A New Tradition

A few days before Thanksgiving, I was trying to figure out what we should eat for lunch so that we wouldn't be too full to eat an early Thanksgiving dinner when a song from the Charlie Brown Christmas Album came on.  I thought that it would be fun to have a meal like Snoopy and Charlie Brown served on the Thanksgiving movie.  So, for lunch, we had popcorn, buttered toast, pretzel sticks and jellybeans.  We even made boats out of the napkins. 

The boys wanted to make it more authentic and eat outside like they do in the movie, but I didn't want to set up a table in weather like this:

I think that we have started a new Taylor family tradition!

After our fun lunch, we put on a movie and played around for a while.  Daniel was sick and I was just getting over what I gave to him (and trying to end my short lived love affair with Afrin), so he spent most of the day in bed.  Our plan was to stay here for dinner and go to my sister's house for dessert.  Since Daniel was sick, I spent the afternoon in the kitchen alone making the dinner.  I made everything gluten-free and dairy-free except the rolls.  It was really relaxing to be in the kitchen.  Jane napped during the busy part of the preparation and then the boys played with her while I finished the meal.  Being alone in the kitchen wasn't what I had anticipated, but I enjoyed trying new things and listening to Christmas music.

The food was amazing!  I really enjoyed everything that I made.  The cornbread stuffing and sweet potato pie were by far my favorites, though!   I ate 3/4 of the sweet potato pie in three days!  Sweet potato is my favorite (I got the recipe from a family we knew in Georgia) and I haven't had it for two years.  I was excited to try the dairy and wheat substitutions and they worked out wonderfully!  Daniel sat down with a slice of both pies (one dairy-free and one with dairy)and couldn't tell a difference between them!  That is success!  This year I want to work on perfecting a dinner roll that I can make for everyone!

The boys have been having a lot of fun playing in the snow.  I love having a park with a hill just down the street for the boys to go sledding! 

I realized that I only have one day left to get my 24 days of December (our countdown to Christmas) ready.  I am going to be busy wrapping presents tomorrow.  (I really don't enjoy wrapping presents!)  I know that Wednesday is the first of December, so it shouldn't be a surprise, but since the boys are getting out of school for their off-track time on Friday, I mentally told myself that I had until Friday.  I have the whole month planned out, so I just need to get busy and put everything together!

This weekend I had a great time with the boys.  I am really trying to have a better relationship with them so that I can have a good relationship with them later.  It is hard sometimes to just let them be silly and for me to follow suit, but it has been a lot of fun and we have been able to share more with each other because we are spending time together.  I am anxious about this next month with the boys being out of school until January, but I am also excited!  We have a lot of fun things planned to do as a family.