Our Thanksgiving Traditions

Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go....

That's how many a holiday started out for our family when I was growing up. Whether near, or later far when we moved to a different state, we usually headed to my grandparent's house for the holidays....both Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have such wonderful memories of gathering together with family to spend the holiday together.

You know me. I'm all about tradition and creating memories for our children. I hope that when my kids grow up they will cherish the time spent together with family just as I do now.

So let me tell you a little bit about our Thanksgiving traditions. We live in the same area as both my family and Hubster's so we alternate years between the two. We used to try and do both, but we'd wind up stuffed and exhausted. Once kids entered the picture it was pretty clear things had to change.  Alternating years has worked really well for us.

There are some things both sides have in common and definitely some differences.

 

On the years we spend with Hubster's family, we generally go to my in-laws house. My mother-in-law usually serves a large group.... I'd say anywhere from 18 to 28. They make the turkey and some of the sides, but everyone also pitches in and brings a dish. It is a true feast! The menu ranges from traditional Thanksgiving dishes to whatever somebody wants to bring.

I remember one year my mother-in-law asked me to bring the broccoli salad I make that she likes. I thought it was sort of odd since to me it wasn't a "Thanksgiving dish." (My family is very traditional about the meal as you will see.) But I made it and it was eaten up. Hubster's family are "equal opportunity eaters" and don't sweat the details....which is a good thing. It's been a great example to me over the years. I told you God provided just the right man for me to marry!

The good china is used, but since usually there are a lot of us we are a little bit spread around at various tables, so it tends to be rather informal. We eat at lunchtime and usually take a break before desserts are served buffet-style. There is always football on the TV and a little napping for the men. And the women congregate in the kitchen and check out the Thanksgiving ads from the newspaper. Those who are Black Friday shoppers begin to formulate their plan of attack and we start to exchange Christmas wish lists. If the weather is nice enough, some of us go for a walk to burn off some of our huge lunch.

So that pretty much sums up Thanksgiving with Hubster's family. It's always a fun time with lots of people and activity. I'm so blessed to have wonderful in-laws!

Now let me tell you about Thanksgiving with MY family. 

As I said, we alternate years. In recent years, my sister has been hosting Thanksgiving at her house. I've hosted a couple times over the years (I did last year), but the alternating thing has kind of kept me from hosting more regularly.

My family has a traditional (to us) Thanksgiving menu.  You DON'T mess with the menu! And we all pitch in.

We have turkey, stuffing (and there's ALWAYS a discussion on what the difference is between stuffing and dressing), mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, cranberry jelly from the can, and cinnamon applesauce jello salad. The only alteration there has been in the menu in recent years is that they now let me bring my mother-in-law's sweet potato souffle recipe too. (I promise to share that recipe sometime before Thanksgiving. It's so yummy!)

And we have a very special secret recipe for our stuffing. It's called....Stove Top. Hey, we all love it so why not?

We always cook one of those turkeys with the pop-up timer. And we inevitably get a call saying, "The turkey popped! You need to come NOW!"

We also eat at lunchtime. The good china is used. But I guess we're just not fancy-schmancy because it never feels formal. My sister also has a couple turkey serving bowls with lids that our Grandma made when she did ceramics. I always love seeing those.

After stuffing ourselves, we usually take a break before dessert which is pumpkin and apple pie.

We may have the TV on for the parade while we wait to sit down to eat. But usually it's no TV. We're not a big football crowd. We're more into board games and so we always play some of those. There may be a little napping that goes on too.

We also scan the ads and talk about Christmas wish lists. 

Later in the evening, the leftovers are pulled out. The last few years we've also been adding some appetizers to the evening meal. (Pinterest was a huge help for that last year!) It makes for another huge feast.

Usually after that, we waddle home. Ha ha!

So that's it. 

No matter where we spend our Thanksgiving we always head home happy and feeling extremely blessed and thankful for our family and the wonderful times we share together.

So what about you? What are your Thanksgiving traditions? I would love for you to leave a comment and tell me!

You're also invited to join me at Sally's Thanksgiving Traditions linky party over at Drinking From My Saucer ['cause my cup has overflowed].

Today's Thankfulness....

* For a day set aside to be thankful.

