Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  Since we don't live close to family, our neighbors invited us to eat with them.  Suddenly they  had a change of plans and had to go out of town.  Did we mind?  No way!  Sometimes the holidays are the best when we can be our normal, relaxed selves.  We had Thanksgiving with just our little family last year as well.  Everyone chooses their favorite thing, we make it, and we just eat when it's ready.  It's fantastic!

Joel decided this year that he was going to make the pie crusts and pumpkin pies.  The kids wanted to help, of course.  William would have helped too but I think at this point he was curled up asleep on the couch, as he usually prefers to be in the late afternoon.

Everett and Ashley each got to choose how to design the edge of their pie crust.  Ashley made an arched pattern all the way around with spoon imprints, and Everett opted for a more simple scallop.  They did a pretty good job for their first try.

The next day (which was actual Thanksgiving), the kids made the veggie turkey.  They remembered doing this last year and decided we just had to do it again.  So I gave them the veggies and a big pan and let them go to work.  Not bad.  And snacking on it keeps everyone's hunger at bay while the real turkey finishes roasting.

We had a nice dinner.  We had the traditional cranberry-orange jello that I like, as well as cranberry sauce, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, and turkey.  We also had cranberry ginger ale to drink, so I guess you could say that cranberries were a theme of this dinner.  Unfortunately, Joel's only request was stuffing and I totally forgot to make it.  Whoops.  He didn't even notice until I pointed it out to him, so then I felt less guilty.  I did make it for him the next day when we had Thanksgiving Dinner, part II.

For dessert we had two pumpkin pies and a raspberry cream.  Joel made the pumpkin pies and they were delicious.  I completely bombed the raspberry cream.  I have never messed that pie up before.  I'm not sure what happened, but it was a little disappointing!  I look forward to eating Thanksgiving pie all year long.  Unfortunately (fortunately?), this pregnancy has given me a general distaste for sweet things and one small slice of each on the day of Thanksgiving was all I could handle.  

But let's just say the kids loved the pumpkin pies.  I may or may not have let them eat them willy-nilly and two days later, the pies were both gone.  When I first married Joel, he told me he wasn't a big dessert fan, but he enjoyed the pies at least as much as the kids did.  I guess some things do change.

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, Everett decided it was time to decorate for Christmas.  So here is Christmas, Everett-style.  Star Wars goes with everything, right?

We really missed our families this year, and our kids would have had a blast playing with all of their cousins, but it was a relaxing holiday so we can't complain too much.