Thanksgiving

 We went out to eat for Thanksgiving and took these pictures before we left.  Now seeing how well they turned out I wish we hadn't had our coats on.

Dad and his parents.  I never realized how much he looks like his mom.

Dinner was good, Spark needed a nap afterwards.

Thanksgiving

 

Ham dinner with enough food to serve at least 18 instead of six.  We ate so much everyone passed on dessert. 

 

Grandma Shirley dried the dishes and remembered where the silverware went even if the drawer got closed.  It was so fun to have her helping.

 

Green salad.  The actual name is, "The Green Salad Aunt Alberta From Missouri Use To Make."

 

1 package lime Jell-O

1 cup boiling water

8 oz. marshmallows

8 oz. cream cheese

1 can crushed pineapple

1 can evaporated milk

 

Dissolve the Jell-O in the boiling water.  After the Jell-O is dissolved, add the marshmallows when it still hot so they melt.   Add the cream cheese and stir until smooth, this sort of melts too.  Stir in the crushed pineapple.  Beat the evaporated milk until think and fold into the mixture.  Cool until set.

2012 Handprint Thanksgiving Turkey

I love the Groucho Marx eyebrows he got this year courtesy of Spark.

He now resides on the turkey wall in the hallway.

Thanksgiving Week

Our week has been jammed pack full of activities, appointments, preparations and not much school.

On Tuesday our homeschool co-op made and delivered Thanksgiving baskets and pies.  This is a fun project we have enjoyed the last two years.

Wednesday was spent baking for our Thanksgiving diner.  We made an Amish Sugar pie.  The jury is out on if it was good or not.  I think it was one of those things you either love it or you don't.  As the name says it is sugar, lots and lots of it makes my teeth hurt to eat this sugar with a little lemon and three eggs thrown in.  Dad made rolls and he is a very picky baker, you could call him a baking snob in fact.  He made several batches before he had ones that he thought were worthy for a Thanksgiving diner.  The kids and I had no problems enjoying the ones that he shunned. 

The kids also had dentist appointments on Wednesday.  Dancer had her first cavity.  She is pretty upset about it which I wasn't expecting.  She has been through having teeth pulled and braces so this should really be a walk in the park, it is just a little one.  Once she has it done I am sure she will see that it isn't such a big deal.  I had a mouthful of fillings by the time I was her age, although that fact isn't making her feel better.  She will understand now though why Dad and I don't enjoying going to the dentist, something the kids have never understood before.

Wednesday night Dancer was invited to a youth group Thanksgiving dinner and game night.  They played "Plunger Ball" - yes it is a game played with a toilet plunger.  When we went into town to pick her up we stopped for a late night snack at McDonalds so I could down load the book The Homeschooling Highway: How To Navigate Your Way Without Getting Carsick  on the Kindle.  It is wonderfully written by a famish kind of homeschool mom  we happen to have the good fortune of being friends with. We don't have wifi at our house so any time we want something it means a trip to either a restaurant or the local laundromat.

Thursday we celebrated the day at church.  Our church is right across the road from a college and we extended an invitation to the international students to join us for dinner.  Only two came, one from the Bahamas and one from Ethiopia, we had a fun time getting to know them and playing games.  During diner it started to snow and just kept on snowing and snowing and snowing. 

By the time we were ready to leave the roads were slick and we had to creep our way home.  There were a lot of accidents which means that Dad, who was hoping to get put on call a good portion of the holiday weekend, is working since many were very serious and people are hospitalized.  Dad always says that people misunderstand that when people hear of a crash that reports there were no deaths they assume everyone is alright.  The reality, the part he sees, is that many are hospitalized for months and months, endure many surgeries, intense pain and have life long problems that make their former lives a memory. 

Friday we were invited to dinner at a friends.  Only Dancer and I were able to go as Dad was going to work and Spark wasn't feeling well so he stayed home.  They both really missed out as the food was plentiful and delicious.  After dinner we played the game "What's Yours Like?"  We laughed so hard that my cheeks hurt by the time we left.  Might have to look for that game the next time we are shopping.


Skips

 

Mr. Fluffles

 

That brings us to today, Saturday afternoon.  This morning we brought our two new kittens to the vet for check ups and their first shots.  This first appointment was $248 - so much for free kittens.  We thought they would be outside cats but I am rethinking that plan since they are going to be expensive little creatures by the time we finish up their shots and neutering.  I use to think that a cat at the Humane Society for $60 was out of line but it looks like a bargain now. 

We have lots of pictures from the week but Blogger is not cooperating.  When it starts to work I will add some in.

