I was super excited to have my parents and Leah here for Thanksgiving this year! It's been three years since I got to spend the holidays with anyone from my family, and I was definitely feeling overdue! I thought with everyone being here for a week we'd have plenty of time to do all the stuff I wanted to do, so it was amazing how hard it was to schedule anything-- first, my kids still had school on Monday and Tuesday, and --naturally-- the best weather best was on Thursday, the one day we weren't going to do anything other than being in the house cooking! But we still made the most of things and had a TON of fun!
On Monday Leah got up early and did FiA with me, so that was a lot of fun. Her FiA name is now Seahawk, which was perfect. And then later in the morning we all went on a short hike at Ragged Mountain while my kids were in school. It was very exciting to see my Mom just hiking along with her new bionic knees! The last time she came to Virginia, she really couldn't walk very far at all, but now she can do a couple miles! Yay for modern medicine!
After our hike, Dad and I went to Costco and got pumpkin pies and a lot of snacky foods for everyone. Dad was impressed by how not crowded our Costco was-- I don't always appreciate how great it is to NOT be crowded...
Also on Monday, the grown ups got dinner at Five Guys and I made mac'n'cheese for the kids. It's always exciting to eat out without kids!
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| And they were thrilled because they got chips with dinner! |
Tuesday I mostly was busy making any food that could be made ahead of time. I got the mashed potatoes and cranberry relish made, and also some homemade ranch dressing just for fun. I ran to Food Lion for all the stuff I'd forgotten. And I also made a big pot of chili for everyone for dinner. And I finished the night by making the turkey brine (which included wandering around in my yard in the freezing cold to pick rosemary!) so it could cool overnight.
Wednesday Leah and I did FiA again except this time Leah led us all in a boxing workout and it was AWESOME! I was so proud of her for being willing to do something like that. It was a lot of fun and even though it was 27 ℉ she kept us working up a sweat!
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| L-R: Raven, Raptor, Baller, Kondo, Soprano, Seahawk! |
We had such a great time at the zoo! It was cold outside, but we managed to bundle enough for it to not bother us, so that was a relief! We got home, ordered pizzas for everyone, and then Craig got to work making pies and my Mom tried to make my Grandma's jello salad, but we had no idea how to make it, so we had to call Rachael for recipe help (which was hilarious since Rachael GOT the recipe from my Mom!). It was feeling a bit like the technical challenge on GBBO where we were missing half the directions...
On the big day, I immediately got my rolls started, then Leah and I walked our neighborhood 5K with my friend Brandy. It was beautiful outside-- sunny and warming up, to the point that when we walked past my house, Leah and I threw our vests and gloves into her car so we didn't have to wear or carry them any more! When we got home, it was to a clean kitchen and Craig and my Mom had washed all the china so that was fantastic. I was able to get right back to work on my rolls! Craig acted as my sous chef and he was so helpful. This recipe has you dipping the dough in melted butter (which is DELICIOUS), so your hands are a big greasy mess and you can't touch anything else. So it's really nice if you have someone else on deck to grab stuff or melt more butter for you as needed.
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| Just waiting for the rest of the food now! |
As soon as I'd finished and cleaned off the counters, it was Craig's turn to get the turkey going! And then we were both cooking pretty much all day. It was exhausting. But everything turned out delicious and we had a very happy dinner!
For posterity's sake, the full menu ended up looking like this:
turkey* (C) 12:30Thstuffing (C) 11:30Th
sweet potatoes* x 3 (C) 3:00Th
gravy (C) 4:00Th
pumpkin pie (Costco, 2)M
Carrots (D) 2:00Th
Creamed spinach (L) 1:00Th
So we had a LOT of food. AND we were aiming to eat at 5:00pm, and it was all ready to go at 4:53, so props to Craig for running an extremely tight ship! |
| This must be Craig's plate. I piled a LOT more food than this onto mine... |
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| Brian is an AMAZING photographer, so I think it's hilarious that he got his finger in this picture! 😄 |
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Colton insisted that this year HE get a drumstick!
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So that was all wonderful. I let everyone clean dishes while Craig, Dad, and I went for a quick walk around the neighborhood, and then it was pie time!
Such a happy Thanksgiving holiday!
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