2012 - The Year of Instagram!

I am running a little late on my end of year post... obviously.

Last year was another big year for the Lubitz Family. So many milestones, so many fun times. Possibly one of the most notable events of January 2012: I discovered INSTAGRAM! It was love at first iPhone photo. Each of the pictures used in this post were taken with my iPhone and transformed (yeah, that's a big word, don't burst my bubble... I am not a big fan of techno-gadgets, but I am still enamored with this one) using Instagram. In January, we were all together as a family for about a week and a half. Then Joey took off on a road trip with friends from Portland to Oberlin, in the middle of winter. A little crazy, yes, but they had fun. Sammy frantically got all his college applications in--at the very last minute, literally.

A walk at dusk in Tryon Creek State Park.

In February, Michael headed off to Japan for work and I visited Salt Lake City for a baby shower. February also included my "Breakfast with Sammy" blog series.

The "Mauna Kea" breakfast with Waffles, raspberries & whipped cream.

March included more biz travel for Michael, another trip to Salt Lake City for me, plus a really fun and relaxing family trip to beautiful Bandon on the Oregon Coast. Joey flew in from Oberlin. I was shocked both Joey and Sammy's spring breaks fell on the same week. That will never happen again. We stayed in a fun little cabin in the woods, on a lake, with no TV or internet. We brought our projector from home, draped a sheet over the rafters, and watched DVD's using the laptops. We actually checked out DVD's at a rental store. I did not even realize "video" rental stores still existed. Well, they do in Bandon, Oregon. We watched our very first episode of 'Breaking Bad' at that Bandon cabin. If not for Lily's ear infection and my toothache, it would have been perfect. Even still, it was pretty amazing having everyone together enjoying quality time. We did a puzzle, I made fresh chowder and chocolate chip cookies, and they even had an old-fashioned record player and record collection.

Joey and Lily enjoying some comfy couch time at the little Bandon cabin on the lake.

April was a whirlwind of activity for Sammy. Tennis season started, it was his last official month of high school, he received all his college letters and then had to make a college decision before the end of the month. Sammy and I traveled back east and visited colleges in Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York. Sammy chose Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY. Our CSA farm share started back up.

Carousel outside our hotel in Boston.

May was quite a month. Sammy was offered a spot from the wait list at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, which he took. So, in a matter of days, he went from being a Skidmore College Thoroughbred, to a Bates College Bobcat. Sammy and his tennis partner also went to the state tennis tournament and came in 3rd doubles. Sammy shadowed a trauma surgeon for his Catlin Gabel senior project and went with friends to the Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheater. Joey finished his Sophomore year of college. I turned 49 years old.

Memorial Day lunch at Oven & Shaker. Leek, Speck and Goat Cheese Pizza.

In June, we saw Sammy graduate high school, and leave for Europe. Sammy and friends visited Amsterdam; Bolzano & Florence, Italy; Monaco, St. Tropez; Figueres and Barcelona, Spain; and Paris, France. Joey returned from Oberlin and started his pizza dough making job at Oven & Shaker.

Zinnia's on the deck. Early summer dusk.

Sammy returned from Europe in July. Joey made a jaunt to Albuquerque. Uncle Chris and Aunt Akiko came to town and we visited Crater Lake. Michael and I celebrated our 23rd anniversary at The Allison Inn & Spa in the Oregon Wine Country.

Crater Lake.

August was a lot of fun and a little melancholy. We started the month with a fun trip to Sunriver for the annual Godsey Family Retreat. A total of 30 'Godsey' family members crammed into shared three homes. On August 26th, Joey left for his Junior year Fall Semester abroad in Amsterdam. On August 27th, we helped move Sammy into his dorm at Bates College. At approximately 4:00pm on Monday August, 27th, we said good-bye to Sammy and our hearts sank. We got in the car and drove up to Woods Pond in Bridgton, Maine about an hour away, where we had spent a family vacation about a decade before. We reminisced and frankly, did not know what to do with ourselves. It was more difficult than we had imagined. Michael flew home from Boston and I took the Amtrak to Hartford, CT and had much more fun helping my friend Dana move her daughter into her dorm room. I then spent a fantastic week in NYC with Dana. We saw plays and walked and saw more plays and ate and walked and it helped a lot!

Visiting Detroit Dam on the way back from Sunriver.

In September, Michael learned to live without his sons and it wasn't easy. Joey turned 21 in the lonely land of Amsterdam, where turning 21 doesn't really hold much excitement. We took a really fun road trip with Andy, Lindsay, Kate, Lucy and Lily to Calistoga and the weather was gorgeous. Later in September, Michael picked all the apples from our backyard trees and started the hard cider making process.

