Please Pass the Potatoes

So another Thanksgiving has come and gone, there was a lot to be thankful for this year, as usual. We are grateful to all be together again, have a beautiful new home and new friends, to have the gospel in our lives, to have a husband and father who provides well and works hard, and last but not least --no trips to the hospital lately (knock on wood).

On the morning of Turkey Day, I made egg nog pancakes, which is becoming a tradition, and Chris met up with a bunch of men from church (and Sisiter Faerber -- You go girl!!!) and played football at the UMD stadium. Since then, I've heard many rave reviews about his football abilities, although his ankles have been paying for it the last two days now...

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Our plans for dinner were to go to the Jones' house with some other families for a pot luck Thanksgiving, but the day before, Ella came down with a nasty cough... so... I called our friends to cancel, pulled our emergency Turkey out of the freezer, and made a last minute trip to the store. Much to my amazement, I actually pulled off a pretty impressive Thanksgiving all on my own. Everything was from scratch except the cranberry sauce (I like the canned stuff) and the Jell-O cheesecake that Solei had requested. I even made Chris's favorite - old fashioned banana cream pie -- you know, the kind you have to stir for an hour till it bubbles. With no double oven, I debated on how to cook the turkey, potato casserole, rolls and pies all at once, so I tried something new: the crock pot. With a handful of herbs and spices, some olive oil, and 8 hours of simmering, we had a juicy, tender turkey that was the most delicious I've ever made. I felt like a true woman! Of course, I did have some little helpers along the way; Sierra peeled the potatoes and Chris mashed them (great job too, they were perfect!), Solei helped with dishes and the two little ones stirred the ambrosia salad. It was a great joint effort.

The layout - nothing fancy, but it's all good

The turkey - nothing pretty, but very yummy!

We finally ate around 4:00 -- late for Thanksgiving, I know, but on such short notice, that's how it goes. After our bellies were full, we passed the Thanksgiving hot potato around the table, expressing what we were grateful for, until Chris mashed the potato (it wasn't very hot anymore) and declared the game over. All in all, it was a good family day.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Monday night we had family night at the library again. I took Tuesday off as a "sick day" -- well, as much as a mom is allowed to at least -- skipped pilates, did minimal cleaning and served leftovers.

We started our Christmas shopping this weekend. It was a little depressing -- it being the day after Thanksgiving and Sam's Club was practically empty... same with the mall. Target was faring a little better, but not much. Kmart had about 3 cars in their parking lot. Sure, it was later in the day when we went, but in Payson I struggled to find a parking spot at Walmart anytime during the holidays... Maybe this is normal for Duluth, I don't know. There are less kids to shop for around here. I hope that is why, but I don't think so. On the positive side, maybe the poor economy will be a good thing, people can get back to the real spirit of Christmas, not all the commercialized hype. Personally I am tired of it all... I told Chris that I hate it when commercials say stuff like "you deserve a break", or "go ahead, you've earned it" -- they don't know me from Adam, how can they say I deserve something? It just annoys me, I guess.

Yesterday, Sister Faerber offered to take Sierra to go see the movie "Bolt"with Marissa. While she was gone, Chris and I organized the garage. We listed our crib, dresser, ping pong table and mattress on Craigs list for free and within a couple hours, they were all gone. Brother Scott came and took our washer and dryer -- they just adopted 8 kids all at once, so they are going to need them! We probably could have made some money if we had sold it all, but we were just glad to get rid of it at this point-- no basement to store it.