* For time spent with family.

* For the wonderful family that I married into.

The Weekend Wrap-Up

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Ours was great. Crazy-busy, but in a good way.

On Friday evening we celebrated this girly's "Gotcha Day." Twelve years she's been with us. She's growing up, but independence sure is a hard struggle. So I cherish moments like this, when she wanted to help cook. She pretty much made salad I told you I was going to make. I only provided a little guidance. I was very proud of her!

Saturday, I worked to get the house cleaned up for this guys birthday party. Fourteen years old! Time sure flies. He is the first born of my heart (not our oldest, but the first that was ours.) and he can still make this Mama's heart melt.

And the boy LOVES a party! We ate pizza, cake, and ice cream and he opened presents. Fun times!

Notice the cake? Yep, I'm ones of those moms. The ones that buy their kids cake instead of making it.

I think it all started with this guys very first birthday. He was our first child and the first party had a lot of guests. I decided that it would be easier to buy a cake for that many people than to make it. From then on the kids loved picking out what kind of cake and what characters they wanted on it. It's become OUR tradition.

Yesterday was church and Second Sunday lunch at my parents. It was good to be back there. My sister and I have hosted the last couple months because my Mom had knee replacement surgery. Even the kids said it was good for everything to be "back to normal" again.

I hope you will come back the rest of the week as I will be sharing some things to help us think about and prepare for Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow I will be sharing our family's Thanksgiving traditions and linking up to Sal's linky party at Drinking From My Saucer. Won't you join us?


Today's Thankfulness....

* For God allowing our daughter to be part of our family and the twelve years that  she has been with us.

* For God bringing our son through another year.

* For healing for my Mom after knee replacement surgery.

* For our loving family who supports us and celebrates with us.

Four Things For Friday 11.8.13

Wow! We've made it to Friday already.

Here are my random thoughts for this week.....

1.) First off, check out this beautiful tree in our front yard. Glorious, isn't it?

2.) I realized yesterday that the upside to all the Christmas stuff being out in all the stores is that a lot of the Fall stuff is on clearance. WOO HOO! I snagged this acorn yesterday for half price. Because, I mean, who doesn't want a giant, golden acorn?



3.) We have a busy weekend coming up. A "Gotcha Day" celebration, a birthday, and oh yea, Second Sunday. Mom asked me to bring a salad this time. I decided to try this Romaine and Ramen Salad recipe that the lovely Kelly over at Talk Of The House posted this week. Talk Of The House is one of my favorite blogs. Stop over and check out the Fall lunch menu Kelly shared. She always has yummy-looking recipes and a beautifully set table. And her home always looks so inviting.

4.) Finally, Sal has invited us to a Thanksgiving linky party over at Drinking From My Saucer! Check out her post today and start thinking about what your family's Thanksgiving traditions are and then come back on Tuesday to share them. I'm sure it will be fun to hear other people's traditions and stories. And who knows, maybe you will come away with an idea for a new tradition to start in your family.

 

You can find all the details HERE.

Okay, I think that's it!

Remember....

Have a great weekend!

Today's Thankfulness....

* For the smell of Autumn in the air this morning.

* That my husband knows how to fix a lot of things and I don't have to worry about them.

* For the anticipation of gathering with family this weekend.

New Camera Photos

Good morning all!

First off, I want to say thank you for all the Anniversary wishes and "likes" yesterday!

If you follow along on Facebook, you know that my sweet Hubster gave me a new camera. We have this thing about gifts. I think I've mentioned before that my love language is gifts. I love giving as well as receiving well thought out gifts.

Hubster's love language is not gifts. But after 20 years of marriage he has figured out that mine is.

So our anniversary gift giving went something like this.....

Me: (opening camera) Thanks Hon', but I didn't get you anything.

Hubs: That's okay.

Me: Well actually, your gift is that I didn't spend any money.

Hubs: Thanks! It's just what I wanted!

and then....

Hubs: The camera is actually for both of us. Your gift is that now you can take better pictures and my gift is now I don't have to listen to you complain about how bad you think your pictures are.

See how well we know each other after 20 years?