Our backyard apples.

October was AMAZING! We left October 8th for a three week long trip to lands far and wide. We spent 4 days in Amsterdam with Joey. We boarded our cruise ship and spent 10 days visiting Bruges, Belgium; Normandy, France; Gijon, Vigo & Malaga, Spain; and then finally Barcelona. We spent 4 days on land in Barcelona and it was awesome. Michael turned 49 in Barcelona. We then flew to Boston and drove up to Lewiston to visit Sammy on his 19th birthday.

Spanish hillside outside Vigo.

November was also pretty exciting. Michael attended his 30 year high school reunion in Calabasas, California and I really don't think anyone has ever enjoyed a class reunion more. Sammy came home for Thanksgiving and we had the big feast at our house again--a new tradition. After Thanksgiving, Michael and I headed to Washington DC. I had never been. It was so much fun. The weather was gorgeous. We went to the Memorials at night--twice! I would have loved to have seen the White House all decorated for Christmas, but this was a last minute trip--next time! There is really no place else like Washington DC.

We shared a chocolate malt, two blocks from the White House.

In December we held our company retreat at The Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg. This is one of my new favorite places and it is so close to home. The day after we returned from our retreat, we boarded a plane for Kauai. Both the Washington DC trip and the Kauai trip we scheduled to use Marriott points we were going to lose if we didn't use them, so we used them. Kauai was wonderful, peaceful, warm, beautiful, relaxing, lovely! Sammy returned to Portland for his break and Joey was close behind. We got a full 9 days with both boys before Joey headed out to Albuquerque. It was a great 9 days! We realize it is going to get less and less likely that the boys want to spend their breaks with us and we are preparing for this inevitability. They both just need to know, we will go to them, no matter where they end up. Not to worry :)!

Crisp December morning at The Allison Inn & Spa.

Thanks 2012, for some really phenomenal moments--actually, a lot of really phenomenal moments!

... and thank you Instagram. I don't care how many bazillion dollars some big, rich company paid for you. To me, you are worth it....

Yay, for accomplishing something...

In January of this year, on another blog, I wrote a post titled: "To Resolution or Not to Resolution".

In that post I decided I would purge and clean one room of our house per month for the year of 2012. Ha, ha, you can laugh with me, or you can laugh at me, it's your choice. That was a loftier goal than I had imagined. Four people can gather a lot of junk and time really gets away from me. I started out strong by thoroughly de-cluttering the family room in January and Michael and I got partially through the garage. In February, I started the bathroom, but never finished. I never even started the linen closet. I did re-do my home office in March, as planned, but it is now cluttered again. There was a big lesson to be learned, just like with any bad habit, if you don't change the underlying problem, it will recur. I go ahead and de-clutter, but then stuff seems to magically appear to take it's place.

Fast-forward to December. December's goal was Joey's room. I had visions of Joey's room turning into the most beautiful guest room. I planned, I pinned, I cleaned, I tested the limits of my allergies with all the dust in that room... kids should be taught to dust their own rooms (she says after her children are grown and at college). Joey helped me go through his things so I didn't have to box everything up for later. The Goodwill received some treasures, the recycling bins received a lot of, well, trash. Unfortunately, there are still a couple boxes of items in the furnace room. One of my biggest pet peeves is moving something from one bad place to another (Michael is a master at this).

Once the room was purged of all of Joey's pre-teen/teenage paraphernalia including his old Pottery Barn Locker furniture, we moved in the original bedroom set Michael and I used when we first lived in Portland in 1987. I love this little set. It is just a double bed and a dresser. My Sister, Tiffany, had kindly been holding on to the set for me. Danny painted the room and then painted the furniture black, which I think looks awesome. I wish I had before pictures of Joey's room. I cannot believe I did not take any.

And then, today, this very morning, the most amazing elves came to my house and made the whole thing come together, magically. This is why there are people that do this kind of thing for a living, because THEY ARE SO FREAKIN' GOOD AT IT! Thank you Holly and Jasmine.

I am not a great photographer, so use your imagination. The room has the most obnoxious recessed lighting, which I obviously left off for these pictures. Holly and Jasmine brought beautiful lamps that give a nice cozy feel. I pinned that chair on Pinterest ages ago. It is a relatively inexpensive chair from Urban Outfitters. It works for me.

It is a fairly drab December afternoon, so I took one picture (below) with the flash. You can also see the really cool bug lamp on the right.

Joey returns from Amsterdam tomorrow night. I hope he likes it!

