Thanksgiving, Party of 4

Did you know today is not a federal holiday? We get Columbus Day and Veterans Day- two days I've never had off before in my life, but the day after the eating of copious amounts of food and the world's most delicious pumpkin pie bars, which I totally went and had two more of after the kids went to bed-- that's a day I'm supposed to drag myself to work to read accounting memos and financial documents.

I tried, I did. I got up, got dressed- even did my hair, and headed out, planning to make just one quick stop at Wal-Mart to pick up the one thing I'd picked out from the Black Friday circulars (a heavily discounted lego set for Landon) and the next thing I knew I'd stopped at Costco and Target and then headed back home to unpack and put out Christmas decorations. JP was quite surprised to see me. Today is just not meant to be a work at work day. It's a shop and hang out and get out Christmas decorations day.

But before we get to today's doings, we have to go back to yesterday. Thanksgiving Day- our first one spent as a little family of four without traveling to be a guest or entertaining guests of our own. My parents and brother are in Colorado visiting my sister and our trip to San Antonio has been pushed back a few weeks to allow my grandpa to get stronger. JP and I flirted with just taking the kids out somewhere. Neither of us likes turkey very much and we figure this is the last Thanksgiving the kids won't have any memory of when they're older, so why not go out for margaritas and fancy Mexican food? But tradition prevailed and so I spent the day cooking and baking. As it turns out, cooking for 4 is really not so different from cooking for 14. Once we decided to do a traditional Thanksgiving, we found we couldn't bear cutting out any of the usual dishes.

First we had pumpkin pancakes, turkey sausage, fried eggs, and apple cider for breakfast. Two bowls and three messy pans later, I decided that maybe next year we'll do cereal on Thanksgiving morning (though it was all delicious). I prepped a few dinner side dishes and then turned to signing Christmas letters while the kids watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

 

Favorite moment: Landon asking, "Mommy, when can we see this in human?" "You mean, in person?" "Yeah, that!".

Then there was more cooking while JP raked leaves (of course) and the kids tromped around the yard "making soup."

 

A very fancy soup.

 

I dug out our fall decor bin from the closet and prettied up our tiny table.

 

And then, one cranberry and apple stuffed turkey breast, some cornbread dressing, a green bean casserole, corn pudding, mashed potatoes, gravy, and tray of rolls (all crammed into my tiny oven at various times in the cooking rotation) later- we dished up!

 

Buoyed my memories of childhood Thanksgivings in my parents' house, I'd bought the kids some sparkling apple cider as a special treat.

 

They were quickly addicted.

 

Claire in particular was in need of an immediate intervention.

 

I made these pumpkin pie bars for dessert with homemade whipped cream and omg they were SO good. I ate four. Two in front of the children, two secretly after they went to bed.

 

We ended the day on the couch watching Christmas specials on TV, feeling full and happy and glad we'd gone full turkey. And now that it's officially "after Thanksgiving," I get to dive into Christmas! Frank Sinatra holiday station playing, Christmas tree decorating, and Christmas cookie making, here I come!