This year, maybe for the first time, we celebrated Thanksgiving at our house with only the four of us here. Not for want of invitations, as we had invitations from every direction. It seems like life is just too busy and I kind of wanted to just be here. Of course as it got real close, I thought and mentioned to Gee, "Oh, I wish we would have invited someone else. I really want to see family." So we decided we would eat here and then spend time with family after. So we did that. We spent the evening at little brother's house with his family and another sibling and family that had spent the day there. What fun! It was just what I had yearned for. I had made two pies, so I brought half of each pie. I also brought along some of the cranberry salad that is one of my very fond memories of growing up. But more on that later.
One of the pies I made was an apple pie. I should not say I, I should say we made. The girls and I made this pie, and is it yummy!
Even better than making the pie is the memory I hope we created in making it. We got some apples from one of my baby sisters and I decided we would cut them up and freeze them til we could make pie. Preparing these apples to freeze was so much fun! We were such a team of mama and daughters preparing the apples for pies. Bee washed them, Emm apple peeler/corer/slicered them, and I took off any peeling/core or whatever didn't come off in the first round and cut them in half and threw them in the bowl that Bee was manning the cover of, ready to open the cover each time I had a bunch to throw in. I started with a couple of them and then Bee took them all out of the frig and I just went 'Oh, no! How will I get these done?" But seriously we were a true team. It was so slick and really went fast. The girls so happily worked with me to get them done and we finished in no time. It was fun! So the eve before Thanksgiving I made the crust and put it in the frig and took out the already prepared for a pie apples and let them thaw in the frig overnight. In the morning I rolled out the crust and put it in the pie pan, poured the apples on top, put the top crust on, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar and put it in the oven. It was great!
Here are the girls rolling out the left over crust and sprinkling with cinnamon/sugar, which I then baked for them. Anther memory of mine that I wanted to pass on to them. Then horrible mother that I am, I let them have it for lunch, along with apples, oranges, and milk. They loved it and it made me smile because they were so pleased by it.
Here's tom turkey.
A funny story of Bee. A few days before Thanksgiving, she asked what day was coming and I asked her if she was thinking of Thanksgiving. She said, "Is that the day we have turkey?" I told her it was and she said, "But it's not a
real turkey is it?" I asked her what she meant by real and she told me, "You know, the kind with feathers." I told her that it was in fact the real kind, but it wouldn't have feathers on it anymore. She said with a sick look on her face, "No! Not the
real kind!?" I asked her what kind she thought we would have and she told me, "I thought we would have the kind from the
store!"
Another one. Today we were at my sister's house and she came to me and said, "You know when we made our cookbooks in school?"
(They made cookbooks in kindergarten of how each child would make a turkey for Thanksgiving.) I told her that I remembered. She said, "You know what someone said the first thing they would do to make their turkey? I have to whisper to you. They said they would first
shoot the turkey!"
Oh, we laugh every day for having her in our household.
What am I
most thankful for? Here it is in one picture. Oh, I am thankful for so much, but this is by far what I am most thankful for this Thanksgiving season and every day!
We have been talking much of being thankful for what we have. So I asked each one what they are thankful for. Emm said she is thankful for her family, her house, her food, etc. Bee said, "I am thankful for all the expensive things." Again, I have to say that I am so thankful that each of them is in our family.
One of the things I am most thankful for is birthfamilies. One of the ways we remember this and honor birthfamilies at each of our special family events is by lighting our 'birthfamily' candle that you see in the pictures. I don't just light the candle. I do always talk about why it is there, to let the girls know that I think of and am thankful for their birth families and mine too. I hope that in doing this they will know that it's ok and good to talk of their first family
In the pictures you will also see our traditional cranberry salad. The girls now start looking forward to Thanksgiving and counting the days til we can start the cranberry salad. The night before Thanksgiving we grind the cranberries and apples to put in the frig over night so the flavours can blend. Oh, and you should see the grinding. I was going to take pictures but only remembered as I was washing the grinder when we were done. Growing up we had an old grinder that we hand ground the cranberries and apples with. I have such fond memories of using this grinder as we were growing up. I remember Mom wanted cranberries at our Thanksgiving meal, but nobody liked the cranberry stuff from the can. She found this salad recipe and I think every year since then I have made this salad - first helping my mom to make as I was growing up, and now as a mom helping my girls to make it. I did not get the original grinder from home but found one just like it at a flea market many years ago and had to buy it. I could much easier use a food processor to chop up the cranberries and apples, but come on, what memories would that create? First when I had Emm, each year she would get to try to grind and couldn't quite do it on her own and finally one year she could! Yay! So she's the grinder, and now each year Bee tries to grind and can get the handle around about twice (once she figures out which way to turn it) and she just doesn't quite have the strength to do it. So she helps to wash the apples and stir the bowl that we put them in, and dream about the year that she's finally big enough that she can grind the cranberries.
Here's our table, laden with food. How blessed we are!
And I just had to put one more picture of the apple pie as I did not take a picture of the pumpkin pie.
The girls are checking out what they got in their bag from Santa. How exciting!
...and lights
(even in the closet :)
... and the people were so happy!
... family room & bedroom are 'delicate lace' which is a creamy color...
...laundry room the lightest gray called 'steam white'. 
Here's the infloor heat.
Self leveler is being poured down.
Here's the bathroom tile...although you really can't see the color of it. It's a little lighter than it looks here and has some variegation-tan and gray.
My linen closet shelves. Still my favorite room and I love the shelves!
Bedroom closet shelves and hanging rod.
