The Un-Traditional Thanksgiving

[Pictures Coming Soon...]

We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving. For our 5th Thanksgiving away from Utah we went to the Macy's 85th Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. The day could not have been more perfect. I have so much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving Dinner

For us, Thanksgiving started on Sunday, Nov. 20 with the traditional turkey dinner that Richard usually cooks the Sunday before Thanksgiving(1). This year was perhaps the best turkey we've ever eaten. He's been using some tips and tricks from my mom (e.g., using a turkey bag) and reading about how to improve his culinary skills online. After a few years of practice and putting all of this knowledge together he really outdid himself and cooked an exceptional Thanksgiving dinner. In fact, everything was warm and done at the same time. Here's a pic of how organized he was. He knew exactly what time to make everything and put it in the oven. We invited a few friends over to enjoy the dinner with us. They stayed and played games with us that evening.

Macy's 85th Thanksgiving Day Parade

The evening before Thanksgiving we drove to Nazareth, PA and stayed with a family in the area so we would only have an hour and a half to drive to NYC the next morning. We woke up bright and early at 5 a.m. and headed for Jersey City where we caught the 7:10 a.m. train into 33rd street. From there we took the subway to the southwest corner of Central Park. We walked around the parade route, and for a while we were one of the few people who were "smart" enough to bypass the crowds on the sidewalk--and ignore the police in the streets--and walk on the street down the parade route in front of the zillions of police officers and people. So I guess you could say for awhile we were the pre-parade. Despite the millions of people on the sidewalks, we really enjoyed walking back and forth to various "potential" spots seeking the perfect location. Right before the parade reached us we found a spot between 7th avenue and 55th street where we watched the parade. Oh the blessings of being tall. I would not like to be short and on the streets of NYC watching that parade. It would be way too hard to see anything. Being tall has great advantages.

After the parade we walked back to the Time Warner building and did a little shopping. Then we ate lunch (turkey sandwiches) in Central Park. Afterwards we walked to the Manhattan New York LDS Temple. Then we walked around Central Park and over to the southeast corner of the park where we ventured into FAO Schwartz. Then we headed down 5th avenue to 33rd street. During our walk we stopped at Rockerfeller Center, went into one of the Trump Towers, saw the Empire State Building, and took pictures of the infamous NYC Library where my brothers like to remind us is where Ghostbusters was filmed. Last, we walked over to Macy's. It was closed, but we got some great outdoor pictures of it. We've been in the store before and it is literally what the store claims, the largest store in the world.

After seeing and doing everything we wanted to that day in NYC we headed for the train and then drove home. But before we arrived home we stopped at Cracker Barrel for some grub.

The day could not have been more perfect. From the very beginning, when we planned this trip, we decided we would only go to the parade if it was decent weather and it was not raining. Not only was the weather decent, it was perfect! We dressed warm enough so during the coldest part of the morning we were never uncomfortably cold. The temperature was in the 50s and it was perfectly clear and sunny all day. In addition, we got to do everything we planned to do in the city. We never felt rushed and we just enjoyed being together. I couldn't believe that the day went even better than we planned. There were three main things we wanted to do in the city that day and we got to do all of them and more. It was literally perfect day! I am so very blessed.

Notes about this Post:

1) Why Richard typically cooks a Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before Thanksgiving is because we typically go to someone's home for Thanksgiving. This gives him an opportunity to cook and it gives us Thanksgiving leftovers. Last year he cooked dinner for us on Thanksgiving because we had church members in the area at our home. But during the three years before that we enjoyed Thanksgiving with the Williams.

Family Traditions

Twice a year we have the opportunity to listen to our church leaders from Salt Lake City in what is called General Conference. It's such an amazing two days. We typically stay home and watch all four two-hour sessions online (Two sessions on Saturday and two on Sunday. Men also attend one session Saturday evening, but they have to go to the church and watch it). When you're a little kid eight hours of meetings can seem like a long time; however, as an adult the time goes by so fast I never want it to end. But at least we get to study the talks/sermons throughout the next six months before the next conference. It's one of the best weekends of the whole year.

