WW: Thanksgiving 2012

I know, I know…everyone’s on full on Christmas/Holiday mode we are too.  However, I cannot let this Thanksgiving go unnoticed (I’ll probably also do catch up entries on birthdays and Jamaica).

This was our 1st Thanksgiving in our new house.  The rest of our family is in NJ and so it was just us 5 celebrating together this year.  I decided to try to make it “formal” and that way our girls could learn and get familiar with table settings and the proper ways to do things with grace, elegance and proper manners.  Besides, they’re always playing Princess Dress-Up, might as well learn etiquette too.  – side note – I wish they had some type of etiquette / manners courses in schools…how to set the table properly and know which fork does what, etc.  I know we, as parents can teach them, but sometimes it’s received differently when taught by a school teacher.

In any case, pDaddy and I agreed upon what we wanted to eat and so off I went doing groceries (almost everyday for a week, it seemed).  Everything was homemade with the exception of Shrimp Cocktail and Dessert.  I guess I could have  made desserts too, but that’s ok.  Turkey was marinated overnight and everything was ready and prepped for the next day.

I woke up early on Thanksgiving – I think I was just really excited to cook for my family.  I haven’t cooked a Thanksgiving Dinner since ’08 / ’09 and I remember being half-assed about it.  I woke up too early so I decided, to add to the formality of the luncheon, to make some menus.  I found a template on line I liked and I cut and glued and punched away.  I had to cut the papers by hand because my paper cutter was missing it’s blades (I hid them from the baby and I guess I hid them well b/c I still can’t find them).   I wanted to make place cards as well, but I decided not to…no place card holders and I didn’t feel like cutting by hand anymore (spoiled, I know).

So, after that, I got breakfast going and got to cooking our luncheon.  Here’s our Thanksgiving Day feast (no, we don’t do stuffing…I just never had it growing up).   I hope you all had a great one 🙂

butternut squash bisque

main course

my loves

my view

shrimp cocktail and menu

table setting

appetizers and first course

menu

turkey

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for more wordful wednesday entries and to join in on the fun, linky linky on angie’s (http://sevenclowncircus.com/) and/ amanda’s blog – http://parentingbydummies.com/

                                           

Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

Thanksgiving Dinner for 4 – 2 adults, a 3 year old and 1 year old.   Garlic & Cheese mashed potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Chicken Macaroni Salad and some Filipino pastries (from the local Asian Grocery).  We’re missing the cream puffs and ice cream from the picture.  Turkey wasn’t burnt, by the way, that’s the marinade that makes it dark.  So, all that took me over 6 hours and the drumstick wasn’t cooked all the way (oopsies…I put the meat thermometer on the breast and not the drumstick).

Razz & Beans watched the parade in front of the tv w/pDaddy and then they ate mini-burgers to satisfy a bit hunger until the turkey got cooked.  They napped and when they woke up, we ate and boy did we eat.  Beans said a “thank you prayer” which was basically like her usual prayer, but instead of saying “God Bless Mommy and God Bless Daddy (and every other member of the fam)”, she said, “Thank you for Mommy and Thank you for Daddy , etc”…and her toys got added in the mix.

This is the first year we didn’t have Thanksgiving at my mom or sister’s house…it’s the first year it was just us.  It was nice to just lounge around in PJs all day…Our parents did end up coming to visit later on that night so eventually, we showered and got dressed and by “dressed” I just mean, we got out of our PJs and threw on some ensemble w/jeans and a shirt or sweater.  We read Black Friday circulars – though all we did was read b/c none of us were too keen on getting on line at 4 or 5 or 6am.  People get a little too out of hand for these Black Friday sales. ( Did you hear about a guy that worked at Wal-Mart that got trampled and died???   Poor guy…poor family…and there was an 8 month old pregnant woman in that stampede too!  What is she doing lining up at that hour w/that crowd???  I digress…)  Anyway, our parents and pDaddy’s Uncle and cousin hung out for a bit and then headed home as we actually worked on BlackFriday.

pDaddy took Beans to work that day (note to self…upload pics) and she had a blast – even had her “own” cube and phoneline…!  We ended up going to Atlantic City for the rest of the weekend and stayed at Tropicana.  Mum and Lolo stayed with us Friday night and they 2 got rooms for my sister, her hubby, her hubby’s niece, my sister’s MIL, daughter and nanny.  As expected, Tropicana already had their holiday decorations up…We watched a Christmas show and devoured Hooters wings and PF Changs.  All in all a good weekend w/the fam.  I lost $150, but at least pDaddy won at least $100 so it evens out.  We even did some shopping at the Atlantic City outlets on Saturday.  We got to the outlets around 2pm and Coach had a line.  We left around 5ish and Coach still had a line.  I wanted to know what the big deal was, but staying online OUTSIDE the store was just not an option – especially w/our 2 girls.

Definitely thankful for all of our blessings…big and small…

Wish me luck…

Turkey is in my possession and has been thawing since last night.  Ingredients for the secret family recipe have been bought.  I also got the meat thermometer, baster and brush.  Even bought the necessities for green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and chicken macaroni salad.  This is the most amount of dishes I ever had to prep for one day/night.  I also have cookies or brownies or both ready for dessert…and ice cream too!

 Now, if I can only figure out what to wear for Thanksgiving tomorrow and Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday…hmmm…

 

If I don’t get to post tomorrow due to the crazy cooking / cleaning going on, don’t forget to give thanks and have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving.

 

ps – don’t blame your food coma on the turkey (tryptophan)…you simply just ate too much.  Which is totally fine 🙂  It’s Thanksgiving afterall….

Thanksgiving Already…

Thanksgiving is 2 days away…already.  Time to give thanks for all the blessings and get stuffed like a turkey.

We usually have Thanksgiving at my parents’ house and savor in the yummy goodness that is Mom’s (and my sister’s and guests’) cooking, but my lovely sister stole mom for a week and they are out basking in the sun and beaches of Cancun.  They come back on Thanksgiving, but in time for dinner.  Yeah, you did the math right.  The 2 who cook won’t be back in time to cook for Thanksgiving.  So, for the first time ever, I will be making the turkey on my own (provided that places aren’t sold out of turkeys yet – I plan on getting one tonight).  I am going to attempt to make the turkey using my mum’s “secret family recipe” – so she calls it.  I used to always help mum when I still lived at home, but that’s over 6 or 7 years ago now…Wish me luck…

There won’t be a lot of us feasting on my attempts at cooking on Thursday, but maybe around 5 adults or so.  Even though my Mom and sis get back Thursday night, they’ll be going to brother-in-law’s brother’s house.  Our big Thanksgiving dinner has been planned for Saturday.  That’s when the real cooks do their magic.  I’m just a “wanna-be” for now…How’s that for really eating turkey “all weekend long”?

If the turkey turns out well, that’s just another addition to my very long list of things I’m thankful for.  If not, I still get an “A” for effort…so my sister says.  If she decides to take another trip next year, I’m going to make her take ALL of us 😛