Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

The leftovers have been packaged.  The kitchen is clean.  The guests have gone home.  And I have no idea how this can possibly be, but I am HUNGRY!?  I guess when you are busy cooking and running around, you don't eat a lot.  I am craving a turkey sandwich with mayo and cranberry sauce and stuffing on white bread!!  But I will wait until tomorrow when we are up in Big Bear.  For the past three years, my family has stayed here in town, and had our Thanksgiving with our kids and their kids.  It is much easier for the little ones, who get to have their afternoon naps, and come fresh and happy to the dinner table.  But as I told my Mom this morning, I have a pang in my heart.  Because even though I know that for right now, this works better for my family, it is hard to not be with my Mom and Nana, and brothers as I have always been on the holidays.  But we are all heading up to Big Bear in the morning to be with everyone for some family fun, leftovers, and Boggle Butt Kicking!!
I did miss not having our middle daughter Erika and her little boy Noah with us today. They were spending it with her boyfriend's family, and we missed them.  Here is a little bit of how we spent our day.
For the third year in a row, we have Simplified our Thanksgiving Celebration, by ordering our "FEAST" from Marie Callendar's.  As much as I love to cook, I love doing this so that I can enjoy the day instead of  be in the kitchen away from the fun.  But I did cook a 7 pound turkey breast to make certain that we would have leftovers to take to the mountains with us.  I smothered the breast with a paste of olive oil, garlic, rosemary, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mustard, and baked it for an hour and 3/4.  It was perfect and moist and is packaged and ready for our sandwiches tomorrow.  The rest of our meal was courtesy of Marie Callendar's and it was delicious!
I have a good sized country kitchen, with horribly inadequate counter space, and dated cupboards, and tile, and..well, everything about it is just inadequate!  And even though I love my home, old kitchen and all, it is on occasions like this that I miss having a separate dining room, and a nice big island, and counter space to accommodate my love of cooking.   But we make it work.  A friend of my Mom's made me this wood stove top cover so that I could create more counter space when having a party.  It has been so terrific when setting up a buffet for a group.  I don't know what I would do without it!

 This was right before Greg made Drew take off his hat!!!






 After dinner, the girls got the giggles and put on a dance show in the living room for us.
 Gennifer modeled her new trench coat.  We had pumpkin pie.  Did the dishes.  The girls took a bath.  We kissed them goodbye.  And Thanksgiving is over again until next year.  We have so many blessings to be thankful for.  It was  nice day through and through.
I will be back in a few days with some pictures of our fun in Big Bear.  And The Christmas Season will be in full swing!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is why I wish we celebrated Thanksgiving in the UK - it all seems so lovely! My favourite part about Christmas is preparing the Christmas food, then having all the leftovers after! I purposely buy a too big turkey and a big ham joint and having sandwiches with cold turkey and ham, bread sauce, stuffing and cranberry sauce is the best part ever! If I has my way I'd eat Christmas dinner every day - that's how much I love it!!

Amanda said...

I'm hungry after seeing all that food! I too wished we had Thanksgiving in the UK.

Debbie said...

Glad you had a nice day Kris. I know what you mean...My family has gotten soo big on it's own when you conaider 4 kids, 4 spouces, and 12 grands so that when we all get together there is maybe room for my mom and dad, haha...and we haven't tried it at the new house yet. Getting together with my brothers and sisters and their kids (there are 6 kids with spouces and I have litterally lost count of kids, haha) is turning into a once a year maybe event and it works MUCH better outside or at least a rented clubhouse. I have always wanted to try that Marie Callanders meal. Looked good. We actually had a small fire! I will post about that later though. ENJOY Big Bear...

Amy said...

So that's what a turkey breast looks like? It kind of looks like a whole turkey. I kept seeing people make turkey breasts on the cooking channel and I thought it was such a good idea. It looks like you guys had a great meal! Happy Thanksgiving:)

Bethany said...

Nice! We have so many people the day passes in a blur--I keep trying to get people to go out to eat, but for some reason my mother doesn't like that idea :)

Kristi said...

Looks like the perfect day! We always have such a small Thanksgiving, I do have to say that I enjoy it because....leftovers!!! Timmy went to my Mom's early to make the mashed potatoes and when he came back he said that my Mom didn't make enough and she put more potatoes on for him to make. In my head....I knew she just wanted a lot of leftovers!!

Have a great time in Big Bear! What a perfect way to spend the long weekend!

Reality Jayne said...

Sounds absolutely lovely

Genn said...

Thanks again for everything Mom! It was a very nice Thanksgiving. We all really enjoyed it. We will have to make my turkey soon!!

~Niki~ said...

My t-giving was very stressful and tiring. I'm glad it is over. Mom is staying with us for 9 more days zzzzzz
Today she wanted to go shopping with my sis and me. So we took her out. My gosh I didn't know I could walk so long! so much! without passing out LOL.
I'm seriously outta shape.
And tired.
And I'm going to bed at 8 tonight I think LOL.
Looks like you all had a fabulous time! hugs my friend.

Katie said...

Looks like a successful Thanksgiving Dinner & lots of fun! T Day leftovers are the best, Sean made me a turkey sandwich to take to work today, much needed after a very long day in the kitchen!!
Hope you guys have a great time in Big Bear!

YaYa's Funhouse said...

Looks like ya'll had a great day. I know what you mean about large family and little space. Enjoyed it but glads its over.

Linda - Behind My Red Door said...

Hey girl, how was the weekend? I love that you have that place to get away to with family!! It must be awesome...like the cherry on top!! Have a great week!! HUgs!!