On the Saturday morning of the October conference one of our favorite family traditions is to drive out to Millheim where we visit some Amish markets (bakery as well as a fruit/vegetable stand), a country store (they have some bulk food items as well as a great bulk candy and cookie/cake decorating section), and a meat market. One of our primary motivations for making the drive is to get some amazing barbecue chicken (roasted on an open fire pit) from the Dutch Valley Bakery (an Amish family's bakery/home) for lunch. Amos cooks some of the best chicken I've ever had in my life. During the last couple years there has been a Dutch Fall Festival in Aarronsburg (literally a hop, skip and jump from Millheim). This year we left early so that we could stop at the festival. Unfortunately it was rainy and cold, so there weren't many people out. But I enjoyed walking around the little booths that lined the streets. Richard and I really like little town fairs. He enjoys sampling the food and I like checking out the crafts and home decor items. We have a lot of fun going to things like this together. This year we took some new friends (the Nichols) with us. It was fun sharing our little family tradition with them. We typically make the drive to Millheim and go to these shops when people from out of town come visit us. So, if you're not from Pennsylvania and you want a true Pennsylvania experience, this is a glimpse of where we will go if you come visit. It's a great country drive. We enjoy it more than Lancaster.

On another note, it's been cold and rainy all weekend. Actually, it looks pretty bleak outside.We just read a news report indicating this area saw it's first snowflakes early this morning. It's not allowed to get cold yet. I think it's supposed to warm up later this week. I sure hope so, I still haven't taken our "final" fall pictures for Christmas.

Me & My 96,000 Friends

For the first time ever, me and my 96,000+ closest friends enjoyed Penn State's first football game of the 2011 season together "inside" Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania. On Saturday, Sept. 3, Penn State played Indiana State. It was the first game Richard and I attended since moving to Pennsylvania. What a spectacle it was to have so many people in one place. And these were just my friends who decided to come into the stadium. That doesn't count all of the tailgaters outside the stadium.

After trying to describe how massive Beaver Stadium is, someone once asked me the following question: "Is Beaver Stadium bigger than Lavell Edwards Stadium?" (Lavell Edwards Stadium is located at the campus of my other alma mater, which is the Brigham Young University Cougars in Provo, Utah.) Well, the answer to this question is, "YES!" Now, let’s think about this a minute. To give all of you BYU Cougars some perspective, a sell-out crowd at Lavell Edwards Stadium is around 63,000+ people. Beaver Stadium, was not sold out for the Indiana State game; in fact, there were thousands of empty seats. So, for a football game at Beaver Stadium that was clearly not at a capacity seating versus a football game in Provo at capacity seating, Beaver Stadium was accommodating 33,000 more people on Saturday alone than Lavell Edwards Stadium can seat.

For the last few years Beaver Stadium has been the largest stadium (measured by seating capacity) in the United States because Michigan State's football stadium was not up to code. Now, in the U.S., Beaver Stadium is the second largest, with Michigan State being the only larger stadium. If you look at the size of these stadiums from a global perspective, Wikipedia indicates the May Day Stadium in Korea and the Salt Lake Stadium in India (not Utah) are the only larger football stadiums. Even if these wiki statistics are not 100% accurate, at least they give you some perspective on the seating capacity and the grandiose nature of Beaver Stadium.

Walking into Beaver Stadium. The heat and humidity were abnormally high on Saturday.

Pre-game show with the Nittany Lion.

PSU ran and scored a touchdown on the first play of the season/game, making the score 7 to 0 after only 14 seconds. I was very glad we were on time for the game. Those who were late missed out on a great play! The final score was 41-7, with Indiana scoring during the last few minutes of the game. I was actually really glad they scored. After working so hard it would be very disappointing for them to not score at all. They were very gracious at the end of the game. They impressed me by taking off their helmets and waving them to the crowd as they exited. What great sportsmanship. Due to the high score as well as the heat and the humidity, most people left the stands before the last quarter. So, we took advantage of the situation by going and sitting closer to the field. The last few pictures included here were taken after the game. But the last picture will give you an idea of where we sat for the first three quarters (in the balcony above Richards head and to the left). Even though the seats seem quite high, they were really great seats. After the game the Blue Band plays a few songs on the field, thus the pictures of them on the field while we are getting some pictures.

