost that bet big time.

we considered doing jillian michael's no more trouble zones (have you done it? it such a bootie-kicker) but then decided to watch marie osmond on oprah instead.

and then, of course, a cheesy photo shoot. he puts on his new dollar bin beanie and gloves. he poses. he gives that hard stare. and then he breaks out in the giggles. it. is. such. fun.



yah, it was a thursday funday.

and now it is friday and i have black hair. awesome.