Gobble Gobble

We had a pretty low key celebration this year, what with Mom being off her game and all. Usually I like to pull out the brown tablecloth/lace overlay combo for the table and we also like to make flower arrangements in mini pumpkins. Laura usually makes a "turkey" out of an orange with cheese and baby corn toothpicked in for tail feathers. None of those things happened this year and we survived. There wasn't much point in decorating the table when Mom eats sprawled on the couch looking like Cleopatra due to her leg and the rest of us ate near her in the living room.

With two gimpy parents (Dad has some pretty bad knees), I found myself doing a lot of the cooking and cleanup, and by the end of the day I was pretty wiped out. Running around all day on our hard floors sure didn't help my hips and knees. I made a pumpkin pie (thank heaven for pre-made crusts!) and did mashed potatoes, a cheeseball, green beans, the veggie platter and yams. Dad did a really good turkey and stuffing. He made some sort of concoction with homemade croutons, fresh spinach leaves, mushrooms, sausage, cream of mushroom soup and who knows what else. It turned out really good.

My parents are cute sometimes:

The meal, so yummy. And we always use the BIG plates that my parents got when they got married- the orange and gold flowers in the center are perfect for the holiday!

The stuff in the bowl is fruit salad in Cool Whip. So healthy. ;)

I like to wear purple on Thanksgiving, it's my own funny little custom. I remember wearing it one year when I was like 12 and liking it and it became my thing. I even wore my purple blazer to Thanksgiving when I was a missionary.

Mom (aka Cleopatra) and me:

and Dad and Laura:



We had a nice day together and it's great to have some time to remember your blessings. Another funny Thanksgiving tradition we have is to watch a tape of an X-Files marathon- Thanksgiving 1997 was spent in a motel room in Newport, WA when we moved there and were awaiting our house and that's what the tv was playing all day. Thankfully our friend invited us over for some good food- we had a little oven but couldn't do much there. I was also really really sick that Thanksgiving. Someone taped it for us then cause they knew we liked X-Files so we get to watch it every year since. So somehow X-Files = Thanksgiving for me.

It was a nice 5 days off from school, though I didn't get much rest. We are not Black Friday shoppers, but I had to go out the next day to take Hanky yet again to the vet for a checkup. He is doing well, thank goodness, but there are still more check ups!

Mom is getting a lot better, it's great. She is still in pain/purple but it's gotten a lot better this week and she's up more on her leg.

November has some milestones for me- 22 years ago on Nov 19 I was baptized. I had to wait four months past my birthday for my dad to get home from his business trip! He used to be gone for months at a time. Also, Thanksgiving marked 7 (oy!) years home from my mission. I can't belive it's been that long- time flies! Anyhow, both events make me think about past choices and how I'm so blessed to have the gospel. Baptism really is the gate to so many wonderful things.

We also got our first real snow over the weekend, though it was pitiful for PA. 3 inches and it melted the next day. There's more where that came from though! Our view looks like this again today:

Hope you had a good holiday. I think I am finally starting to wake up from my turkey coma!