Category Archives: Autumn

The Empty Seat

We had a lovely Thanksgiving meal and time with family at our house this year. Britton’s mom and our niece and nephew stopped by for a few and my aunt’s family (her husband and son Tommy) flew in from out of town to join us for Thanksgiving dinner.


The Kauffmans

We had a sort of pot-luck and we were in charge of drinks. So in addition to egg nog, hot apple cider, milk, izzies, beer and wine, I made some great sangria! We enjoyed our drinks and listened to music and talked for a while before we ate.


Sangria

Then we all sat down at the table for a meal. Except one chair wasn’t filled. And that was the chair for my dad. We decided to honor him and his memory by placing a plate at his seat at the end of the table. We remembered him there for all the Thanksgivings past and it was nice to think of his spirit joining us for the meal. The holidays are the hardest after you lose someone because these holidays are about family, about coming together and enjoying our time on earth. So when someone is no longer there with you, it stings a little more.


The Empty Seat and lots of full ones too!

But my brother Justin did a great job taking over some of Dad’s traditional roles like peeling and mashing the potatoes. I think Dad would have approved! They were great. And Laura’s husband Rob trimmed the turkey and we all said grace. We really hardly ever say grace, but it’s such a nice tradition. To be thankful for the bounty of food, everything we are blessed to have and to be in the company of friends and family.

And this year, I think grace was even more poignant without my dad. It seems perhaps that we tend to under-appreciate what we have until it is gone. Death has a way of waking you up to your life and aligning your priorities. Live it while you can! And maybe, just maybe, after you go, you will leave a mark on the people in your life so profound that you never truly die. For me on this Thanksgiving, that seat may have been empty but my dad will always be here with me on Thanksgiving or any other day.

BONUS: I had never made sangria before, but I think I made a winning mix for Thanksgiving. So in case you are wondering….here is:

Cassie’s Secret Sangria Concoction -err- Recipe

Franzia Chillable Boxed Red Wine (or white if you prefer)
Some Pineapple Juice
Some Cranapple Juice Concentrate
Lots of fruit and squeezed juice (Orange, lemon, lime slices, pomegranate seeds, pineapple)
Chill overnight
When you are ready to serve, add champagne and/or seltzer water to make it fizzy. By using the juice concentrate you don’t water it down too much this way.
Add fruit garnishes like lemon, orange, lime and maraschino cherries.

And, finally, enjoy!

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Thankful

I love Thanksgiving. It is the only holiday that we make a concerted effort to simply reflect on what we are thankful for along with our loved ones and our abundance of food -our sustenance. It is not about excesses or commercialism. It is about remembering what is really important. And although Thanksgiving is not until tomorrow, I thought I would give thanks a little early.

I am so very thankful that I grew up with such a wonderful dad. While it still pains me that he is not here anymore, I have to remember that this pain is just love inside out.  

I am thankful for my health and the health of my loved ones. Without your health, life is much harder.

I am thankful FOR my loved ones. Without the people in our lives who we love so much, life would have little meaning. I would even include Schnoodle, Kitty and our chickens as my “people” in this one. 🙂

I am thankful for our opportunities. Even when we sometimes worry or complain about them, my life is better because of work, because of our rentals, because of the opportunity to live in Puerto Rico! How great is that!?

I am thankful for our comfortable life. I have a warm house, food at all times, clean running water, transportation, entertainment  and more. Some may say they are not all the most important, but they definitely make life a little easier. A foundation for you to achieve your own dreams. I am thankful for all the people in all sorts of various ways who help keep our lives possible in that way.

And I am thankful for you! By taking the time to read our blog, you show that you are interested in our lives. Thank you for supporting us, engaging with us in great dialogue, and even becoming new friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Fall, Freezes and Feathers

We had a pretty hard freeze the other night and so all our beautiful flowers out front, our basil, peppers and tomatoes all just turned black and shriveled up into a mess. The same thing happened in our greenhouse. We also had some horrendous winds and so most of the yellow and red leaves have blown off the trees. Still, in true Colorado fashion the weather shifts between mid 70s to 30s depending on the day.


Front after the freeze…all withered and wilted

The chickens have been laying a lot fewer eggs and Henrietta started molting which means no eggs from her at all until that’s done. Some people put a light in their coops for about an hour at night to increase their laying, but we don’t. We figure it’s a good time for them to rest and follow nature’s rhythms. I know that I want to sleep a lot more too!


Henrietta’s Spikes


A close up

Pretty soon we will be moving them into their winter home: the greenhouse. After the freeze I went in there to check it out and so did they. They helped clean it up by eating some of the over-ripe tomatoes for us. Also, don’t miss Kitty’s cameo 🙂

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Halloween Party in Greeley

Last night we went out to a Halloween dance party in Greeley. My friends Shana and Marjorie are in a belly dancing group and have performances now and then. This one was a Halloween costume party and everyone was encouraged to come dressed up. Shana dressed as a nun (which is doubly funny since she is Jewish), Britton went in his afro wig as usual, and I dressed up as a bunny rabbit. We saw some other pretty creative costumes like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (a flight attendant with diamonds on her outfit), the Mad Hatter, and Smegal (sp) from Lord of the Rings.


Leah (aka Lucy), Shana the Nun and Me the Bunny

Before we left the house I noticed that my black and white bunny outfit looked an awful lot like Schnoodle, so she even got into the festivities:


Schnoodle Rabbit and Cassie Rabbit

Shana changed out of her nun costume into a hoodlum get-up. She says, “I left the habit for the hood”.


Lorena, Shana and Me after Shana’s costume change

Our friends Lorena and Adriana came out with us after the dancing and we had drinks at Coyote’s Grill just a block over from the dance studio.


A bunch of misfits: Britton, Adriana, Cassie, Lorena, Shana, Leah at Coyotes

While we were over at Coyotes we started to see people coming in in black tie attire. At first we thought they had had a costume party too, but no, they were coming from the Greeley Chorale. It was quite the mixture of people. Our group dared me to walk through all the tuxes in my bunny outfit, and I did to their cheers. It was pretty funny.

We took the Corvette out so it was a fun night all in all.


Britton drove the Corvette with an afro

On a side note, I loved my fake eyelashes but I could never wear them daily, what a pain!


Check out these long lashes!

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