Thanksgiving 2010

Well, here I sit on Sunday night as the Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close.  I always dread Sunday nights, but a Sunday night after a long holiday weekend is especially dreadful!

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.  We spent the weekend with Brandon's family and enjoyed several rounds of dominoes, a lot of food, Black Friday shopping and just time spent together.

Brandon's sister's husband had to work on Thursday, so we had our Thanksgiving meal on Friday.  But, on Thursday, we spent the day cooking, playing games and planning our Black Friday shopping trip.  Pam and Ashley had a few things they wanted to buy but I was just going along for the ride.  We had lasagna for dinner that night and some really yummy brownies for dessert.  We also played a few rounds of dominoes and the boys smoked us girls.  At least Ashley won one round :)

Pam and Ashley got up REALLY early on Friday to start shopping.  They were up and out of the house by 2 a.m. to hit the early-bird sales.  I was in such a deep sleep I didn't even hear them leave, but I did meet up with them around 5 a.m.  We had a great time shopping, got some great deals (that must be kept a secret), we each got a new purse and we just enjoyed our time together.  I had planned to take pictures of our adventures, but we got so busy shopping I completely forgot!  Brandon and his dad met us a little later in the day, but they didn't hang with us for too long.

After we got done shopping, we came home and pulled together our Thanksgiving meal.

{The three cooks!}

We put a turkey breast in the crockpot and that was a life saver!  The oven was freed up for other dishes and the turkey was so tender and juicy.  We had so much food we could have fed twice the amount of people, but it all made for great leftovers (at least on Friday...none of us wanted to touch the leftovers the rest of the weekend!)

I guess you could say the meal could be summed up below:

After we finished cleaning up the kitchen, we headed to the park to take a family picture.  Ashley has been wanting to take pictures in our favorite team shirts, so this weekend seemed like the perfect time.

Clearly, the dogs were not very interested in the picture taking.  I think they were actually thoroughly embarrassed that they were wearing shirts in public.

After the picture taking, we came back home and pretty much vegged out the rest of the day.  After all, a few of us had been awake for quite some time!

Saturday morning, we slept in and then Pam and I went to a wreath making class at a local garden store and the boys headed up to Brandon's job site for a while.  Pam and I had a blast making fresh wreaths (again, I meant to take pictures but got so focused on the wreath making that I forgot to snap a pic) and they actually turned out pretty good!  We met the guys back at the house before heading out to do a bit more shopping.  Later that night, Craig's sister and her husband stopped by to visit and then it was time for everyone to leave.  Pam and Craig headed back to Newton and we headed to bed :)

Today, we went to church and came home to put up Christmas decorations!  I got the Christmas tree assembled and decorated while Brandon put the lights on the house.  We still have a few more items to do, but we got a good start.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed the time with family and friends!  Only a few weeks until Christmas!

Thankful

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for:

Jesus Christ dying on the cross for my sins * a loving husband * good jobs (that we still have) * a loving family * cute nieces who make me laugh * a wonderful family-in-law * good friends who are so special to us * good health * our freedom and those who protect us in order to keep that freedom * a cozy home that keeps us warm * my puppy and his crazy antics * Twitter * space heaters  * Netflix * cookies * non-junk mail mail * a dishwasher * Starbucks * Crate and Barrel *.

Of course I had to throw in a few practical items to be thankful for, but seriously, this year I am so thankful for our health, our families and the promise of a future with Jesus.  We have seen time and time again that our life here on this earth is so short and that we take a lot of things for granted.  I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and cherishes the time with loved ones!!

Alternative Thanksgiving

It's November 2!!!  How can this be??  To me, once November hits, the year just flies by, however, this whole year has flown by so I'm not sure what to think about the next two months. 

As November arrives, it also means it is time to start the holiday preparations.  This year, we are celebrating Thanksgiving with Brandon's family but we are celebrating the day after.  While I won't be hosting the official Turkey Day meal, I will be hosting part of the family on Thursday and I want to prepare a fun alternative Thanksgiving meal, but I need help thinking of what to do.  Below are the specs for the day:

• Small gathering = 5 people
• Want to do as much prep ahead of time
• Could be a themed meal
• Not opposed to using my china, however, the thought of hand-washing all of my dishes for just 5 of us is not so appealing
• Football will be on TV
• Thinking of doing a brunch around 10 so we don't have to plan three meals that day

I've thought about doing an Italian meal since I could do a lot of prep ahead of time (enter Grandma's lasagna recipe).  I've also thought about doing heavy appetizers and having a sampling of treats, but that seems like more work.  Because I love to cook for a crowd and entertain and I still want the day to be special, I wouldn't mind making something different and unique, either.  Oh decisions, decisions! 

Has anyone else ever prepared an alternative holiday meal? Any new (to me) recipes out there that I need to try?  Any tips for a stress free day?