Thanksgiving

It's about time I write about our Thanksgiving, seeing as Christmas is only ten days away!  If I don't do it now, I never will.

 

We had a very nice, very relaxing holiday together.  We actually did have the opportunity to celebrate with some local friends, but in the end, we decided to have a quiet weekend to ourselves.  It's a good thing we did, because I'm not sure our friends could have fit another family, especially us with our crazy kids, in their house!  

 

We started a new tradition this year.  I knew the kids would want to be snacking all morning, and I also knew this would drive me crazy.  I thought a veggie tray would be a good solution.  Thanks to pinterest, I found an idea for a fun one and we went to town on it.  Delicious!

 



 

It's a turkey.  Can you tell?  I will have to refine my design over the years, but the turkey will definitely stay.

 

I don't think the veggies lasted too long, with all my little nibblers floating around. except for the broccoli.  For some reason the it was the most bitter broccoli I have ever had.  Thanks a lot, Walmart.

 

 

 

We had to take a picture to commemorate the meal.  Since it was Joel and me with regular appetites, and three small children with, well, small appetites, I had to forgo some of the regular dishes.  No sweet potatoes, no green bean casserole (although I can't say I've ever had it), no greens aside from our festive veggie tray.  Our must-haves were what I made, and they were:  ROLLS, turkey, gravy (from the drippings, of course), mashed potatoes, stuffing, cran-raspberry jello with mandarin oranges, and cranberry sauce with orange zest.

 

We still had enough food to last us for a few days.  After we polished off the turkey, I made a ham and we continued eating leftovers until we were sick of them.

 

 The best part of the meal by far was the PIE! I love to have good pie on Thanksgiving. Growing up this way for 19 years precludes me from changing my preference any time soon! And, I have to say, narrowing it down to three was tough. Apple, Raspberry, Peppermint Icebox, Lemon Meringue, Banana Cream, Pumpkin, Cheesecake, Coconut. . .well, there is no way we would have been able to eat that much.

 

 

(I didn't arrange these very artfully because it wasn't a planned photo, but you get the gist of it.)

 

Joel helped me make pies.  Yep, he had a hand in the pie crust and basically completed the entire pumpkin pie on his own.  And it was the best pumpkin pie I have had in a very long time, if not ever.  The others are raspberry cream (half the pie had bananas instead of berries) and coconut cream.  The coconut cream was a bit of a disappointment, although I've had great luck with that recipe in the past.  Nothing tasted awful, so we will count that as a success!

 

 

 

 I can always tell when the pies are good, because they disappear gradually in the fridge when I'm not looking.  It looks like a little mouse has been nibbling at it.  No, it is never the kids.  Joel takes a fork to it now and then and we are left with the raggedy edges.  I'm glad he enjoyed them.

 

 

James was especially thrilled with the unusual deluge of delicious foods and the abundance of people home to share with him.

I think we all had a great holiday.  Even though we really missed out on a lot of fun with our families in Utah, I'm glad we like each other enough to enjoy a long weekend all together.