Sunday, November 30, 2014

Turkey Day 2014

Thanksgiving is officially over and the rowdy children must head back to school bright and early tomorrow... Which I suppose is good and bad-- I'll miss the sleeping in and not having to check homework, pack backpacks, and make lunches every night, but I'm thankful for a routine again after five days without one!
 Wednesday the kids didn't have school, so we hit the gym for a pre-calorie-consuming workout, ran some last minute errands at the grocery store, cooked up some pies and other delicious odds and ends, and then topped the night off with a killer bonfire out back that night. 
 It had poured and poured for a couple of days beforehand so the wood was totally soaked, and it was taking forever to get it started. Jon finally poured a hefty amount of gasoline on top to speed the process up, and I think we may have lost a couple of eyebrows in the process, but we learned a very valuable life lesson along the way! But, the s'mores were a hit!
 Fireside selfie!! Ha ha ha!
 Turkey Day dawned bright and COLD-- and the best part of all is that we all got to sleep in until 7:15 a.m.! Since we didn't have to be to dinner until 4 p.m., and most of my sides were made the day before, we had quite a bit of time to kill. We decided to head to the park and play for a bit, hoping the kids would burn off some energy. Hoping being the operative word in that sentence!
 Leah and the swing stick together like glue. That's pure joy!
 Zach and Lucy scooted around the park until they were cold enough they thought their fingers might fall off (and mine too)! We figured then it was about time to head back home.
 I decided that because I was only supposed to bring ONE pie, and we had TWO pies just sitting around, I might as well help myself to an early serving of banana cream pie for lunch. I figure the recipe is at least 100 years old, and when I tell people "banana cream pie"-- I mean the REAL deal. Not crappy instant pudding. Real old fashioned pudding. The whole nine-yards with heavy cream, a double boiler, and lots and lots of stirring (at least 20 minutes worth). H-E-A-V-E-N. It was quite a way to start the Thanksgiving feasting off. 
 Lucy and Zach started working on some Gingerbread Houses I'd bought the day before, and had a blast decorating their Christmas houses, while I started the laborious process of decorating for Christmas. Ugghh. So much work (I feel you now, Mom!), but worth it.
We'd been invited to share Thanksgiving with some friends in our ward, the Bassett's. They have two kids both the exact same ages as Lucy and Zach, and they get along great (if not a little wild together). I took this during a "selfie-competition" initiated by Whitney, so what you see is what you get: Us, loaded up in the car, me with boiling hot candied yams on my lap (that spilled all over the very first turn), and Luce dressed like an Indian. "Over the River and Through the Woods" to the Bassett's house we go! 
The one and only picture I took-- of the kids eating pie and ice cream right at the end. Oh well. The turkey wasn't quite done when we got there, and not wanting to give everyone the gift of salmonella, we waited and waited until that dang thermometer popped. We got a late start and that kind of threw me off, but it was delicious! Actually, I kind of hate turkey, but who cares.
The next day we spent unstuffing ourselves at the annual "Unstuffathon" at the gym-- a 90 minute workout with pump, step, and flow, that I got to teach at. It was super fun! We headed home to shower, then to a wicked rocket launch, then up to Cary for some power shopping for all the Black Friday deals at Target, Old Navy, REI. and a few other spots. Can't say that we found anything too out-of-this-world, just tons of people and lots of traffic. We decided to get dinner at Red Lobster before heading back home.
Can you see how much Zachary loooooved those garlic cheese biscuits?!? They were the best part of the meal. That night Jon and I organized the day's haul.
Saturday was like a glorious bonus day since we'd already had Thursday and Friday as a holiday-- so the fun just continued. We'd wanted to go to the new "Big Hero 6" but our local theater wasn't playing it-- don't ask (smh)-- so while we finally finished decorating the tree we brainstormed some fun ideas. I had LOTS of little helpers when hanging ornaments, and our tree looks beautiful! Leah LOVES our tree, and is constantly unhooking ornaments, examining them, and then rehanging them. 
 We decided to go paint pottery and make some special gifts for some special grandparents, so Lucy and Zach's pictures aren't posted. Ssshhhh! They're a secret! We ran some more shopping errands, ordered Mellow Mushroom for din-din, and called it a night. Phew! We were all turkeyed out, ha, ha.
All ready for church this morning in her Christmas dress! We are SO thankful for the countless blessings we have of love, home, and family. Being in the military and living so far away has certainly taught us the hard way how thankful we are for our Savior who knows each one of us personally, for each other, for the good AND the bad times, and for the sheer fact that we ARE making it, one day at a time. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!