Thanksgiving

This year my mom and stepsister came into town and we had Thanksgiving at our house. I love cooking Thanksgiving dinner! It is so fun to make everything just the way we like it and have Mitch home all weekend. I put the turkey in early and then didn’t have to stress about much but just made things slowly.

In the morning it was really sunny and actually nice out (mid-high 50s) so Mitch and my mom and Jacoba took the kids to the playground across the street. I stayed home and made the dough for the rolls, so it’d have time to rise a couple times. That afternoon a storm rolled in and by the time we were eating it was a blizzard outside! Within about 30 minutes the entire yard was covered with snow and the weather dropped about 30 degrees. It was kind of fun cozying up inside with Thanksgiving dinner while it was snowing out.

I made a rosemary roasted turkey stuffed with onions and oranges. We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, fresh green beans, cranberry sauce, of course lots of rolls! I also made a gravy seasoned with fresh squeezed orange juice to lighten it up a bit. Emerson loved the turkey (a first for him, he usually can’t stand meat!) and Genevieve devoured a huge bowl of mashed potatoes. They also ate rolls, green beans, and stuffing. It’s definitely more worth it when your kids are old enough to eat part of the dinner with you.

A couple months ago Mitch gave me his request for Thanksgiving this year. A homemade pumpkin pie with pumpkin puree from scratch. I love a good challenge and was excited to give a go a pumpkin pie, though I have to admit I was scared to get the consistency/texture right. I’m not a huge pumpkin pie fan so I didn’t know how to gauge whether or not it’d be great. I decided to go with Ina Garten because her recipes are fail proof. I added a couple more spices and a little more cream, but it turned out great. Mitch ate almost the entire thing by himself, minus 2 slices.

 

This year I am grateful for so many things, but especially the wonderful little family the Lord has blessed me with. I am so lucky to be married to such a great person and be the mother to such amazing kids.This year we did a little thankful tree which Emerson helped me cut out on November 1st. I bought some dollar store leaves and we wrote each day after dinner several things we were thankful for. I didn’t get a shot with the tree full, but here’s one partway through the month.

Also, we decided again this year to set up our tree the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I love having Christmas around as long as possible, and it makes Thanksgiving weekend so enjoyable. And let’s face it, it’s cold enough here to be Christmastime and our pumpkins died weeks ago; the harvest décor doesn’t really work in Minnesota at the end of November. The kids love it and every day Emerson turns on all the Christmas lights around the house.

Happy thanksgiving!