Anyways, I thought I would pop in and show you a couple of the MANY photos I've taken with the new camera. (By the way, it's not a fancy schmancy camera. Still a point and shoot, but WAY better. The old camera was actually only about five years old, but you can hardly keep up with technology any more!)

These are straight out of the camera too. Normally I would do major Photoshopping to my photos to make them half presentable. It's been pretty overcast here the last couple days so I'm looking forward to trying it out in some better lighting too.

Have a great day, everybody!

Today's Thankfulness.....

* For a kind and generous husband.

* For the leaf storm that swirled around me yesterday when I was out. What a sight!

* For fun times and celebrations with family to look forward to this weekend.

* For the opportunity for my daughter to participate in a fun after school activity.

When You Know, You Just Know

Ours was a whirlwind romance....married one year to the day of our first date.

He knew before I did that we would spend the rest of our lives together.

I took a little convincing, but finally I got it. He was the first one I hadn't had to try to make love me. He just did. And when I finally had that revelation that New Year's Eve....I knew.

                  

You know how people always say that when you find the person you're supposed to spend the rest of your life with "you'll just know?"  That used to drive me crazy! Give me a real answer already!

But I'm here to tell you it's true. For me it was knowing that he loved me....without me having to convince him....that made me know.

Today we're celebrating 20 years of marriage. Twenty years! It seems like forever, but on the other hand, we can't be old enough to be married 20 years. I have a lot more pounds and he has a lot less hair, but it still can't be possible.

Like any marriage, there have been ups and downs. But I can't imagine going through it with anyone else. God knew what he was doing for sure when he brought this man into my life. This idealistic, dreaming, fearful, perfectionist girl needed a practical, confident, positive, faith-walking man like him.

We don't have any big celebration planned today. We've kind of been celebrating for a couple years now. You see, when we reached about 17 years, Hubster starting telling people we had been married for "almost 20 years." We even went on a celebratory trip to Disney World (no kids) back in April because it was just the best time for us to go. So it has kind of felt for a while like we had already reached the 20-year milestone.

And tomorrow he will probably start telling people that we've been married almost 25 years anyways! 

(I apologize for the poor quality of these photos. They are photos of photos which were not that great to begin with. In 1993, wedding photographers weren't using Photoshop to make your wedding photos look perfect enough for Pinterest. We also got married in the late afternoon in November. It was an overcast day. It actually started snowing as I walked down the aisle and by the time we left our reception, there was about 2 inches on the ground. Anyways....didn't make for great photos. But I'm just happy to have them.)

Today's Thankfulness.....

* For God's provision for the perfect man for me.

* For 20 years together.

* For a husband who is a wonderful and godly husband, provider, and father.

This Month's Chalkboard: Welcome To November



Hello, Monday! And hello, November!

                 

Friday, I spent part of my morning working on our November calendar for the chalkboard. I've realized that I really enjoy doing this every month (well, except for the getting up and down on a chair part). It allows me to express some creativity without taking a whole lot of my time. I'm already thinking about the December calendar too. Don't tell the Christmas Police though!

If you're really observant you'll notice that the 12th is highlighted in yellow. That's because my son has a birthday next week. We will be celebrating with family this Saturday though. So a lot of my week will be focused on that. I still need to finish shopping for his gift. Plus I will be cleaning up the house to prepare for guests. 

We have a couple other family birthday's this month. And of course there's Thanksgiving. Can't wait for that!

Is your November calendar filling up too? I'm determined to enjoy it and not let it all overwhelm me this year. The time flies so fast, I just want to savor it.

I will be continuing my daily thankfulness this month. Why not jump on the thankfulness bandwagon? It's not too late. If you don't have a blog, I've noticed several of my friends are doing daily thankfulness posts on Facebook. Even though we should be thankful EVERY day for all the blessings we've been given, it really is the perfect time to concentrate on it.

 I hope your week....and your November....are off to a great start!

Today's Thankfulness....

* For a great morning of worship yesterday, which included two precious babies being dedicated to the Lord.

* For the thoughtfulness of a friend.

* For a BEAUTIFUL sunrise this morning as we waited for the school bus.

*For a drama-free morning!

Four Things For Friday 11.1.13

It's Friday already! Here are a few [very] random parting thoughts as we say good bye to this week.

