Thursday, December 4, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving and...Surprise Engagement!

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was a joy to have Beth, Jen's sister, here for the week. We had a great time visiting, watching movies, talking, and hanging out. Kathryn loved having another willing person to read to her and play with her.
Beth attempted a new Thanksgiving tradition...chocolate dipped red velvet cake balls. They were fantastic! Here she is in the midst of making them:
And here we are enjoying the fruits of her labor. Yum!
A Luminati tradition alongside the cake balls...Jon's cherry pie. That always brings back good memories of our dating days....:)
And yes, Jon was here too! It was great having him home for several days. I think it was hard for everyone when he had to go back to work. It's just so easy to get used to time off. He made his traditional Thanksgiving Thai spring rolls to go along with the turkey and trimmings. We had such an eclectic group of food--and it was all so tasty.
The Friday after Thanksgiving, Jon planned for us to go down to the National Zoo in DC for the Zoo Lights exhibit. Kathyrn likes animals and loves Christmas lights, so he thought she would like to see them both at the zoo. It was a nice night--not too chilly--for seeing the displays.
Everyone thought these three trees were especially pretty. Little did we know that there was an unexpected person hiding behind the tree on the far right...
Beth's boyfriend, Evan. Earlier that day, he flew all the way from Michigan to surprise her with a certain question....
And she said Yes! Congratulations, Beth and Evan! It turns out Evan and Jon had planned the whole event for over a month. What a great way to end the week! Thank you, Evan, for letting us be a part of your wonderful surprise and welcome to the Minnery/Luminati family. :) Aunt Beth, thanks for coming to see us--we sure do miss you!!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

WE were SOO excited when we heard of this surprise! Now to see the photos!!!!! What a wonderful visit you had, Aunt Beth! We are thrilled for both you and Evan. Jen + Jon, way to go...great planning + photos, Jon, super blog, Jen. Love seeing that cherry pie, and the photo w/ Daddy is so sweet. Love seeing the sisters together. Great! Love, Gram + Pops Kate, you are growing so quickly!

Beth said...

wow! what an exciting post! I am so, so blessed to have gotten to spend the week with you guys. I just loved being there for your day to day life. It makes me want to live close so I can be there for you all the time and see the baby girl's baby steps get ever more confident. I am overwhelmed by the love that was showered on me this week. On top of that, our friends from home threw us a surprise engagement party last night! I have never been so suprised in one week in my life. I love you guys so much and am so blessed to have you in my life. Like I said on thanksgiving, I'm so thankful for our relationship. I love you all! thanks for the post!

Beth said...

ps. love how the tree gate turned out.

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, I missed the photo of Jon putting the lion on the tree! We bought that lion for his first Christmas...he was 10 months old. It has been the first ornament hung each year since then! Sweet, precious memories! We have already decorated our tree this year...first time without Jon...missing you and your gals so much...thrilled for you having your OWN little Christmas! We,re snuggling beneath our tree. Love, Mom and Dad

C.L. said...

First, you guys are totally making me jealous with that food!! It all looks SO appetizing!!
Second, BETH! We're soooo happy for you! What a GREAT surprise!! I can't WAIT! We love you all soooo much!

caxline said...

I sure have a lot of catching up to do...congratulations to everyone!!!

Anonymous said...

Your blog is so much fun! We feel like we are such a part of everything that you are doing. Thanks for being so diligent in keeping this up to date. You have captured wonderful moments and memories of Kathryn Grace that she will love to look at when she is older. The engagement pictures are great. How exciting. What an amazing food display. I didn't see a picture of the spring rolls. I had no idea our family could be so international.

Elizabeth said...

Congrats to your family: sister and fiance! How exciting! It gave me goosebumps too! Oh and the desserts look heavenly!