A Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday afternoon our turkey was ready to eat, so I buttered some toast, pulled out the pretzel sticks and jelly beans and our Thanksgiving lunch was ready! 

Last year we started a tradition of having a "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Lunch".  It is a perfect little snack to eat before having the big dinner.  (Since we usually have dinner a bit earlier than normal dinners, we don't want to eat a big lunch.)

Seth, Cody, Mark and Paul ready to eat!

Jane finished off the drumsticks!

The turkey was so much fun to make. It is made of one large and two small paper bags. It is easy to make and I think that it has made its way into our tradition. When I cut open the top and the boys saw the popcorn inside they were super happy! We had a lot of fun asking someone to pass the turkey when we wanted to eat popcorn. 

Our Thanksgiving dinner was delicious!  This year I purchased a turkey breast and cooked it in the crock pot.  It turned out really moist and perfect!  I made my own cranberry sauce and it was wonderful!  It is a lot of work to make everything for the dinner, but I was able to do a lot of preparation a few days before, so I didn't feel super stressed out making everything and I actually enjoyed the solitude I had in the kitchen.  (How do people who only have one oven survive Thanksgiving in their kitchen?- I was so grateful for my double oven on Thursday!)

After dinner we went over to my sister's house for dessert (Thanks Kim!). I made sweet potato pie and a lemon meringue pie.  I had never made a lemon meringue before and the first one didn't turn out well at all- it was a lemon soup with fluff on top.  I made a second one and it was beautiful!  It was just the right mix of sweet and sour.  (I used Alton Brown's recipe) Lemon meringue pie is really easy to make dairy free!  I tried out a new pie crust from Gluten Free Easily and it was exactly what I have been looking for!  It is a press-in crust, so I don't have to try to roll it.  Gluten free pie crusts are notorious for being really crumbly and difficult to work with, so I am really happy to have found a good crust recipe!   

Jane sat down in front of the tree and watched the train go around at Kim's house.  She was really good not to bother the train or the tree.

Jane discovered whipped cream in a can and she loved it! 

Because Kim lives really close to me and Daniel had stayed home because he wasn't feeling well, I took Jane home, put her in bed and went back over to Kim's house to visit.  It was a nice, relaxed day. My belly is full of good foods and my heart is full of gratitude for my family.