My Thanksgiving

Before I give details on today, I need to sorta describe how yesterday went other than the Turkey Trot I already wrote about.

Thanksgiving went almost as planned. For appetizers, my husband cooked fried wontons of which I had one. I also put out trays of fresh fruit and veggies instead of the cookies and chocolates I’ve done in years prior:

For dinner, my plan was to make mashed cauliflower for me to eat in lieu of mashed taters (my weakness), but they didn’t quite turn out right – at all. I don’t have a blender or food processor, I have just an old fashioned hand mixer and it didn’t really mash the cauliflower that well. And then after it sat for a few minutes the milk I had added was building around the edges, like it was extracting from what I did mash. So I had to toss them and go to plan B – STRAWBERRIES! (Still can’t believe I even had a Plan B!) But, yes, strawberries! My dinner consisted of turkey breast, sauteed green beans, (1) dinner roll, and a buttload of fresh strawberries. I am pleased to report that not-one-single-bite of mashed potatoes entered my mouth! Not even a “taste” while I was making them; I had asked my husband to taste instead. This was a huge victory for me – I am still in disbelief that I went an entire Thanksgiving without potatoes and survived. Whoda thunk it??

Now for dessert I had three choices – My cousin brought a homemade pumpkin pie, there was a cherry pie from the Publix deli, and an apple crisp that I made from scratch. I chose to have a half piece of cherry pie and a serving of the apple crisp. MMMmmm…let me tell you about the crisp. When I first posted my Thanksgiving Menu, Diane from Fit to the Finish offered to share her Apple Crisp recipe with me. Since it was something I had never made before, I made it last week as a “trial run” and, well, it didn’t turn out that good at all. I knew it had to be something *I* was doing wrong because I’m not that good in the kitchen…so I asked Diane and she suggested I put some water over the apples. So, as I was making it yesterday I was nervous it wouldn’t turn out again, but OMG it DID turn out WONDERFULLY! It was so yummy and everyone who had some loved it! So, thank you Diane for sharing the recipe! I took pictures of all the food, but those pictures are on my sister’s camera so I don’t have access to them right now.

Anyway, after dinner we all played Charades (which was hilarious – especially me acting out “Beyonce” ). Later in the evening my husband surprised me by wheeling out our Christmas tree and decorations from the garage. We usually start putting it all out the day after Thanksgiving, but he knows how much I love it and started bringing it all out for me last night. Here are my girls and husband in the process of putting ornaments on the tree:

and, I caught one of our cats (Lu Lu) mid-yawn laying under the tree:

I love this time of year! I always get so sentimental and nostalgic as we pull the ornaments out…most of the ornaments we have “mean” something to us – whether it’s one my girls made or one that was given to us.

I hope you are having a great weekend (whether you celebrate the holiday or not). I’ve been so busy, so I apologize for not commenting on blogs the past day or so…if I don’t make it to your blog tonight, I will tomorrow. G’night!