I am so happy to have accomplished December's room transformation.

Next on the list, Sammy's room, which will have a queen bed! Visitors Welcome!

Thanksgiving 2012

I love entertaining at our house every once in a while. The planning is fun for me. I enjoy thinking about how I will set the table, or what recipes I want to make/try. Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that has its own built in theme and yet, the possibilities for food, decor, guests, is pretty much endless. I do have a few limits, however. First, if I want everyone to be able to sit at the same table (our dining room table), I have found 10 is optimum, 11 is sort of doable. Unfortunately, we only have china for 10. If we go over 10, we use every day Fiestaware. If we go over 11, we have to split into multiple tables and put people in different rooms, which we have done, but it is nice to keep everyone at one table. Although this year we started out with a possible guest list of 18, we did end up with 11. Yay, everyone at one table, and yay, everyday dishes, which go in the dishwasher.

I have been planning the menu for a couple weeks, but Thanksgiving prep officially started for me on Sunday. Michael and I hit the grocery store with a list totaling 75 items. We were able to get 73 of those items at one store. My Thanksgiving Day Menu included 21 items, plus drinks. I would be responsible for  5 appetizers, 9 main dish items, 5 desserts, and 1 punch. Grammy would bring 2 main dish items. The reality of the situation, I made 3 appetizers and Tiff & Danny brought spinach cheese squares. I made 9 main dish items and picked up rolls from a bakery. Grammy did bring 2 main dish items (sweet potatoes & fruit salad). I made 3 desserts, Michael picked up the pre-ordered Caramel Pecan Pie at a local bakery and a variety of ice cream flavors from Salt & Straw including Cinnamon Snickerdoodle and Coffee Bourbon. Grammy brought a flourless chocolate cake for dessert, which was unexpected.

I organized myself by splitting the cooking into three days. Day One: Monday. I made my favorite cranberry sauce.

Gingered Cranberry Fig Chutney

Day Two: Tuesday, I made the potatoes (The Pioneer Woman's Delicious, Creamy Mashed Potatoes), two appetizers (Trisha Yearwood's Hot Corn Dip

and Bobby Dean's Pimento Cheese Dip), and three veggie recipes (The Best Vegan Green Bean Casserole, Creamed Spinach, and Carrots with a hint of maple syrup).

Day Three: Wednesday, I made another appetizer (Ina Garten's Cheese Straws), three desserts, Four Ingredient Vegan Pumpkin Pie-just as good as last year...

Salted Caramel Apple Hand Pies

so yummy and worth making again

Chocolate Truffle Tart

really rich

I also prepped the turkey with Williams-Sonoma Dry Brine.

Day Three: Thanksgiving Day included making the Not So Humble Pie Turkey Recipe

Cornbread Stuffing and Regular Bread Stuffing

and Gravy, of course.

Plus, heating up everything else that had been previously prepped.

Since I am somewhat adaptable and I wanted a pretty table more than I wanted two more appetizers and Thanksgiving punch, I abandoned those recipes due to time limitations.

The other thing that was abandoned due to time limitations, me spending any time on myself, or even changing my clothes from what I had been wearing for two days: shorts and my "Nice Peaches" Savannah t-shirt. Ugh!!! Thank goodness my family does not care what I look like.

I do think my table was beautiful

Michael is currently obsessed with Hard Apple Cider and buys a different kind every time he goes to the grocery store. I do hope his cider turns out or I fear he will be utterly dejected. Here he has asked Sammy to pose with some cider.

Appetizer/Sweets Table:

Guests arrive:

Peter, Grampy & Rylan, Kyle, Tyler

(Geo is a Great-Grandpa!)

Same people-take 2

Grammy, Kyle, Grampy & Rylan, Hannah, Tyler, Peter

Just sitting down to eat. I'm sure I am thinking... what am I missing?

Michael finally gets to stop cleaning the house and sit down and eat. He is very happy.

Of Grammy and Grampy's five Grandsons, we were missing Austin (who had to work)

and Joey (who is in Amsterdam until next month).

Rylan, 6 months, not particularly fond of the flash.

Grammy, Sammy, Aunt Tiffy & Lily in a stupor after dinner. I tried to get a picture of Coco, but realized she never sits still. Lily is almost always calm, but usually under foot.

This morning I woke up to this beautiful girl sunning herself. So happy to be roaming free after being locked up all Thanksgiving Day. Cat fur and Thanksgiving Dinner were never meant to go together.

My centerpiece looks even better today

and I was able to salvage a bag of these delicious spiced pecans.

I love Baker & Spice.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving.