Sunday evening...long weekend almost over. Of course, I would love a few more days, but the time off has been good.
Wednesday I picked up my mother at her place in Lakeville and brought her to our place to join our Thanksgiving celebration. Since my mom is my children's only living grandparent (and always has been), my kids LOVE having grandma here on the holidays. But since she has 6 children, 15 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren Grandma is in great demand. We were thrilled to have my mom here!
This is the first holiday meal that I have fixed in our St. Paul home. Meal prep got underway on Wednesday, as my mom and I started making a few side dishes and pies! My mom bakes great pies and my goal in recent years has been to pay closer attention to the pie baking process. It's all about the crust...and my mom's crust is outstanding. We made two pumpkin pies and a blueberry. I made the crust for the blueberry and it wasn't bad. I think I'm ready to go solo (although I think my kids will always prefer "grandma's pies"... perhaps some day I will have grandchildren will swoon over my pies).
We broke tradition and had our Thanksgiving meal in the evening. That gave me the whole day to continue prep. I thought I would be able to sleep in, but instead I was up at 6:30 am and baking cookies at 7. I made my date-filled cookies, a.k.a "once a year" cookies--they are so labor-intensive that I usually make them no more than once a year. If my daughter didn't love them so much, I probably wouldn't make them that often.
The Thanksgiving meal is probably one of my favorite holiday traditions. It's a huge meal to prepare, but I can't really imagine going out to eat at a restaurant or being somewhere other than home. It was a nice first Thanksgiving here...the table looked beautiful with a red tablecloth and our fiestaware (I should have taken a picture). The food turned out great. The stuffing, gravy, turkey...all turned out well. The only thing that really went wrong was the cat walking across the pies...they were on the counter...thankfully with towels over them...so they were smooshed in a few places, but still edible!
I fell into bed Thursday night, very full and very tired. No major shopping plans for me on Friday. All I did was stop at Target after taking my son home. I did hit a mall on Saturday and I can say that I would just as soon skip major mall shopping until the holidays are over.
The rest of the weekend has included eating leftovers (lots of leftovers with a 22 lb turkey), some crafting/painting, and yes, today some shopping at some smaller stores--mostly to buy craft supplies for gifts I plan to make.
May the countdown to Christmas begin...
Wednesday I picked up my mother at her place in Lakeville and brought her to our place to join our Thanksgiving celebration. Since my mom is my children's only living grandparent (and always has been), my kids LOVE having grandma here on the holidays. But since she has 6 children, 15 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren Grandma is in great demand. We were thrilled to have my mom here!
This is the first holiday meal that I have fixed in our St. Paul home. Meal prep got underway on Wednesday, as my mom and I started making a few side dishes and pies! My mom bakes great pies and my goal in recent years has been to pay closer attention to the pie baking process. It's all about the crust...and my mom's crust is outstanding. We made two pumpkin pies and a blueberry. I made the crust for the blueberry and it wasn't bad. I think I'm ready to go solo (although I think my kids will always prefer "grandma's pies"... perhaps some day I will have grandchildren will swoon over my pies).
We broke tradition and had our Thanksgiving meal in the evening. That gave me the whole day to continue prep. I thought I would be able to sleep in, but instead I was up at 6:30 am and baking cookies at 7. I made my date-filled cookies, a.k.a "once a year" cookies--they are so labor-intensive that I usually make them no more than once a year. If my daughter didn't love them so much, I probably wouldn't make them that often.
The Thanksgiving meal is probably one of my favorite holiday traditions. It's a huge meal to prepare, but I can't really imagine going out to eat at a restaurant or being somewhere other than home. It was a nice first Thanksgiving here...the table looked beautiful with a red tablecloth and our fiestaware (I should have taken a picture). The food turned out great. The stuffing, gravy, turkey...all turned out well. The only thing that really went wrong was the cat walking across the pies...they were on the counter...thankfully with towels over them...so they were smooshed in a few places, but still edible!
I fell into bed Thursday night, very full and very tired. No major shopping plans for me on Friday. All I did was stop at Target after taking my son home. I did hit a mall on Saturday and I can say that I would just as soon skip major mall shopping until the holidays are over.
The rest of the weekend has included eating leftovers (lots of leftovers with a 22 lb turkey), some crafting/painting, and yes, today some shopping at some smaller stores--mostly to buy craft supplies for gifts I plan to make.
May the countdown to Christmas begin...
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