1.) The mud room closet organization/makeover is still in progress. Here are a couple clues as to what's been going on this week and what's in store for next week.



2.) I'm just gonna go ahead and say it....I feel like I'm on pumpkin overload. We normally put our Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving. So I'm thinking that between now and then, I'm going to remove a pumpkin every day. That way, by the time it's time for the tree, the house will be de-Fallified. Do you think my family will notice? And it's not even that I'm trying to hurry Christmas along, I think I'm just ready to pare down a little before Thanksgiving arrives.

 


3.) Parenting is the hardest job. EVER. And that's all I have to say about that.

4.) Let me be the first to remind you that Saturday night is the night to set our clocks back.

"Spring FORWARD. Fall BACK."

On one hand, I'm glad for this. It is SO dark when my kids get on the bus each morning for school. A couple more weeks of some light will be nice as we race toward the shortest day of the year. On the other hand, the time change always messes with my children's sleep cycles.

Do you have any big plans this weekend. Not us. And I'm not ashamed to say that I'm kind of happy about that.

Have a great weekend!


Today's Thankfulness....

* For the strength to make it through another week.

* For a starry sky to gaze at as we waited for the school bus this morning.

* For a nice, quiet morning and the chance to just think.

Pinterest Recipe Round-Up

I have a confession to make.

I don't really like to cook. THERE, I said it.

I used to like to cook. Back in the day when it was just Hubster and me, I would make wonderful meals that were waiting for him when he came home from a long day at work. We tried to eat healthy and tried new recipes. I even....wait for it....made homemade bread.

True story.

And then we had kids. I quickly found out that when I cook, I am "in the zone." I don't want to be interrupted. I don't want to have meaningful conversations, and...um....I don't want to hear about your day. When I cook, I don't want to be distracted. I have to focus. As I'm sure you all know....that's really hard when you have kids.

Secondly, when the kids entered our lives, we all of the sudden had picky eaters in our house. There are two of them. Let me introduce you....

First, there's "Little Picky." He doesn't like melted cheese on anything, but pizza. He's really not a big fan of dairy at all.  He also doesn't like casseroles because he doesn't like different foods to touch each other on his plate. Oddly enough though, he does like vegetables. Even raw vegetables. If we are having something he doesn't like for dinner, he will sometimes ask if he can have salad instead. He generally only drinks water. ( WAIT A MINUTE....I just realized he sounds like a healthy eater. Okay, so the rest of us like cheese. Don't judge.)

Then there's "Truly Picky." She has never met a vegetable she wanted to eat. She also doesn't like beans (black, kidney, etc.), pepperoni, or....<gasp>....potatoes! For a long time the girl lived on mostly yogurt....seriously.

As most moms know, it's no fun to make dinner for your family only to sit down and have 2/5 of them say, "I don't like this!"

When homework entered our lives, making dinner was even less appealing. I mean, who wants to make dinner after their brain is fried from helping with 9th grade Algebra?

SO....all of that to say we needed a little excitement in our dinner menu. Enter Pinterest. You all know how I feel about Pinterest....it's only a time-sucker if you don't use it, right?  I figured that since I had pinned so many recipes on my "Foodie Stuff" board that I better try some of them. Lately, I try to remember to look at that board before I do my grocery shopping and pick a couple new recipes to try.

Here are a couple that we've tried. Not all have been embraced by the "Picky's," but we've had a some success.

Beef-Stuffed Crescent Rolls from Six Sister's Stuff

We all loved these and they were gobbled up. Super easy to make and I mean, who doesn't like something wrapped in a crescent roll?


Philly Cheesesteak Stuffed Bell Peppers from Quick 'N Easy Recipes

(I'm not sharing the photo here because it's a whole bunch of photos strung together showing how to make these, but you can check it out.)

These were pretty yummy. Those of us who like vegetables and cheese enjoyed them.
I do have to admit that I'm a bit of a roast beef snob though. So I substituted Hormel's Italian Roast Beef, which we like, for the deli meat.

Baked Pierogi Casserole from Table For Seven

Everyone loved this one! I must say that every time we have this I tell myself it should probably be a side dish. But we like it and use it as a main dish. And I may add extra bacon. Just sayin'.

