John just finished his finals and classes earlier this week, so our real vacation together started yesterday. He had to do some work at home for a few hours, but in the afternoon we went to his campus to turn in a library book and take Johnny for a walk/tour around campus (we were taking advantage of the campus being basically completely empty). Johnny loves walks, and especially when he can walk with his daddy, so it ended up being a really nice afternoon. It was a tad chilly, but all in all not too bad of a day.
Today we woke up earlier than usual so we could start preparing food. We have been cooking all day, but it hasn't been all that stressful--pretty low-key in reality. It started out with putting the turkey breast (we didn't want to do a whole turkey) into the slow cooker with an onion soup mix packet to cook all day. Then we made the pie crust and the pumpkin pie, homemade rolls, spiral ham in the oven, homemade mashed potatoes, candied yams with brown sugar & mini marshmallows, stuffing, green bean casserole, and gravy. [Pretty much everything except for the can of cranberry sauce--my husband insists on having cranberry sauce shaped like a can--was homemade from scratch, which I'm very proud of, I have to admit.] It was definitely more food than we needed for a family of three (more like family of 2 1/2), but we wanted to have all of the familiar Thanksgiving foods we grew up with. :) We did dishes as we cooked, so the only things to clean up after dinner were the bowls that weren't going in the fridge with leftovers. Later tonight we'll be making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with the rest of the pumpkin puree.
The great thing about today was that it was a wonderfully warm day. The temperature was in the 60s & 70s F in the afternoon, and we had to have our screen door open to get a breeze considering we had the oven going for most of the day and the slow cooker going on the counter. Here is John & me taking a break from the cooking to enjoy the warm weather (we are outside in shorts & t-shirts & bare feet--and it felt GREAT!!):
The other awesome thing that happened today was that Johnny fell asleep around 2:30pm and didn't wake up again until a little after 5pm when we were just setting the table with the rest of the food. :) Here are some pictures of Johnny throughout the day, enjoying himself:
(Johnny spent a lot of the day playing with Cookie Monster, Elmo, Gator, & Poe in his room. For those who are wondering--aka my mom--Johnny's teepee, play kitchen, & changing table are to the right of this picture on the other side of his room. The closet is around the left corner and filled with tons more toys & clothes. His Dallas Cowboys chair is between his bed & the closet. Yes, he is spoiled.)
(He was the first guinea pig for testing the homemade butter rolls after they came out of the oven this morning. He loved them, because he basically takes after his mama--besides all the other similarities--in his love of bread. Please ignore our laundry basket filled with clean laundry behind him.)
We sat down to dinner a little after five and all of the food was delicious! Very good for our first time cooking a Thanksgiving meal by ourselves. :) We started out with saying grace & saying what we were thankful for (family & friends, health, our education, our stable home, etc.), and after we said "amen", Johnny proceeded to say "Dank you" several times in the most adorable voice. Then he broke out into the cutest grin. :) After grace we dug into the food. The turkey breast turned out extremely moist and flavorful, but surprisingly didn't taste much like onions even though it cooked covered in an onion soup mix packet for eight hours. The spiral ham was also delicious. John enjoyed his favorite Thanksgiving food item: green bean casserole (I personally think it is gross, but always make it for him). Johnny didn't eat as much as he did last year, but he did eat a little bit of everything we put on his plate. He didn't eat a whole lot though, since he is really picky now. He ate cranberry sauce, a tiny itty-bitty piece of some ham, another roll, and some stuffing. John and I ended up eating our fair share of food too, and quite enjoyed ourselves.
(John putting the spiral ham in the roast pan to be put in the oven. The turkey breast is in the slow cooker, smelling delicious all day.)
(Our table and all of the food dishes before we started eating.)
(Johnny started to dig into the food before grace & John is impatient for me to take the darn picture so we all can eat.)
(My yummy plate of food.)
After dinner, we decided to relax for a little bit. Johnny wanted to watch Finding Nemo, so we watched a bit of that while we waited out our digestion. John & Johnny ended up having a giggle-fest with Cookie Monster and Elmo, which was super-duper adorable.
John ended up falling asleep for the past twenty minutes while I wrote this post and Johnny has been bouncing off the walls. Now we are about to cut a piece of delicious pumpkin pie for dessert! :) After that we are looking forward to talking on Skype with family & friends back in Spokane. So, I'm going to go have that piece of pie now...I hope the rest of you had a wonderfully blessed Thanksgiving! And as my son did during dinner, find something to say "Dank you" to. God bless & lots of love to all of our family and friends!
Oh, and just in case you were wondering...here are our many many leftovers (minus the pumpkin pie that has yet to be cut):
(This picture doesn't really do them justice, but we have plenty for lunches and leftover dinners for through the weekend.)
3 comments:
Oh, and also, I am very thankful for the fact that my great-aunt Sue is off of life-support caused by H1N1 complications and is on the road to recovery!! :) We love you, Sue, and you are in our thoughts & prayers!
I also said a prayer for Sue. They have never stated that it was H1N1 but that is what we are assuming. She is at home now but is still on oxygen.
Your Thanksgiving meal looked wonderful Jess! You both did an amazing job. You were in our thoughts and prayers. Hopefully next year we will be able to spend Thanksgiving together again. Love you, Mom.
I'm glad to hear Sue is home now and recovering. And we really want to be home with you guys for Thanksgiving next year too! Love you!
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