Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thanksgiving. Show all posts

Thursday, November 04, 2010

October happenings



Micah loved the pumpkin patch. We spent a few days there when we could in October. There were some beautiful, sunny fall days to enjoy there.


One day when we were there we met up with a classmate of Micah's from his preschool. It just so happened to be "Addie" Micah's most talked about classmate. I think it's a little crush. The past couple of weeks she's been on vacation and so his teachers tell me he asks about her all the time. I believe it because he talks to me about her too, that maybe the mountain we see is where Addie is on "baycation." She's actually at DisneyLand. She's a cutie, but I think it's a little too early for my liking.



Micah's preschool had a costume parade and concert for the parents on the Thursday before Halloween. It was the funniest and cutest thing to see all the little 3 and 4 year old kids dressed up in their costumes and singing their pumpkin or spider songs. They sang 3 verses of the itsy-bitsy spider and I just couldn't stop laughing. The first verse was "The teensy-weensy spider" and they all sang it in their highest-pitch voices so you really couldn't understand what they were singing until they got to "The middle-sized spider" when they used their regular voices. Then they went to the "BIG HUMONGOUS SPIDER" and Micah was so into it with his face and actions. He was front and center, loud and proud. He made everyone laugh when after one of the songs about little critters and apple fritters he said the teachers were the little critters. Micah dressed as a doctor for his costume parade at school. He also had a costume party for a friend's birthday party and dressed as the doctor then too. For Halloween he was a lion. Frankie was an adorable little pink kitty cat.




Canadian Thanksgiving:

These pictures must have been the calm before the storm. Here they are waiting for their food.


One of our (and our friend's) favorite fall traditions is celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving with all of our friends. For the Americans that read this blog, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving the same way, with a huge feast - turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, yummy rolls, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and any other favorite dishes that I am forgetting! In Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday of October, which happens to be Columbus Day in the States. We celebrated a few weeks late so it wouldn't conflict with Micah's birthday party.

It is always super crazy but everyone loves it. This year we had 13 adults and (I think) 10 kids. I was slightly out of it with a newborn and may just be blocking it from my memory because of the chaos of it all. Our house is a fine size, but never feels big enough for that many people. I wish we had taken more pictures but I was stuck nursing my baby, or trying to keep the massive amounts of children from killing each other or destroying my home, or I was making sure all of the adults were getting hot food. It always stresses me out, but this year I made it as easy as possible. I made the stuffing in the crockpot, David took care of the turkey, I made a cranberry sauce and an apple crisp the night before, and everyone else took care of everything else. Actually, I also made a chocolate pecan sweet potato pie because the person who was going to bring the pies ended up not being able to come. I'm so thankful for my amazing husband who calmly took care of cleaning, setting up the table and taking care of the turkey while I was stuck nursing most of the day. I crashed into bed as soon as everyone left, but I always love having a little bit of "home" celebrated with my friends.



Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Canadian Thanksgiving 2008


All the girls: Kimber with Reese, Erica with Coco, Stephanie with baby :), Jaclyn, Maleah with Hallee, and me



Maleah and Erica with their babies and their homemade hooter hiders



Stephanie and Maleah



Myself and Jaclyn cleaning up the mess!


Canadian Thanksgiving happened for us a couple weeks late. I always love to do it even though I stress a bit before it happens. I love having people over and hanging out, but there's always a certain amount of work that goes into having people over. Planning the menu, shopping for the food, cleaning the house and preparing the food. I made a Sausage-cranberry stuffing recipe that I had seen in Wondertime Magazine and it was FABULOUS! I made it the day ahead, and it made enough for 2 9x13 pans, plus enough to stuff the 20lb turkey we had! We had a lot of yummy leftovers! We made the turkey with a fried pecan-bourbon glaze, also fabulous! The gravy even turned out perfectly! I wasn't planning on making mashed potatoes because there's always so much food, but when I happened to mention it to Dave a couple hours before the feast he was not too happy to hear that there would be no mashed potatoes! I had to run out to the store to get potatoes and a few of the other ingredients I needed for it. The potatoes were awesome, it was good that we had them. But... I had felt pretty relaxed most of the day until I realized I had to go to the store and make potatoes! I guess I can't blame it all on Dave - we did need some other things at the store too. But my friends say I'm a good wife and should be rewarded with a new pair of jeans or something!!

I had felt relaxed because everyone else helped out so much with the menu. Even the women that had newborns brought something! Erica has a 2 1/2 year old and a 1 month old and she made twice baked sweet potatoes and a pumpkin pie from scratch, complete from sugar pie pumpkins! Maleah has three kids (3 and under) and made an absolutely delicious cranberry sauce! These women amaze me!

I am very thankful for my amazing friends and for delicious food!