Gobble Gobble

Luckily John and I got off work early on Wednesday and made our way to Phoenix for Thanksgiving. The drive was pretty easy until we were about an hour outside of Phoenix. John was in the car dying because the UK game wasn't on the radio and he was rushing to get to Kristy's so he could catch the last few minutes. Right after he mentioned this we came to a stop on the interstate, 2 wreck and 2 construction zones later we managed to add an hour on to our drive. No UK games means John is a sad boy. As always we were ready to kill each other after being in the car that long. Since it was 10:30 when we got there we just went straight to bed. I got up the next morning and found my 2 favorite little men were already awake and ready for action. We did a little playing but then I had to make a couple casseroles and shower. I figured since this was Thanksgiving and pictures would be taken I should try to look decent this visit. We had a huge meal that day which I ate 4 more times in the next 2 days. Luckily Brian was having a day after Thanksgiving workout at his gym so John, Kristy, and I got our butts kicked for about an hour. Then John and I tried to go on a hike but we were so tired we didn't make it to far. Braxton bossed me around all weekend like usual and much like last time Uncle John became the favorite by the end of the visit. I think this is because John can play rough and I am not really in to the painful jumping games. Bralon was just cute as could be and is sitting up now. I wish I would have taken some videos but all I got were a few pictures.
We came back on Sat. and stopped at a huge outlet mall in Palm Springs. I found out that even though it was an outlet mall I still couldn't afford to shop at half the stores. Gucchi, Burberry, and Saks aren't affordable just because they are at the outlet. It was also very packed and insane which are not ideal shopping conditions for me. I did a little damage at J. Crew and Banana but didn't really meet my goal of becoming more stylish. I mainly bought stuff that I would normally buy. But hopefully I have updated some of my old stuff by a couple years.
We got home that night and the main strip in town was closed off for a Christmas celebration so we walked up and checked out the scene and then headed to the bar for dinner and drinks. We met some friends there and by the time we left it was raining. Since we walked we had a 10 minute walk home in the rain and I laughed the whole way because we just had a little umbrella (John saw that it might start raining so at least we were prepared). The umbrella basically kept our faces dry while the rest of our bodies were soaked. It felt so good to sleep in my own bed instead of a pull out couch.
Sunday was sunny but cool. Seeing the sunshine and ocean made me appreciate again where we live. We had a great day at church and the farmers market. Then we went and picked out a Christmas tree. They look small when they are lined up next to all the other trees. Once we got ours in the house I realized it was going to take up about half of our living room. To add to the Christmas feel I made a big batch of chili. As I was adding the seasoning I realized I was out of chili powder and my recipe called for 2 tbs, so I just thought I could sub this out with some other spices. I chose 1 tbs of cayenne powder and 1 tbs of Cajun powder. These were the spiciest things I add and who doesn't like spicy chili right? Big Mistake! We tried a bite about half way through and realized that we were in trouble. John started coughing it was so spicy. So I sent him to the store to get some more tomato paste to dilute things a little and that didn't quite to the trick so I moved on to sugar, brown sugar, water, and beer. By the end it wasn't as spicy but now it tasted more like spaghetti sauce. I like my chili on noodles anyway so this was fine with me but I felt bad that I messed it up because I wanted John to be impressed. He said that he liked it and he ate seconds so either he was being really nice or it wasn't that bad. It was kind of like a spicy chili spaghetti sauce but definitely edible. We also tried to make fried hush puppies with a mix that someone gave us as a gift. Frying things without a deep fryer is very tricky. We have also had the restaurant version of these treats so I don't think our will ever taste as good as the real thing. On a side note did you know that a lot of people from here have never had a hush puppy, shocking I know.
Tonight is back to working out and not stuffing my face, boo.