Thanksgiving Crafts

 

Little Rice Krispy ball on half an Oreo with frosting for glue and candy corn head and tail feathers.

 

Thankful pumpkin 

Fingerprint turkey.  One on the left is a napkin ring.

Hand Print Turkey Year Six

It was done a day late but done none the less, the annual hand print turkey.

Now it will go up on the wall in the hallway and join the other turkeys from the last five years.  The kids were kindergarten and third grade when we started this and I cherish them all, only wish we would have done it from when they were babies.

We Feasted

 On prime rib, Dad makes the best ever. 

All the side dishes - broccoli salad, seven layer salad, carrot casserole, brussel sprouts (Grandma Pat brought these because they are her favorite but we all found out Grandpa Bob loves them too), olives and buns.

We finished off the meal with pumpkin pie made by Dancer.  Her first ever and it was so yummy I think that will be her job from now on.

Then we sent lots of left overs home with everyone because our refrigerator decided that yesterday, after we had shopped, would be a good time to die.  The repair man said it would be about $700 to maybe, a big maybe, fix it so tomorrow we are going shopping.  I had so hoped to avoid town on Black Friday but that out of the question now.  It was better than losing the stove and there was plenty of snow to pack coolers with.  However, we are having way above average temps (it got in to the high 50's today and is suppose to be that way until the weekend) and the snow is all melting.  It looks more like spring outside than fall.  We are keeping the coolers outside because at least it is colder than the house, especially in the shade, and taking advantage of the garage being a little colder for the things we can't get in the coolers.  Such is life.

Excuse me???

We were all enjoying a nice dinner this past Saturday, it had been a day of hard work in the barn and then some time spent with grandma.  Spark jumped up, very abruptly and announced "Excuse me, I need to change my pants."  We all looked at each other wondering to ourselves what calamity would warrant a mid-meal change of one's drawers.

When he returned we asked what happened.  "Nothing," he replied, "my pants aren't as comfortable as my other pants."

Whew!!  Considering the thoughts racing through our heads that was a great reason to change pants.

Thanksgiving

Decoration by Spark

I called my dad a couple of weeks ago and asked if they want to come for Thanksgiving.  Without missing a beat he said yes and that they would bring a ham.  Then he asked if we had any cranberries and sweet potatoes.  Sounds like he was waiting for an invitation and knew exactly what he wanted!  The trip from their house to ours is usually about an hour.  Today, with horrible roads, it took them and hour and 45 minutes.  Thankfully they made it here and back.

Every vegetable and side dish we had was orange.  We had carrot casserole and yams.  Since we already had two orange veggies Dad threw a squash in the oven for one more.  Then Grandma Pat came with an orange salad and pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin pie can technically be orange.

All the food was so good.  Glad we had leftovers!

This is what happens when you work all night and have company all day.  You are fast asleep on the couch with the dog by 4:15 p.m.  We watched a movie, played Wii Sports Resort, played a game at the table and Dad never stirred.  He did wake up about 8:00 and made us pizza.  We know winter has officially arrived when Dad starts making homemade pizza.

Turkey Bread Centerpiece Recipe

We found this fun turkey bread recipe at the Wheat Foods Council and thought we would give it a try because he was just so darn cute. 

To make him we used whole wheat frozen bread dough that we get from a local bakery.  They sell five loaves of bread dough for $3.59, a price we really can't match at home.  Check out the Wheat Foods Council page if you want to make a dough from scratch.  

The first step of the turkey is roll out a six inch circle and lay it on a greased pan.  We used a baking stone.

Take ten small ball of dough and roll with the rolling pin in oblong shapes.  With a knife cut the edges to make them look like feathers.

 For the turkey head and neck, roll an 18 inch long rope and fold it in half.   Make an indentation in the top of the turkey body.  Lay the bottom of the rope in the indentation and the top will be over the feathers.  To make the head, curve the dough like a shepard's crook.

 Cut out a diamond shape for the beak and lay it on top of the crook part of the head.

 Flatten two raisins for eyes.

                         Take a small ball of flattened dough for the foot and cut a few toes in it.

                                                   
 Let him rise for an hour or two.  Cover him with a towel so he doesn't get a hard crust on top while he is rising.

Bake him at 350 degrees until he sounds hollow when you tap on his tummy.  If the feathers, or other parts are starting to get too brown, cover them with aluminum foil like you would a pie crust edge.  He looks quite handsome doesn't he?  Supposedly you can let him sit on the counter for a few days and he will get hard for a center piece. 

                                    

We had left over dough so we made a bear with a bow tie.   We used raisins for his eyes, nose, and buttons.

