"I Think This is the Beginning of a Beautiful Tradition..."

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope everyone had a special day of being thankful and counting blessings. We also hope you had a plethora of good food in the company of family and/or friends! I was missing my family on Thursday, but it made me happy to know they were all together. It brought back memories of when I surprised my parents by showing up back in Ohio a couple of days before Thanksgiving a few years ago. It was a complete and unexpected surprise for them and I totally pulled it off!  (with the help of my husband, brother & sister:)), but was fun and we were able to have almost the entire family together (was missing my Frank that year). Of course, that brought back memories of Grandpa T. as he was with us that year. This is out first Thanksgiving without him and even though I wasn't at dinner every year after our relocation, I always liked hearing about everyone and found comfort knowing they were all together back home. I can only hope he is smiling down at my family getting together in VA, and our little family of four together here on the West Coast. Well, I have a bunch o Disneyland posts to do and tried several times since we returned home, but I was having trouble uploading photos again. That is why my Thanksgiving post is a little late too...     

Okay, I'm not sure why the Casablanca quote immediately came to mind when I was adding my title, but it did. Had to change it slightly for my purposes:). We had such a special day with our little family of four. We had the amazingly, beautiful surprise of SNOW a few days before the holiday, but it caused us no grief in preparing. It really just made everything picturesque and breathtakingly beautiful. Oh, and really, really c-c-c-cold! For some reason, this year I felt basically no stress in making Thanksgiving Dinner. Frank always preps and makes the turkey, so my job is really just all the side dishes and pie! When we visited the Pumpkin Patch in October, they gave Rachel a free "sugar pumpkin" and we purchsed a second one. I had decided that day that we would have homemade Pumpkin Pies this year! And we did...and we will never go back to canned again! Yum! I have quite a few photos to share, so I will tell my little story through them...

Our little helper...

ready to clean out the pumpkins with

Mommy & Daddy!

The beautiful fire Daddy built in our fireplace!

The smell of the wood burning really

added to our cozy, memory-making atmosphere..

Pumpkin "guts"...

Rachel, Daddy and I gathered

all the seeds and toasted them in the oven!

Delicious!

Ready for the oven...

Gathering seeds...

So fun to get our hands into the gooey mess...

So...the first little family tradition we started this year was to make homemade Pumpkin Pie from real pumpkins. The second little tradition was to start making homemade Cranberry Sauce! Rachel loves cranberries. She eats the dried ones and has even been known to pop a fresh one or two into her mouth. Not sure how she does that. Aren't they awfully tart/bitter? We have several cranberry recipes we have used for the holidays in past years. Frank loves the crunchy cranberry salad my mom makes with cranberries, oranges, apples, nuts and jello. I love a more dessert type one I usually make in my jello mold. It is my Aunt Darlene's recipe and is pink and fluffy and sweet tasting. They are both very good. But we wanted to try just a plain, whole berry cranberry sauce made right from the berries. So we did... 

Rachel was "cooking" with her berries

while I sorted out a few cups of

nice, ripe ones...

Yep, had to taste one...

Daddy watching his girl "cook"!

Checking out the cranberries as they popped in the pan.

Yummm...they smelled so good!

Doesn't that look good?!

The pumpkins are done too!

We let them cool a bit,

then we scooped out all the cooked pumpkin

and pureed it until smooth in the food processor!

Frank and I both love different types of squash

and each snuck a few bites along the way...

sweet and melt in your mouth delicious...

So...all that preparation was on Wednesday night. On Thursday, we decided to eat a little later than we usually do, and I kind of took my time cooking during the day. We had a 10 lb. turkey and stuffing which I cut up tons of veggies for. In addition to the chopped celery and onion like mom taught me, I add chopped carrots and mushrooms. It is delicious! Instead of our usual Sweet Potato Casserole which tastes more like a yummy dessert, I peeled and cut up fresh yams, parboiled them, then baked them with brown sugar and butter. Rachel, Daddy and I had fun spinkling the mini marshmallows on at the end and then watching them melt in the oven. The only "problem" was that Rachel discovered she likes mini marshmallows and was popping more into her mouth than she was putting on the sweet potatoes! She kept saying, "treat!". We also had corn, rolls, and gravy. A perfect little feast for the four of us! Frank kept saying "This is the best Thanksgiving dinner ever!". I laughed and told him I think he says that every year:).   

The table...

check out the cool turkey placemats!

It's fun to have a 2.5 year old! 

A shot from above...

There's our little "cook"!

Goodness, when did she get big enough for a

booster seat at the dining room table?

I even gave her a glass plate and

grown-up silverware! (sniff-sniff)

Pretty...

"Momma, please stop taking pictures

and let's EAT!"

Hmmm, was it Frank or Rachel

that said it?

Probably both!

Rachel & Momma!

And for dessert...

Pumpkin Pie!

Just a really nice day! I got the chance to call my Mom and Dad and wish them a "Happy Thanksgiving". It sounded like everyone had a nice one there too! After dinner, we were invited to our neighbor's house for some wine and fun. And, yep...we took them one of our delicious pies! There were lots of kids there...ages 4, 6, 8 and older. Rachel was the youngest, but she had so much fun. She had us all laughing as she danced all over the place to all kinds of music in the game room. It was a fun night to complete our terrific day! So...after all the menu successes, I can say "I Think This is the Beginning of Some Beautiful Holiday Traditions!"