Nittany Lion traditions: After PSU scores, the Nittany Lion does pushups for every point on the score board. In addition, within the student section various students will lift up people within the crowd and push them into the air (the students lay flat on their back and it looks like an upside down push up). This is done for each point on the score board. It's pretty cool to watch.

Next week is the PSU vs. Alabama game. It's going to be a white out/white house (everyone wears white). Richard and I drove by a PSU game one year during a white out and it was incredible to see. The Alabama game should bring a packed house. The couple we we went with to Saturday's game have twin daughters who are camping out all week in Paternoville (near Beaver Stadium). By doing this they should get first or second row seats in the student section. Ticket prices are crazy right now, so the likelihood of being offered a great deal on tickets is not too probable, so we'll more than likely do a drive-by of the stadium just to see what it looks like.

New Experiences

This is really a random post, but I wanted to share a few "new" Pennsylvania experiences...

I felt my first earthquake this afternoon. Apparently there was a 5.8/5.9 quake down in Virginia (about six hours away) and we felt it here in Central Pennsylvania sometime before 2 p.m. (around 1:50 p.m.). It was kind of odd to see everything move. It's just not something you expect in State College. A life-time Pennsylvania resident that works with Richard doesn't ever recall an earthquake here.

Apparently the quake spurred some fires in Bellefonte. We were both in State College today, so we figured if our house was included in the fires we were at least up-to-date on our house insurance. :) But I'm sure our house is fine, we don't live in the older part of Bellefonte where I can definitely foresee some fire issues. I just hope all of our food storage (mostly Richard's canning) is on the shelf and it didn't fall over. Our shelf isn't secured to a wall.

Another odd thing happened on Sunday. A big rainstorm came in during church--okay, so that's not odd, it rains all the time making everything green and lush. The room we were in has a big glass wall. The lightning and thunder that came with the storm were right on top of our building and delivered some serious rain. During the storm, which lasted the whole R.S. lesson, it was hard to hear the teacher, and I was on the second row. In fact, the rain was so heavy that at one point it was raining horizontally instead of vertically. At another point there was so much rain coming off one portion of the roof it looked like a waterfall. I wondered if a tornado could be coming, so I was careful to watch what was happening outside, while of course listening to the lesson. During this time I also figured out an evacuation plan for the women, just on case I noticed anything too hairy outside (not that I could really see farther than half of a football field) or feel things shake. But I was comforted because I figured out a plan of action. Well, the storm passed and cleared up within a half hour after church. By that evening it was sunny and beautiful again. Then I heard that there was actually a tornado warning in State College earlier that afternoon. Huh, we don't really get tornados in Central Pennsylvania--too many mountains, or at least that what the locals call them. Good thing I came up with an evacuation plan, just on case. :)

We had a thunder storm on Friday that rumbled through the sky for almost an entire hour and a half before it started dropping rain. I've never seen--I mean heard--anything like that either.

Spring Break - Cake Pops

This year spring break was the second week of March. As a graduate student that week doesn't mean much, other than the fact that I don't teach. However, this year for spring break I rewarded myself with learning something new. Richard obviously had to work, but besides that it was a big week for m

aple syrup harvesting, so taking off and going anywhere was really out of the question. In addition, Richard got a migraine that week, so he had to take a sick day. I made the most of the situation and took him to one of our favorite areas in Amish country (a countryside where a lot of our favorite Amish shops are located) to look around a market for some cake decorating supplies. The reason I needed cake decorating supplies was so that my friend (Megan) and I could make cake pops. During Thanksgiving Megan and I perused through Bakerella's website and decided that we needed to try our hand at Bakerella's specialty, cake pops. I love chocolate cake, so the thought of a ball of cake dipped in chocolate sounded positively yummy. And to top it off Bakerella's cake pops are adorable.

