November-December 14, 2014: Thanksgiving, Mug Swap, Dogsitting, Holiday Parties

November was fairly uneventful for us. We spent Thanksgiving with Dustin's parents before heading up to Ashton to have a second Thanksgiving on Saturday at my grandparents' house. All the photos I took are on Britni's camera, so I'll have to get those from her and then do another update.

Visiting with Randy, Teresa, Taylor, and Cody on Wednesday night

The boys watching stand-up comedy after Jeremy and Britni got into town

It's a dog party!

Our newest niece, Margeaux

Kieko and Dodger like playing tug-o-war on the hide-a-bed while Dustin is trying to sleep.

I participated in the second annual mug swap put on by my friend Amanda. I sent my partner, Lindsey, a pretty yellow mug from Starbucks along with some Ghirardelli hot cocoa, tea, Lindt and Ghirardelli chocolates, and some craft supplies. This year, the swap was a round robin, meaning that the partner I gave to wasn't the one I received from. I'm not sure who sent me my mug, but they gave me some yummy Lindt chocolates and other chocolate goodies and a notebook and colored pens.

Cosmo was very curious about my mug goodies

Mishael and Santiago went to Paris for a pre-Christmas visit to Santi's family, so Dustin and I took babysitting duties of their new dog, Rosko. It's been a bit trying having a small dog around, but we've survived so far. The cats have gone after him a few times, and we had some time-outs in the kennel over torn up toys and aggressive behavior, but I think that he's starting to learn his place and respect our authority.

Last week Dustin and I had both of our work holiday parties. They are back to back, but both always fun because they are so different. Dustin's work always has a catered dinner and a white elephant gift exchange (we gave a hot dog toaster this year and received some almond roca). My work has a dinner and then a casino night where you earn tickets for a raffle at the end of the night. Last year we played Blackjack and doubled our money, but this year we tried out roulette (also doubling our money and winning a blender in the raffle).

Dustin's parents drove down to Salt Lake on Saturday and we went to a matinee play of Peter and the Starcatcher (a Peter Pan prequel) and then introduced Randy and Teresa to the amazing eggrolls at La Cai.