Thanksgiving, Birthdays, Elfing!

Well, of course I made pies the day before:

And they turned out quite toothsome, I must say.  Although I realized we would have to eat a whole one in record time because of only owning two pie plates and the Husband asking for birthday pie instead of cake.  Hm.

(Old birthday cake on the day before Thanksgiving...seems a bit anti-climactic, doesn't it?  But he liked it.)

Kept him away from the pies, anyway.

He was miffed all day long that I wasn't giving him things like pecans, pumpkin cans, and raw turkey to eat. Life is hard when you're a baby and you've got mouth sores and a rash and are itchy, tired, and hungry.

Our version of The Tearing of The Bread this year: Southern cornbread stuffing.  It actually turned out to be pretty acceptable, but you can't really call it stuffing.  (And actually they don't, down here--they call it "turkey dressing".)

The morning of the day: there's my thawed turkey breast and my bowl for shrimp cocktail.  And my trusty America's Test Kitchen cookbook, source of all perfect recipes.

For some reason one always goes through so much celery on Thanksgiving.

My fridge.  On Thanksgiving you stack creatively and lie to yourself that this is okay and normal.

Somehow I managed to buy horseradish sauce instead of plain horseradish for the shrimp cocktail, which I didn't notice (of course) until I opened the bottle while putting the stuff together.  So it was pink instead of red, which was weird, but it tasted good.

(Odd note: my shrimp was marked "product of the United Arab Emirates" - did you know that's where salad shrimp came from?)

They liked the pink shrimp cocktail.  (Miss Boo: "Because pink is my favorite color, Mama!")

Mostly they liked the crackers.

In fact I'm not sure if he ate anything besides crackers, pie, and whipped cream all day.

The rolls, rising, on parchment paper.

My oven...good thing the turkey was in the electric roasting pan.

Our table.  We risked using the china, because I was lonesome for it.  The kids did really well with it.  (Obviously Littleman did not get a china plate.  Or any plate, actually.)

I took off my heels after the dinner (Miss Boo dressed me) and so she kindly took over the Fancy Dressed Lady work for me.

He's blurry because he's fast.

He's a speed demon on this trike.  What would Thanksgiving be without babies careening through the kitchen on trikes as fast as they can pedal?  I ask you.

Then, of course, today we had the Husband's birthday and the Elfing of the house.  This house is just built for Christmas decorating, I must say.

It was fun to pull out all our old friends--my nutcracker and the music box from Great-Grandma.

The Husband's advent calender (to be filled with goodies..I'm not quite on that yet...)

The green reindeer that used to be Baba's that Buddy absolutely. adores., and that Mama has to consequently keep up high and dole out visits with sparingly.

This is just the keyboard they play with--I thought it was cute.

Our new advent wreath.  I went looking for them online and this one just seemed to call our name.  I'm going to get a sprig of holly to put in the middle, until it's time for the white candle.  (See the Husband's hand in the background?)

And the Christmas tree, of course.  (See me reflected in the bulb?)

Another ornament that used to be Baba's, that we are quite thrilled with.

The kids decorated too.  Luckily we have spare stockings.

The December issue of Victoria, which I look through each year for Just Dreamin'-style inspiration....and today's paper, which notes the high will be 71F.

I really don't know what to make of Texas sometimes.

Cheers,

Breanna