Thanksgiving 2010

Turkey, dressing (two kinds), mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato souffle, squash casserole, carrots, green beans, cranberry sauce, strawberry salad (a.k.a. the pink stuff), cucumber and fennel salad, pumpkin creme caramel, pumpkin cheesecake, apple pie -- another Thanksgiving dinner down in the books. Yum. I do love Thanksgiving.

This year, we celebrated the holiday at my parents' house for the first time in at least six years, if you can believe that!! I give my compliments to the chef for a fabulous meal. Daddy, you outdid yourself!! The food was absolutely amazing! Seriously, the turkey was the best I have ever tasted.

Jacob and Annabelle enjoyed their meal as well, especially Annabelle. I wasn't sure what either of them would eat because their tastes and appetites change on an hourly basis. I served each of them a sampler platter with a little of each dish on the plate. Jacob hardly touched any of the food, except for the "pink stuff," which is more like a dessert. His sister, on the other hand, ate almost an entire plate full of food -- a girl after my own heart. Annabelle seems to love Thanksgiving as much as I do.

My contribution to the meal was Paula Deen's Southern Cornbread Stuffing and a dessert I had never made before -- Pumpkin Creme Caramel. Heath found the recipe in a magazine and said, "We have got to make this!" Of course, when he said, "we" what he really meant was "you." I'm a sucker for anything pumpkin, so I obliged and tried out the new recipe. It was incredible (if I do say so myself). However, had I actually read the recipe before I decided to make this yummy-looking dessert, I probably would have opted to try something else. It was a little complicated, but well worth the effort.

We spent the better part of an hour being thankful (eating) for all the blessings God has so graciously poured out on our lives. Then, after dessert, came the clean-up -- my least favorite part of Thanksgiving...or any meal for that matter. We spent almost four hours in the kitchen washing pots and pans, storing leftovers, eating leftovers, rearranging the contents of the refrigerator to make room for leftovers, wiping counters, mopping the floor, eating more leftovers, rewiping counters, etc... It seemed like a never-ending cycle.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted, not to mention, over-stuffed, but I wanted to do some black Friday shopping, so my mom and I headed out to Toys 'R Us. They opened at 10:00 PM. We got there at 11:00 PM. The line to enter the store was still wrapped around the shopping center and we were told it would be at least an hour before we even got close to the door. So, we hopped back into the car and drove over to the outlets instead, which were crowded, but much more accessible. We shopped a little, stood in line a lot, shopped a little more, stood in line a lot more. The lines may have been long, but we came away with some great deals. We went to a few other places afterwards and ended up arriving home around 9:00 AM. Whew. What a night! I'd like to think all the shopping helped me burn at least half the calories of that Thanksgiving meal, though. :)

It's a good thing I burned so many calories that night because the next day, we headed over to the Duncans' for more delicious Thanksgiving leftovers where I stuffed myself yet again. That's another thing I love about Thanksgiving -- the leftovers. Isn't it great to walk into the kitchen at any given moment and know that a whole smorgasbord of all of your favorite foods awaits? Haha...smorgasbord....that word just makes me laugh for some reason. :)

So, another Thanksgiving has come and gone. Now, it's full speed ahead to Christmas!