What do you get when you have your birthday, Thanksgiving, and your period all in one week???

Anyone that knows me knows that Thanksgiving is my absolute all time favorite holiday, and this year takes the cake. Literally. I mean it takes the cheesecake, the stuffing, the sweet potatoes, the apple pie, and even the wilted ice berg lettuce salad. This week owns the food department and I'm the CEO.

What I'm trying to say is, "I'm hungry"! Or maybe, "I'm starving" would be more appropriate???

See, my week started off very active as usual with my 34th birthday hike. Sounds athletic enough, until we made it over to the dinner part where I ate for 4 hours straight. That was the beginning of all the rage.

I've always fantasized over having a summer time birthday where I could have a pool party or some type of sun-filled soiree. This year, I gambled and got my wish. I told my besties I wanted to meet at Temescal Canyon for a hike despite the 30% chance of rain. This is not an uncommon birthday amongst many of my fantastic friends. Hey we can dine at Koi with the best of 'em, but sometimes you just need to get down and dirty.

So that's what we did. Not only did the sun shine for the duration of the entire hike without a single cloud in the sky, but my little turkey stayed happily nezzled and mostly snoozing in the moby wrap for the whole 90 minutes....except for a little peek to the camera when it came time to take pictures. It qualified as a perfect hike in the baby/weather department!

Then comes the eating part. That's where everyone came over to our house for a pot of my veggie stew and Marc's brownies. We had tons of hearty, healthy, beneficial food to go along with the decadent delights. There was something for everyone. Except for a meatetarian. If the only thing you eat is meat, then I guess there wasn't anything for you. But there was something for everyone else.

A few of my friends wrote and called to get my recipe for veggie stew. It was really awesome. The only thing is that I never make it the same way twice. But it was an awesome base of beans and flavorful veggies and potatoes. I made the bold move of putting an entire stalk of kale and an entire stalk of chard into it when it was almost done. That was only a bold move for me because it was something different than I usually do, but everyone complimented the greens. Including Marc. It was a perfect blend of flavor and taste. Your welcome my friends.....and Marc! He liked what I cooked......WOOOOOT!!!!

That was only the beginning, and as the week progressed, so did my PMS. My healthy appetite escalated along with the food supply. We flew out on the red eye Monday night and I haven't been able to stop eating. It was just one of those kind of weeks and I got called out on it Thanksgiving day.

During Thanksgiving dinner I was so busy giving Max tastes of all the baby friendly foods that I didn't eat a proper meal for myself and was grazing on everything but turkey for the rest of the day.

Marc's grandmother Charlotte (Max's only living great grandparent) told me I need to stop eating because I look pregnant again. Everyone was stunned except those that were nervous or possibly even a little mad. She responded by telling Marc that I have "let myself go". Hahaha!!!! It was the funniest thing in the entire world.

I promise it was as hilarious as anything could ever be. It was fuel for the new york-banter fire. Those comments provided for so much laughing that I'm sure I burned off the calories from the last two plates of stuffing.

All sorts of points were brought up. Marc's aunt reminded her that I had a baby. Marc's mom mentioned that I was breast feeding and needed more calories for that. Marc brought up that you shouldn't criticize someone's weight if you are fatter than them. And so on and so on....

At every meal after that comments have been made that if someone isn't able to finish their meal that I will take care of it. Or you'll hear Marc simply say "20 or 30 pounds". Or we'll mention that Max will go on a diet now because he is beginning to look pregnant.

I still love Charlotte. I think she was genuinely worried about me and simply speaking her concerns. She thinks because I don't eat meat I never get full and can't stop eating everything else. She was trying to help me with my "problem".

This year I am thankful for my first Thanksgiving as mommy to baby Max. I'm also thankful I finally got my period so my "food baby" doesn't get any bigger. We are having so much fun in Florida. Gobble gobble!!!

Art Rebels

My friend Emme had the BEST 30th birthday party this weekend. We went to Art Rebel art studio for a most extraordinary obsessive compulsive painting party. And we had more than a hangover to show for our good time the next day!

This party consisted of body painting, speed doodling, dancing, spin art, and did I forget to mention NAKED body painting???.....Ahahaha!!! It was a paint party extravaganza! The night began rather calmly when we painted the studio-length community canvas. But the night ended in an all out paint fight, and let's just say that the paint won that competition.

Believe it or not, the naked body painting was NOT my favorite part. Don't get me wrong. I didn't mind painting the chiseled abdominals on the oh so generous volunteer. I mean, what was I supposed to do? Focus on his foot? Uhhh, no thanks! But as much as I didn't mind outlining Patrick's abs with blue and green, there were so many other aspects of this evening that made it one of a kind.

Spin art was my favorite. I wanted to sit at the spin art machine all night long, but didn't want to be a hog about it. I love love loved dropping different colors of paint into the squares and was fascinated at the way the paint splattered to the outer edged of the picture. I'm still amazed that you get concentric circles and streaks simultaneously by dropping paint onto the moving paper. When can I do spin art again? I am ready!!!

Gosh, it's too bad we couldn't all be as creative as Emme on our 30th birthdays. Most of us spend a ton of money on a night that ends up blending in with so many other fabulous nights out. But not this girl. She entered her 30's with a bang. And all of her friends got to wake up with a few masterpieces that we got to bring home. I am so happy we were part of her celebration!!!

This is my favorite picture of the night. I really love all these girls. I've known Paisley and Renee for over a decade and just became friends with Emme this year. You can tell that we are having the best time being art rebels together!

Happy Birthday Nori!

My friend Nori is one of the very few people that reads my blog, so I'd like to take a second to tell her happy birthday from Max and me. In Nori's honor, Max got his 2nd tooth today! Yep, that's right folks! My baby boy has two bottom teeth now. He's so timely to get this tooth on his Aunt Nori's birthday!

We went on a little birthday hike this weekend to celebrate Nori's special day. Lucky for us, she was able to break away from an Emmy Awards filled weekend for some exercise and food. It's so great that my friends and I all love birthday hikes. Don't tell anyone but those are our favorites!

While we were gone hiking, Marc was busy cooking breakfast burritos for a small group of friends that came over. I am super spoiled with my own personal chef. He had been cooking in the kitchen for over an hour to make sure everything was perfect for us when we got to the house. It was delicious and fun catching up with friends.

There was even more excitement on this weekend's agenda. Max made his Hollywood debut by appearing in a webisode of Bitter Waiter. He was a natural. It was a favor to his Aunt Kristi that we helped that production. They are a talented bunch of awesome people! I'm so glad we were able to be a part of it for my magnificent friends!