Thanksgiving Day in Photos

Sweet nephew

So thankful to be her mama!

Watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade... it's the little things.

The table is set.



Cousins!  We love our "Give Thanks" T's, Meredith!

Dinner is served!

Apple Sausage, Cranberry, and Cornbread Stuffing
Green Beans with Bacon
Carmelized Sweet Potatoes

Whole-Wheat Buttermilk "Thankful" Rolls with Rosemary

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Apple Pie by Granda Ogle

Most of the photos were taken by my sister-in-law, Steph.  Check out her blog.


I am beyond blessed!  Every day, I think of at least one if not a thousand ways I feel lucky because I'm fairly certain I don't deserve the life I've been given.



Christmas in the Air

It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.  ~W.T. Ellis

We took Chris and Steph out to visit longtime friends, the Smith Family, and spend a little time at

The Holiday Acres Christmas Tree Farm in Manvel.  As with all of the trips we've made out to the farm, we had a blast!  The weather was simply gorgeous for spending a Saturday outside and a wonderful spot to put ourselves in the Christmas spirit.

When we pulled up, the place was hoppin'.  I have never in my life seen such a busy Christmas Tree farm!  But there were plenty of willing hands to help and tons of things to do there. 



We took a hayride out into the fields.  The trees looked great!



The kiddos took part in some Texas-style sledding on the sand pile.

Justus had to show off some of his daredevil moves!



Brother and sister playing together.



After that, they spent some adventurous time climbing around on the tops of the large round hay bales. We chatted with our friends and sipped some hot cocoa and apple cider.

We came home with a proper fresh wreath for the front door!  Love it!

Make a memory... "Like" Holiday Acres here.

What's for Dinner?

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Chris, Stephani, and my sweet nephew arrived safely yesterday afternoon.  Everyone is happily adding what they are thankful for as leaves to our Thanksgiving Blessing Tree.  Lexi needs me to help her add "Butterfly Kisses" this morning.  How precious is that?!?

As I told you before, I'm so excited about a normal Thanksgiving.  I'm delighting in our very vanilla Thanksgiving plans.  Parades and cooking.  The kids have Give Thanks T-shirts thanks to my sweet friend, who screenprinted them for us.  (If you pray, would you take a second and pray for her family this Thanksgiving?  Her five month old boy has RSV and her mom is really having a hard time recovering from her last chemotherapy treatment.  They will be skipping Thanksgiving this year.  That's a lot for one mama, so she is definitely on my mind today!)  Once the kids are dressed, I can get some pics posted.

Justus and I had to run to the grocery store last night (see story under Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake below).  We looked all over for Thanksgiving napkins to no avail.  It occurred to me that I might have purchased some last year on clearance and stashed them away.  Justus was pretty sure I hadn't done that, so a bet ensued.  It appears that I'll be the recepient of a 30 minute massage, including hands and feet (Justus' idea, not mine) AND I'll have cute napkins on my table today.  Love that kid! 

Speaking of the table... It's incredible how much effort can go into one meal!  Not only is the exertion immense, there is much passion around what must be on the table or it's not Thanksgiving.  What are your deal-breakers?  Mine are pretty basic... I must have turkey and mashed potatoes.  With Thanksgiving staples like that, I'm generally a pretty happy customer!

So what's on your table?

Our Thanksgiving Menu:

Roast Turkey with Prosiutto, Rosemary,and Garlic

Easy Gravy

not easy, as in warm it out of a jar, but pretty easy

Apple Sausage, Cranberry, and Corn Bread Stuffing

my first attempt at real, homemade stuffing!

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

Green Beans with Parmesan Bacon
calling an audible on this one.

Carmelized Sweet Potato Wedges

Whole Wheat Buttermilk Rolls with Rosemary

these will be "Thankful Rolls".  We're going to bake them with a small piece of paper wrapped in foil baked inside that has a sentence starter about what or why you're thankful for various people or things.  The kids are going to love it!

Apple Pie by Grandma Ople

3.441 people rating it with five stars on All-Recipes can't be wrong!

Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

I baked it and just as I was pulling the gorgeous dessert from the oven, the bottom of the springform pan collapsed up and the entire pie dumped in the bottom of my oven.  Another trip to the grocery store and another baking session later, a Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake sits proudly in my spare refrigerator.  And my little brother, who happens to be a cheesecake fanatic, is extra loved today!

And I'm pretty pumped about make some Creamy Turkey Soup with Cheddar Dill Biscuits out of the leftovers!  Sounds delish.

Getting My Craft On

I am sooo making a Faux Curled Rosewood Wreath!

It will be perfect on my front door right after the Christmas wreath comes down... but my Christmas wreath won't make it's debut until after Thanksgiving this year.  (Thanksgiving, I'm committed to you this year!  No skipping over you, PROMISE!)  And I love the $1 pricetag!  This should make up for the $40 in supplies I spent on my shameless copycat of Meredith's copy (did you ever finish it, Hon?) of Tatertots and Jello's Modern Fall Wreath that was a take off of  Amy Butler's door in Mary Englbreigt Home Companion Christmas Magazine!  (And isn't it so funny how we all learn from each other, but put our own fingerprints on what we do?  I love it!)  But it turned out oh-so-cute, at least I think so!

I'm also making some decorative clipboards.  I've started one for each member of the family to hold our routines and the kids' chore charts.  I chose legal sized clipboards so that some of the decoration could hang down below the papers.  We were pretty well on track with our routines at the beginning of the school year, but having them posted in the kids' rooms made it harder to enforce.  So, the new clipboards will find a home in the laundry room near the kitchen and hopefully will add some new life to structure and routine at our house!

I'll show you their routines and chore charts.  I plan on laminating them and use Vis-a-Vis markers to check them off each week, so we can be just a little greener!

Guess I'd better finish up those two projects before I start working on the other ones floating around in my head.  Oh, that reminds me!  Maybe Justus' "10 Things I Love About You" album arrived in the mail.