As anyone who knows me can attest--particularly my husband--I don't exactly delight in exploring the culinary arts. But as Richard figured out, cake pops are a cute edible craft, they don't fall into the "cooking" category; they fall into the "craft" category.

Megan and I decided that for our first attempt we would choose a particularly easy cake pop design and try our hand at chicks and bees. We figured they were both yellow and they looked a lot easier than some of the other culinary creations Bakerella tries. In addition, they are both springy.

Despite our attempt at choosing a particularly “easy” creation, the chicks and bees took a lot of time, which made us wonder how much time it really takes to make some of the other creations. But the time we spent on these little edible treats was well worth it.

I made the cake on Thursday morning (March 10) so it would be cool by the time Megan arrived. Once she was arrived we destroyed the cake and mixed it with cream cheese frosting. It made a gooey mixture. Next, we made the cake into balls, dipped our lollipop sticks into melted chocolate, and then stuck the sticks into the cake balls. Then we put everything into the freezer to firm up, not freeze. (Tip: We found that when the balls are too soft it's harder to roll them in chocolate; the sticks and the balls separate from one another if they are not firm enough.) After the chocolate cools then it’s time to paint fa

ces and attach the appropriate candy pieces to your culinary creation.

Adorable and yummy at the same time! Thank you for the great adventure Megan!

Graduation

In December 2010 Richard and I graduate with our bachelor's in square dancing (see photo with us and our instructor Carter Ackerman). We began dancing in January 2010 and have been dancing on Monday nights ever since. In 2010 we completed both a basic level class and a mainstream class. Now we're learning plus moves so that we can dance with Centre Squares, the square dancing club in this area. One of the cool things about graduating is that you not only get an official diploma, but you also get a Centre Squares badge, indicating that you are a bona fide member of the square dancing club. We had a pretty big graduating class, which included my friend Esta Tamanaha (she's in the picture with us at the Farm Show). Our friend, and home teacher Ty Glade got the three of us involved in square dancing and now we've become square dancing advocates ourselves. We went to Ty's graduation in May 2010 and we graduated one semester later. He's moved on now and he's now square dancing in Utah.

Unfortunately due to some of Richard's church meetings we can't dance with the club, which meets on Wednesday nights. We were able to attend the club a few times in January 2011, but it doesn't look like we're going to be lucky enough to continue dancing with them at the moment. As I'm knee deep in my dissertation we aren't going to be able to attend the Monday night class as regularly either. Oh well, at least we got our diploma and our badge. When the time's right we'll do some more square dancing.

But our year learning how to square dance didn't end with graduation. It culminated with the Pennsylvania Farm Show where we competed with around 50 other squares. This event took place on Monday, Jan. 10, 2011.

Centre Squares (namely Frida Holt) was nice enough to organize us and let us borrow clothes so that we could have three squares from the club compete. Carter and Ruby Ackerman, our instructors, were also nice enough to teach us the moves and help us get ready. The event was a lot of fun. My brothers flew in two days prior to the Farm Show, so they were able to see us dance. In addition, they were a great picture takers. Inside the arena there was so much dirt in the air that many of our pictures are not clear. Most of the time it was hard to even see through all of the dust. By the end my lungs felt like they were coat

ed with dirt. That's not the most pleasant feeling, but it was definitely worth it. :)

We are grateful for the many friends we have made dancing each week. [FYI: The slideshow of the Farm Show is quite long.]

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What a Gray Day Looks Like

Describing what a gray day looks like in Pennsylvania, specifically State College/Bellefonte, is a little hard to describe. Today, around 4:30, after I finished teaching my class, I decided to take a few pictures of what PA looks like on a gray day. In reality, I just wanted to take pictures of Old Main, the building featured in these photographs, but I figured that these pictures also showcase what it's like not to see the sun. Having multiple days like this (and potentially weeks) sure makes you grateful for every time you see the sun. But with all the snow on the ground, I think Old Main looks pretty cool.

FYI: These photos were not tinted or modified in any way. This is really what a gray day looks like in State College. You'll notice that the sky looks like dirty snow and there are not really any defined clouds, just a nice gray covering. It's pretty interesting.