There you have it. Three new recipes we've tried.

And this week we will be trying these.

Oven-Baked Beef Tacos from Six Sister's Stuff

Chicken Roll-Ups from Jenna's Journey


* Just a little mudroom update....I'm making progress slowly but surely. I just haven't been able to have big blocks of time to work on it. So it's been a few minutes or an hour here and there. I have sorted, organized, washed, and vacuumed though. And yesterday I got a little inspired to add some "cute." So I'm hoping to work on that a little today.*


Today's Thankfulness....

* For food on our table.

* That Hubster is home from a long business trip.

Keepin' It Real

If you've come here today looking for a post about a beautifully cleaned closet....sorry...it's not happening today.

Today there will be no "pinnable" photographs.....not even any unsuitable for pinning ones.

I thought about not even writing today at all, but I decided that I would just be honest.

As I write this, it's still only 7:30am, and it's already been a rough day in our house. 

I always want to be careful of protecting my children's privacy. So let's just say that it involved a pretty big, screaming-at-the-top-of-your-lungs tantrum, the possible re-injury of a knee that was hurt back in the Summer, and me sending said child on the bus to school anyways.

Nope, there won't be any Mother Of The Year award coming my way any time soon. (But in my defense I'm still not sure if it was a real injury or just for drama sake.)

This is the kind of stuff that happens at our house. We have three children with special needs. 

No, I'm not trying to play the special needs sympathy card. And I'm not looking for a pat on the back. This is the life we chose and we are blessed beyond measure. But I don't want anyone to ever think that things are all sunshine and roses at our house....because they are not. And I just want to be honest.

Amazingly, when I sat down to do this post, what came to my mind were the verses in Psalm 121:1-2.

 I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Wow! Did you get that? 

 

The Maker of the Universe is there to help ME! Even on tough mornings like today's.

 

All I have to do is LOOK UP.

 

And whatever situation you find Yourself in.....He's there to help you too.

 

That gives me great comfort today and I hope it does you too.

I will continue working on my mud room closets today, but it is slower-going than I thought it would be. But I'll get there and I promise I will share the "afters" with you when I'm done.

Today's Thankfulness....

* For Scripture that I learned as a child coming back to my mind this morning.

* For the help that comes from the Lord.

* For my usually-sweet children.

Mud Room Organization OR Airing Out the Dirty Laundry

How's THAT for a post title?

Good Monday morning, everyone! And welcome to our mud room. I don't think I've shown you much of this room before....and you're all probably tired of seeing my living room....so let's take a quick little tour. And I'm not kidding when I say quick.

This is the room you enter first when you come in our back door. Mud room is a good name for it because that's really all it does. It's painted a buttery yellow color, which I love. Someday, I would like to do something to make this a more used room....like maybe add a settee or a couple comfy chairs to make it a nice space for reading. But for now it is just the spot that houses our coat closet and laundry.

Fortunately you wouldn't know that when you first walk in the room. We keep it all well hidden. This room was part of an addition we put on our house about three years ago. I knew our family could not have an open mudroom with cubbies and hooks. I knew that it would be perpetually messy and that would drive my crazy. So as much as I wanted cute cubbies with hooks, I used my head, did the practical thing, and put it all behind closed doors.

So as you walk in the door, there are double bifold doors to the right which is our coat closet.

And to the left, there are bifold doors which house our laundry as well as some storage shelves.



By the way, that cup shelf was made by my Dad when I was a little girl to have in my home someday. It is very special to me! My Mom and my sister have shelves just like it.

If you keep going around the room you'll see this little table.

So that's the little tour. And now for the dirty laundry part....

Saturday afternoon I was scrambling to find gloves and hats for the kids when we went to Trunk or Treat. I figured I should probably get the coat closet organized before Winter really kicks in. I know there are probably some coats and maybe boots in there that have been outgrown and could be donated. And the laundry closet closet always seems to be overflowing. So I decided to challenge myself to get these spots in order this week. And I figure if I post it here, I have to complete it, right?

So here are the "before" pictures. (Yikes! I hope you all appreciate my transparency here! Ha ha!)

Hopefully I will be back with an update in a day or two and have some "after" photos to show you.

