Thanksgiving 2014

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with friends again this year.

Chopping pecans in the garage so the napping toddler doesn't wake up!

D rigged up our computer-as-a-TV setup this year so I could watch the parade.  I love the parade!  Did you see the Red Hot Mamas from Coeur d'Alene?  You go girls.  I might have to join them!

I was thrilled that M loved watching the parade with me.  He loved the marching bands the best, and Spiderman too.

Our Thankful leaves - we asked M what he was thankful for at dinner.

After the parade was over, we went for a little family jog.  It was warm enough for shorts by the end!  M wanted to get out of the stroller and race D home.

We stuffed ourselves with dinner and M loved sitting at the kids' table.  We're so thankful for our family, friends and this beautiful country that we live in.

Now, Advent is on!  And this year will be a very special Advent for us!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We'll be having another Southern-style Thanksgiving this year.

But we aren't hosting this year, so I'll be putting my feet up!

My Enthusiastic Helper

We're bringing cranberry sauce (this one and this one), my sister's amazing pesto cheese ball appetizer, a cauliflower casserole and two pecan pies for a pecan pie face-off: my aunt's sugary but time-tested recipe and a "healthy" recipe that my sister sent me.  But is pecan pie ever really healthy? =)

Flashback to Thanksgiving 2012

We're also planning to do a family turkey trot together.  There's no entry fee and you get your choice of t-shirt from your dresser when you get home.  But no cheering fans or water stops either, ha!  Hopefully we'll hook up the TV to watch the parade together (I love, love, love the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade) and maybe even hang up our outside Christmas lights.  And we'll definitely be making lots of phone calls to our family in Florida and Tennessee for Thanksgiving this year.

M's First Thanksgiving Day Parade Viewing!

I have so much to be thankful for this year.  Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving day!

Thanksgiving Recap!

Happy First Week of Advent, y'all!

We had a very nice Thanksgiving, although I missed my family terribly!  I have such good memories of spending all Thanksgiving day cooking and prepping with my mom, sisters and grandmother.  It is just not the same when you are doing the cooking yourself.  Next year, we'll have to convince everyone to travel to us!

We hosted two other families, ending up with 7 adults and 7 kids ages 6 and under!  It was a crazy, fun chaos.  Little M was so excited when the doorbell rang, but then he quickly became overwhelmed by all of the bigger kids playing with his toys.  He eventually settled down and got right into the mix.

I made the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, company corn, mac & cheese and an apple pie.  First time making my gravy and apple pie crust from scratch and both turned out well so I was very pleased.  We also had stuffing, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, homemade rolls, pecan pie and Mississippi mud cake.  My mom friends are also from the South, so we had a little bit of a Southern theme going on! =)

Oh, I shouldn't forget to mention that M & I did a 5k Turkey Trot that was an utter disaster.  Poor M was yelling and crying just about the whole way.  He did fine for the first mile, but then just got more and more upset.  Of course when he really started falling apart, I was thinking that we were closer to the turn around point than the finish line.  So, I thought it made more sense to keep going until the turn-around rather than just turn around earlier.  It was cold out (28 degrees), but I don't think he was crying because of the cold because I reached into the stroller and was holding his hand to help calm him down and it felt warm.  In fact, the hand holding was the only thing that really calmed him down but it made for some awkward jogging/stroller pushing!

Nevertheless we finished the entire race and I let him out of the stroller as soon as we stepped off of the trail.  He made a beeline for some dump trucks parked at a nearby construction site.  I think he really was hollering because I didn't let him out earlier to go look at those.  We were certainly a sight, and so I was too embarrassed to ask anyone to take a picture of us, haha!

Tonight we lit our first Advent candle at home and sang an off-key verse of O Come, O Come Emmanuel.  M loved it and was totally fascinated by the candle lighting, so that made it a lot of fun.  I am looking forward to building our family Advent traditions, and would love to hear any suggestions for celebrating this special season!

Do you have any Advent traditions?  Please share!  Have a great week!

Just about the only pic we have from Thanksgiving - making apple pie for my beloved!

Thanksgiving is Right Around the Corner!

Hi there!

It's been a busy, but great week.  We got our fingerprints taken again today to update our adoption home study. We have sent out revised adoption portfolios to our attorney in Washington and to the local agency.  So, we continue to wait, and pray!

In the meantime, we'll be hosting a "southern style" Thanksgiving.  We are having two families come over and both of my girlfriends are transplanted Southerners like me, so it should be fun and full of butter!  There will be 7 kids age 6 and under so we are hoping for chaos.

I'm making the turkey, gravy, potatoes, mac & cheese and an apple pie.  My hardworking husband loves apple pie, so you know I aim to please.  Is mac & cheese a standard Thanksgiving dish?  We never had it when I was growing up, but I made a Pioneer Woman recipe last year and really liked it, so I am planning to make it again, even though my friend's young daughter declared that it was merely "interesting."  I've asked my friends what they want to bring.  If no one volunteers to make green bean casserole or corn casserole, I might make those too.  I loved making these dishes with my mom and sisters growing up, so they are "must-haves" for me!

We frequently hosted Thanksgiving when I was growing up, so I have fond memories of cooking all day with my mom and sisters, and then eating outside at one big table with the extended family.  That's one of the benefits of Thanksgiving in Florida - you can eat outside with a gorgeous view of the river! 

We go around the table with the usual "what are you thankful for" but also other questions like "what do you want to be when you grow up" (best answer was from my nephew who was 4 and said he wanted to drive ships like his Dad), advice for the cousin graduating from college or advice for the cousin getting married (my Uncle advised D that year that "we all come with her!") 

We also went to NYC and watched the parade for several years.  That was a ton of fun too - I got up early with my mom and her two sisters to stake out our spot on the parade route, we played football in Central Park and shopped, of course!  We've also had our share of sadness at Thanksgiving - my Uncle died on Thanksgiving Day 2003, actually en route to the family gathering that year.  It was tragic and we all continue to miss him, but I am so thankful for the great memories of him that I have.  I'll definitely be thinking of all of our family spread across America this Thanksgiving, and thankful for our many blessings.

How will you be celebrating your Thanksgiving?  I hope you have a great weekend!