Christmas Cats and the Blue Devils

I am very full with a belly of jalapeno popper mac and cheese and have decided to write away my food coma!

Yesterday was Aunt Eileen's birthday and I started off her day properly by making her some banana chocolate chip muffins, because who doesn't like fresh muffins on any day, much less a day dedicated to them?! It was a recipe I'd never used before (I'd actually never made banana chocolate chip muffins from scratch before) but I think they turned out quite handsomely.

After breakfast, I helped Aunt Eileen open her gifts, of which there were a lot and then I ended up with a little something -- I am currently dealing with some insanity involving a package that I was expecting to be forwarded to California but was instead forwarded to Missoula (not that anyone felt the need to tell me) and was then misplaced and now I will apparently be getting this package when I return on Saturday, but I still ended up getting something from the postman here in Davis.

Mr. Ryan Lind sent me the best sweatshirt in the history of holiday-themed cat clothing. I'm developing quite the collection of cat clothing... but I'm so excited to break this one in after Thanksgiving. It is going to make the rest of the Purrsdays and Caturdays of this tour far more special!

After the fun of the morning, it was time for my cousin, Sarah, to get here! Yay!

We went out for a very nice dinner last night because it was my aunt's birthday and I ate the best Italian food I've had since Italy! It was awesome. We capped the night off with complimentary pomegranate limoncello, which I liked a lot more than the limoncello I actually drank in Italy.

Today, I got to see some more of Davis when Sarah and I went out. We stopped at CVS, where I discovered that Davis High School's macot is the blue devil -- like Easy A. I love Easy A and Sarah told me that the Christian kids at her high school launched a campaign to change the mascot every year the same way they do in the movie, so it's pretty amazing. I took a picture as proof, but I might have to go back and buy an actual shirt because it's spectacular (although nothing beats my new cat sweatshirt).

After that, Sarah took me to visit another Davis landmark, the Toad Tunnel. From what I've heard from Sarah and Eileen, a lot of what happens in Davis sounds like an episode of Parks and Rec -- like the mayor who wanted to outlaw 4th of July fireworks because they disturbed the butterflies or the lady who thought crossing guards should be dressed as vegetables to promote a balanced diet -- and the Toad Tunnel sounds just as strange as it turned out to be.

The Toad Tunnel was built at the same time Davis got a new overpass because everyone was worried about the toads getting run over, so they built a tunnel for the toads to hop underneath the road instead. Not only did they build this tunnel for the toads, but they've also crafted Toad Hollow -- a little toad themed village -- to go along with it. Like I said, all of this sounds like it belongs in Pawnee, IN with Leslie Knope.

After that, we went to the Davis Farmer's Market to get some last minute Thanksgiving supplies and then we got some pizza for lunch. When we got back to the house, we discovered that there would be a Sister Act marathon slated for the afternoon, which we were both very excited about. (We killed some time by watching Gone With the Wind on AMC and now that Sister Act is over, we've gone back to AMC and have picked up in essentially the same spot).

I was also very excited about tonight's dinner. Aunt Eileen gave me her kitchen and I made jalapeno popper mac and cheese! We considered saving it for tomorrow but there is going to be a lot of food, so we decided that we would start celebrating a day early because if there is anything I am thankful for in this world, it is mac and cheese. It was so delicious!!! And now I've got a full belly to get me through the night before all the food tomorrow.

Happy (no) Turkey Day!