Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving week was overall just delightful! Our family (minus Olivia and Brian who stayed in Indiana to celebrate Thanksgiving with Brian's family) enjoyed each other's company so much! We  ate a lot of good food and were able to visit with much of our extended family. We put together a difficult nutcracker puzzle which I plan to frame. We have started another puzzle, but interest has waned since the holiday has ended. I keep a Christmas themed puzzle going on our dining room table during the holiday season. I think I am going to frame all the ones we put together this year and hang them during December each year.

Clay's friend, Lauren joined us for a couple of days at the end of their Thanksgiving break. Leah, Sam, and I took them to the airport in Memphis last Monday, and after dropping them off we did some Christmas shopping (mostly for Mae!) at Target. I had so much fun buying baby things!

Another highlight (or should I say lowlight) of our Thanksgiving break was that half of our family got sick! Big Sam, Julie, Leah and Sam all had some variation of a stomach virus, fever, and aches and pains. Thankfully, Jimmy, Clay, Lauren, nor I got sick! We watched several Christmas movies during the time while the sick people were feeling poorly. Clay and Lauren tried to stay away from everyone, so I gave them the task of preparing my Christmas cards! I was so grateful they did that for me. I got them in the mail last Friday.

After spending last Tuesday cleaning house all day, we got back to school. We will continue our schoolwork until December 14, and then Yay! Christmas Break!  We will resume our school on January 11. I am really looking forward to this extended break.

I wish we could be in full holiday mode right now! But I must stay strong and keep doing school until next Friday.

Here are a couple of pictures from my Thanksgiving Day table.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I hope you and your family enjoy your day today. I spent all day yesterday cooking after I made one last trip to Kroger and Hobby Lobby (I decided last minute to make some sort of table decoration for my Thanksgiving dinner--good thing I was last minute because most of the fall items were 80% off!)

This morning all I have left to do is cook the turkey (first time ever for me), finish decorating the table, and do all the things on my list. I am printing out some Thanksgiving themed conversation starters and activities. I hope everyone will be a good sport and play along! 

We plan to eat at 1:00 when Jimmy gets home from work. Tonight we are going to Kelly and Lynn's to eat leftovers with them and watch the Egg Bowl.

Enjoy your day! 

The Thanksgiving Celebrations Countdown

Whew! Yesterday afternoon I typed my to-do list and timeline for this week. This is my first time ever to prepare the Thanksgiving meal all by myself and serve it at my own house! My mother is unable to host this year, so I am using all her traditional recipes and hosting my immediate family. There will be eight  of us for Thanksgiving lunch: Jimmy, Me, Clay, Leah, Sam, Julie, Big Sam, and Mae.  I plan to serve the meal on my fine china that I have used only once or twice in our 27 years of marriage.

Thursday night we plan to take our leftovers over to Kelly and Lynn's house to eat with them and watch the Egg Bowl on TV. Friday night we are having a Thanksgiving dinner at Russ (Jimmy's brother) and Megan's house, and on Saturday we are going to Rhett (my brother) and Amanda's house. Lots of fun and food ahead!

Here is the timeline: As I just read over it, I realized that I forgot to list actually buying the Christmas tree! We will buy it sometime Wednesday and decorate it Friday.
Oh. And we will do some school today and tomorrow, and we also have CrossFit and piano lessons today.

Monday:

• clean upstairs
• change Clay's sheets, guest sheets, and Julie's sheets
• get out Christmas dishes
• decorate for Christmas (after supper)

Tuesday

• vacuum downstairs
• clean guest bathroom
• make dressing
• make carrot salad
• slice ham
• freeze hambone

Wednesday:

• grocery store early for last minute ingredients

• make sweet potatoes
• make corn/rice casserole
• make orange delight
• make green beans x 2
• thaw dressing
• make chocolate and pumpkin pies
• clean my bathroom/bedroom

Thursday:

8:00 AM

• bake turkey
• vacuum downstairs
• vacuum stairs
• set table—wash and dry tablecloth on quick cycle to remove wrinkles

11:30AM

• set out all casseroles
• boil eggs
• make gravy
• prepare cranberry sauce

12:00PM

• bake dressing
• bake green beans
• slice turkey
• put ham and turkey on platter

12:30PM

• bake sweet potatoes
• bake corn/rice casserole
• set out butter

12:45PM

• bake rolls

12:55PM

• set out orange delight
• set out carrot salad

1:00PM—EAT

Friday

• white chili in crock pot on high (for lunch)
• brown ground beef for tomorrow
• decorate Christmas tree (hot chocolate and popcorn!)
• make banana pudding
• make chocolate pies
• make chocolate chip pound cake 
• bake green beans one hour before going to Megan's.

Saturday

• put 7 can soup in crock pot on low (for supper)
• make strawberry spinach salad
• take cake and salad

Happy Thanksgiving Week to you!