Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah!

My favorite day of the entire year is whichever day we have Hanukkah dinner with my in-laws. Brisket and latkes and a poor re-telling of the story of Hanukkah that always gets derailed hilariously... what's not to love?

Mmm, brisket! With sweet potato, prunes, some other delicious stuff.

Keeping a safe distance while my husband and father-in-law perform their latke-making magic.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We do two meals in one day for Thanksgiving: my family in the afternoon and the in-laws in the evening. Which means we're as stuffed as the turkey by the end of the day!

For the first time ever, my family asked if I wanted to make/bring something.
We made roasted carrots...

...and brown sugar cookies! Recipe here on my food blog.

Sister-in-law made a delicious punch with pretty cranberries in it!

Leftovers! Why yes, I put cookies on top of my dressing. Don't you?

Ipo makes a friend while waiting for dinner.

The beautiful table... can you find Ipo?

Christmas at the Mall

We just took a little trip to the mall right around the corner to grab some lunch and an Angel from the Angel Tree (long-standing tradition) and had to see the new Christmas tree in the newly-renovated mall!

Welcome to Virginia

Sure, Ipo's already been in Virginia for a little while now, but he got a proper welcome at a Welcome Center (aka, a rest area) on I-64 on our way home from the conference. I can't tell you how many Little Visitors have been to this Welcome Center with me and got no photos, so I was proud of myself for remembering this one, even though it was getting dark and the photos aren't the best.

Virginia is for Lovers!

Virginia bench!

Sure, this is on the front of a trash can, but I had been driving
with nobody but Ipo for company for about 3 hours at this point.
I was amused.

Bonus photo: We stopped and had lunch with my friend Cassy
(who I believe has had a photo with every one of my LVs so far)

Conference

The neat thing about conferences is that you go somewhere new. The less neat thing is that, unless you try, you don't see much other than the hotel. Unfortunately for Ipo, my shoulder is killing me and I'm not up for exploring Arlington, so we really only saw the hotel. (We even stayed in the same hotel as the conference... we literally didn't leave the building yesterday.)

But hotels are fun too... Ipo did all the stuff you're supposed to do when you get to a new hotel room:

Checked out the toiletries in the bathroom

Tested both beds and picked the one he wanted

We're stopping at Tyson's Corner on the way home to have lunch with a friend, but mostly we're just ready to get home and go to the Mockingjay Pt. 1 premiere tonight!

Ipo Recycles

Did you know that this Saturday, November 15, is America Recycles Day? The Student Activities office at our school is doing an informative drop-by session in the lobby of our library today, with a photo booth, giveaways, and free pizza to talk about recycling and the Virginia Beach landfill program.

Ipo hopped into a miniature recycling bin to get into the spirit!

Mustachioed Ipo

For No-Shave November, I'm putting up a display in the library with fake mustaches stuck to book covers with faces on them.

Ipo wanted to help, but wound up trying on the mustaches himself!

What a handsome little guy!

Meeting Gimli

When Ipo first arrived, I tried introducing him to Gimli, our kitty. Gimli was more interested in eating Ipo's face, so we had to resign ourselves to trying again later. This morning, I caught Gimli napping and snuck in one photo before he woke up and recognized Ipo as "that toy I'm not allowed to play with and therefore really really want to."

Reunion

My 10-year high school reunion was this weekend! I didn't take a lot of pictures - too busy trying to figure out which people were spouses and which ones were classmates I just didn't recognize or remember. But I got two fuzzy cell phone photos of Ipo, at least...

Dock

My in-laws have a beautiful house on a beautiful part of one of our beautiful little bays. It seems like every time I get a new Little Visitor, they ask us to house-sit for a weekend... kinda weird, actually. But wonderful! Because we get shots like this:

Ipo-Sized Christmas Tree

Before Ipo arrived, I had picked up a tiny Christmas tree for my desk at work... and it turns out that it's the perfect size for him!

Ipo Is Here!

Ipo has arrived from Hawaii!!! I'm so excited to start showing him around and going on adventures.

Ipo brought a gift! Chocolate coconut coffee made in Hawaii!
It smells delicious... Hubby has already said he's making some tomorrow morning!

Since it is, of course, Guy Fawkes Day, we settled in and watched V for Vendetta as we always do around here (not so big on the fireworks here in the states... at least not for this particular holiday, anyway).

Now we're going to work on my NaNoWriMo, because I'm behind on my word count today! Tomorrow Ipo can go to work with me (and a good thing too, because it's a busy busy day!)