Oh, and if you're interested in seeing the kids in their Halloween costumes that I slaved over last week (okay, not REALLY), I posted them over on my Facebook page.

Have a great day, everybody!

Today's Thankfulness....

*For a great weekend....Trunk or Treat, being together as a family, worship on Sunday.

* For the chance Hubster and I had yesterday to have some concentrated time with just our oldest son.

* For humor....we would not be able to survive around here without it!

Four Things For Friday 10.25.13

Happy Friday!

Here are just a few thoughts that have been rolling around in my head.

1.) Did you hear me say I wanted to make Halloween costumes? Did I REALLY say that? I think it was a moment of insanity....truly. The problem is that when it comes to creative projects, I'm a perfectionist. No more, I tell you, NO MORE!!

2.) Okay, rant over. And speaking of Halloween....a friend shared a link on Facebook to this blog post about Halloween at TroubleFace Mom. I don't know what your feelings are about Halloween, but hopefully it will get you thinking about what an opportunity it actually is. I know it did for me. Tomorrow night our family will be heading to Trunk or Treat at our church to hand out candy and information about Jesus and our church to hundreds of neighborhood kids. Definitely an opportunity. 

 

3.) One of the benefits of me driving all over town to try and find items needed for said Halloween costumes the other day is that I found a little treasure. If you follow me on Facebook (and if you don't, WHY NOT?), you already saw this pretty ironstone pitcher I found at the Goodwill Store. The Goodwill Store!!! Can you believe it? With it's lovely wheat pattern, I think it's very Fall-ish, don't you?

4.) I'm starting to think about gift-giving. November and December are big celebration months around here and if I don't get some gift shopping done soon, I'm going to be scrambling big-time. My love language is gifts so I really do enjoy shopping to find just the right thing for someone. But my kids have gotten to that "hard to buy for" stage. I miss shopping for fun toys.

Well, I guess that's if for Friday. I hope you all have a great weekend!

Today's Thankfulness.....

* That the predicted October snow missed us. (There's still hope for our trees to hit their peak of color.)

* For a drama-free morning with the kiddos.

* For the opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

Fall In My Backyard

For a couple weeks now I've been thinking that when the leaves reach their peak in our back yard I wanted to share a photo with you. So I've been waiting. Our leaves seem to be a little behind this year. I guess that's because our weather didn't really get consistently chilly until a few days ago.

But when I heard that the weather report for the next day or so calls for a freeze warning along with a mix of rain and...<gasp>...SNOW, I though that maybe I should dig out the photos I took a couple years ago of our back yard. If you were paying attention, you may have noticed this photo back when I posted the recipe for Pie Filling Cobbler.....which sounds really good about now!

We are really blessed by God's beautiful paintbrush each Autumn.

I remember the first time we came to look at our house when we were house hunting. When we pulled in the driveway and stepped out of our car, we were met with the wonderful scent of pine. I don't notice it so much now....I guess because I live here....but that scent and the beautiful trees in the back yard were definitely a wonderful surprise and made an impression on me.

I have a feeling our leaves aren't going to reach their peak of color this year. Many will probably fall over the next couple days. I'm glad I have these photos to look at this year. Which makes me think....Have you taken pictures of the outside of your home and your yard? Those would probably be precious mementos for you children when they grow up.

By the way, our yard looks beautiful in the winter too. After a new snow, before the trees have a chance to shake all the snow off, it looks like a Winter Wonderland. I'll have to share photos of that when the time comes.

 

Today I'm off to the thrift store to hopefully find some items needed for Halloween costumes. I KNOW...I said I was hoping we were over the costume thing. But the kids actually came up with some cute ideas of what they wanted to dress as, so I was swayed. I have a hard time saying no to a creative project.

 

Have a GREAT day!

Today's Thankfulness....

(We had a special speaker in church on Sunday who talked about God's PROVISION, so that's been on my mind the last couple days.)

* For God's provision for a dear friend who underwent unexpected surgery yesterday.

* For financial provision God has provided in a very unexpected way

 

* That even though God never changes, His ways are often unexpected.

* For the beauty of Fall....however it comes.....in beautiful color or in rain and snowflakes.