Thanksgiving

Let's pretend Thanksgiving was not over a month ago... that way I can blog about it and not feel as guilty for taking forever to get it posted.

Stuart and I were facing our second Thanksgiving away from Missouri this year. Our original plans didn't pan out, so my parents kindly made the trek out to Virginia to spend the holiday with us. It turned out to be a great Thanksgiving, but time passed so quickly!!!

My parents arrived Wednesday afternoon (MUCH to Hutch and Izzy's delight) and after they unpacked and played with the dogs for a while, we headed out for a quick dinner. Mom and I started on some our Thanksgiving dishes as soon as we got back to the house. I brined the *turkey, made a *pumpkin pie (Paula Deen's recipe... very, very rich!) and mashed up the sweet potatoes while Mom made the cranberry sauce. Fortunately, she had brought cookies and cake with her, so after the pie, I didn't have to worry about more dessert! (I don't eat pumpkin pie, so the other sweets were right up my alley!)

Thanksgiving day was wonderful. I was even able to sleep in a little! Stuart and Dad were in charge of entertaining themselves (and running a couple of errands) while Mom and I cooked away. First on the to-do list that day was the *Pioneer Woman's yeast rolls from scratch. I was really concerned about screwing these up, but in reality, they were actually very easy! And perfect, just as I had remembered them from last year's feast. The whole afternoon was very relaxing, despite spending most of it in the kitchen. As evening rolled around, Mom set the table while Dad carved the turkey and then we sat down to dinner!!! Everything was wonderful (gotta love recipes with 2,000 5-star ratings!) and we stuffed ourselves. After cleanup, we had some serious Wii competitions and watched a movie.

My parents headed back on Sunday afternoon and it was sad to see them go. Stuart and I are happy with life in Virginia, and will be happy wherever we end up next. But, being around family makes us appreciate them all the more and it's always hard to say goodbye. But Christmas is (was) right around the corner!

Thanks for a great Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad!

*I plan to post the recipes to any food item that has an asterisk beside it. I was so impressed with them that I have to share! Check the recipe page soon!