Thanksgiving 2018

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We sure did!

Our celebration started driving to Iowa on Wednesday to spend time with my side of the family. It’s rare that we are all together so we were excited to spend time with everyone.

We left after Vin’s work and I was freaking out because we would be driving in the dark with two kiddos. I’m not worried about Raya anymore (my 3 year old), we can distract her with toys, snacks, movies, etc., but Nora (almost 1) just can’t sit in her car seat for 5 hours. It’s always a struggle but we seem to make it every time. Thankfully we stopped for a nutritious meal at McDonalds (there’s not a lot to offer on the road to Iowa, but I’ll admit the Big Mac was pretty damn good.) and both girls fell asleep shortly after until we reached my parents house. Thank God.

We arrived, put the girls back to sleep, had a glass of wine and went to bed.

The next day was Thanksgiving! We woke up to my mom’s egg casserole and cinnamon rolls. YES. Of course Raya developed a nice cough over the holiday so that was fun. She was at least in a good mood. My mom does an amazing job and makes quite a bit of our Thanksgiving meal ahead of time so that the day of there’s not a lot of cooking to do.

Here’s the line up and I’m sorry I didn’t take pictures!

Turkey – my mom’s recipe with a little help from Ina Garten as far as seasoning goes. Lots of butter, garlic, salt, pepper and lemon.

Sausage and apple stuffing – my mom’s recipe and it was my favorite thing on the plate. I need to put this on the blog!

Cornbread Casserole (Duh) – recipe from the blog

Fruit Fluff – recipe from the blog

Mashed Potatoes – Ina Garten’s make ahead mashed potatoes – OMG THESE ARE RIDICULOUS. 

Gravy – Ina Gartens make ahead gravy – best I’ve ever had.

Cranberry Sauce – Trader Joes – so darn good.

Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie and French Silk Pie from Baker’s Square – I wanted to make a sour cream and raisin pie but it’s just so hard with all the kiddos and driving to Iowa. Have you ever made sour cream and raisin pie? I haven’t, but my Grandma always did and I want to make one!!

Dinner was lovely – we had good wine, the kids were fine for the most part, and we were all stuffed.

The next day (Friday) we woke up and of course had leftovers! The dads took all the kids to the park, brought them home in time for lunch and a short nap then off to Disney on Ice!

What a fun show for kids. My sister’s 3 kiddos, my brother’s son and my two girls all went and they all had a blast. Ollie is the youngest of the bunch that went, turning 3 in December, and he loved it! Ben is the oldest and he’s almost 11. So there you go…the perfect outing for everyone.

The whole gang! (my sister-in-law and her son, Raya and me, my sister and her 3 kiddos and my mom. 🙂

 

Enjoying cotton candy for the first time. hehe

Before we knew it, it was Saturday and it was time to head home. A huge snow storm was coming on Sunday so we thought it was best to get back, hunker down and have a day to regroup.

We did get quite bit of snow with heavy wins so we had a snow day on Monday which was so fun!

Vin with our nephew.

My sister-in-law with Raya.

My nephew.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are moving onto Christmas. Hopefully I can get my you know what together and get everything done. I host Christmas Eve and I’m trying to plan ahead so I don’t spend all my time cooking and on my feet.

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving and looking forward to sharing our Christmas with you!!