Thanksgiving 2011 Recap

The biggest eating day of the year has come and gone. I enjoyed every moment of the prep and cooking this year and felt very thankful indeed. We kept the tables simple. The kids designed their own table covering which provided the added bonus of keeping them busy during the last push to get the cooking finished. My Maddie is always a huge help to me preparing Thanksgiving dinner and this year was no different.

Emma's turkey drawing above says "Don't make me dinner". But we did. We had smoked turkey, smoked pork, ham, gorgonzola mashed potatoes, green beans, fresh cranberries, sweet potatoes, baked mac and cheese, yeast rolls and stuffing.

 Speaking of stuffing, our post Thanksgiving tradition is to take the leftover stuffing, put it in a pan, sprinkle it with shredded cheese, beat some eggs and milk (4 eggs and about 1/3 cup milk for this amount) and bake it for 30 mins at 350°. Fast and easy because I don't know about you but I won't be in much of a cooking mood for several days.

There was no Black Friday shopping here. Instead there was a mani/pedi with a bold color choice (Mermaid Tears) for my happy toes and the Village Christmas tree lighting. Now we are all feeling fat and happy. Our company has all flown the nest and the house seems more quiet than usual. We are all soaking it in.

Today we are putting our feet up and doing nothing more strenuous than watching movies, reading and playing on the computer. Tomorrow the Autumn decorations come down (or today if I am feeling ambitious) and little bits of Christmas will start to show up around the house. Sweet Hubby will pretend that there is no way the tree is going up before December 1st and I will pretend to agree with him. This is just the beginning of our holiday traditions.

I find myself wishing I could slow down time this next month. I want to absorb every merry minute. I'm going to do my best to live in the moment for the next 30 days. Maybe with some practice I will be able to make that a way of life.