He was cute all baked up.  Not so cute though that we had trouble eating him!

Giving Thanks Challenge - Traditions

2010 Hand Turkey

Traditions are odd things as you can never predict at the beginning of your family what your traditions are going to be.  The majority of traditions we have in our family are not things that we set out to make into traditions.  A lot of our traditions have evolved from the kids really having a good time at something and them wanting to do it again the next time the occasion arises.  One of our traditions I am so thankful we started is that the kids make a hand cut out turkey each and every year.  Once we had done this a couple of years we realized that it was cool way to keep track of how the kids hands grow every year.  This is the first year that we are unable to tell the difference between Spark and Dancers hands as they are so close in size.  We have all the years hanging on the wall in the hallway to our bedrooms so we can enjoy them all year long.

Complete Randomness

• We were fortunate enough to have three grandparents here for Thanksgiving.
• I love to see my mom even if by the time they get the car out on the road she doesn't remember she was here. I will remember.
• We have prime rib and steak for Thanksgiving dinner. No one here gets excited about turkey so why wrestle with the big frozen fowl for a special occasion when no one finds it special.
• We only have prime rib at Thanksgiving. It is way out of our budget any other time of the year.
• It was odd to be eating it for leftovers today. Seemed pretty extravagant for Friday lunch.
• The dog, Nikki, loves prime rib tidbits.
• Pinning is so very important to sewing a quilt.
• If you need a seam ripped out you should try to do it yourself.
• But I am your mom so I will sit and do it for you because I am just so happy that you like to sew.
• It takes five dollars to get Spark to help clean out a goat pen.
• It is so worth five dollars.
• Dad had to go to work tonight.
• He has been home for a whole week. He was sick, but he was home.
• We were sad to see him go tonight.
• He leaves for work in the dark now. It makes the night long.
• I hate to do chores in the dark.
• Getting new rubber bands on braces hurts.
• The best cure for the pain is soft food and time.
• Who ever thought that El Dorado needed it's own sound track? It doesn't.
• I like the Shrek CD from the original movie. Or motion picture as it's called.
• Would we really be confused if it wasn't called a motion picture instead of just picture show?
• Beetlejuice is only funny the first three times you watch it.
• Once everyone can recite the lines along with the movie it looses something.
• But I will watch it again because my kids like it.
• I have, although, reached my limit for the scene where they sing Day-O, even if you freeze frame the characters to see how funny of a face you can make them have.
• Did Disney read the book Summer of the Monkeys before they made the movie? If you have read the book don't waste 101 minutes of your time watching the movie - you will be highly disappointed.
• And one last one for Spark - a complete Thanksgiving dinner, a piece of pie that you are too full to eat but ate anyway, AND a full bottle of carbonated soda pop doesn't fit in your stomach. Not for very long anyway.

Pumpkin Cake Recipe

This is a nice change from pumpkin pie.

Pumpkin Cake

2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. soda
4 eggs
2 c. canned pumpkin
2 c. sugar
1 c. oil
1 c. chopped nuts or raisins

Sift first 5 dry ingredients. Add oil, sugar, pumpkin and eggs. Beat well. Pour into greased 10X15 inch pan. (we used 2 8X8 pans) Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 - 35 minutes

Scenes from Thanksgiving

This was just the beginning
of Dancer laughing all night.

Grandma Cooking


We skipped the turkey and grilled. Only Dancer likes the white meat so it is lots of hotdishes to eat if we make a big turkey.

Our hibiscus bloomed for Thanksgiving.

Here is one of the Dad's favorite recipes. We make this on holidays and special occasions as it is not low calorie by any means.

Carrot Casserole

1 lb. carrots
1 onion
2 sticks butter
1 scoop flour
1 C. milk
1 tube Ritz crackers


Boil carrots until tender - mash. Cook onion in 1 stick of butter until softened, not browned. Add flour and milk until thickened. Add carrots. Put in 8X8 buttered pan. Crush crackers, mix with melted butter and sprinkle on top. Bake 350 20-30 minutes. If refrigerated add 10 minutes.

Turkey of the year

Every year the kids make one cut out hand turkey together. I leave these turkeys up all year hanging in the hallway to the bedrooms.

2008

2007

2006

They also spent a good part of the afternoon making bookmarks. Here is where they got their insperation www.miragebookmark.ch/be_homemade_bookmarks.htm and www.familycrafts.about.com/od/bookmarks

Hard at work

Little pipe cleaner, pom pom critter bookmarks

Bookworms

It could be years before we are in need of another bookmark!