Category Archives: Thanksgiving

A Festive Thanksgiving Weekend

Hello to you all, and depending on where you are in the world good morning or good afternoon.  It is early morning here in northern Illinois, and it is foggy this morning.  We haven’t seen but a fleeting peek of the sun since last Tuesday.  We are getting used to these dark and dreary days.

For the Thanksgiving holiday we drove to my brother-in-law’s house which is 4 hours away.  However, it took closer to 5 hours to get there as traffic on Wednesday was a bit crazy–no surprise as it was the day before Thanksgiving.  We headed south and drove around the city of Chicago.  As we left the city the rain started and didn’t stop the whole way.  The big story, however, was the wind.  I drove for a little bit and it took concentration and effort to keep the car on the road–very tiring.

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We woke on Thanksgiving morning to a light dusting of snow.  It was so pretty, but didn’t last the day.  My brother-in-law and his family live on a beautiful lake and this is the view from the main floor of their home.

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The kitchen was a busy place on Thanksgiving; everyone lent a hand getting dinner on the table.  Our three girls all sat at the breakfast bar and us ‘old people’ sat at the table.

We had green beans, roasted squash, mashed sweet potatoes and white potatoes, cranberry cilantro relish, stuffing, salad, bread, and of course turkey and gravy.

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For desert we had pumpkin pie, berry pie, apple turnover, and pumpkin cheesecake!  I couldn’t decide, so I tried them all!

We arrived back home yesterday evening.  The traffic wasn’t bad.  That’ll happen today!  Ugh!  I am sorry for all of you that have to travel today–not fun.  Tomorrow it is back to school and back to work.

I will be having my Christmas ensembles available for sale starting this week.  I am not sure which day that will start, but keep an eye out if you are interested in a new ensemble for your Little Darlings, Pukipuki, or Amelia Thimble.

Enjoy your Sunday friends! ❤

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving 2016!

Wishing all of my readers in the US a very happy Thanksgiving Day!  I hope you enjoy a special dinner with your family today.  I am thankful to have my baby (my daughter) home from college for a few days.

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As a special treat, Helen Kish’s Zsu Zse is here to help wish you a Happy Turkey Day.  She’s been busy, along with Teddy, baking pies.

I am also thankful for all of you, my dear readers!

Thanksgiving Weekend Part I

We had a very nice, relaxing Thanksgiving Day at home.  My husband (and daughter) ended up doing most of the cooking.  I put together the green bean casserole and was in charge of washing the dishes.  I’d say I got off easy this year.  While my husband was busy in the kitchen I was working on blog posts, photo taking, knitting, embroidering, catching glimpses of the Macy’s parade rebroadcast on television, and other little things that came up.  Sitting around doing nothing makes me so tired, so I am always busy, but cooking is not my favorite thing to do; I’d much rather clean up.

We had pretty traditional dishes for our dinner:  candied sweet potatoes (my husband’s first time making them and they were much better than mine), stuffing, turkey breast, green bean casserole, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, sparking grape juice, and a vegan pumpkin pie (very good). Needless to say, we all ate too much.  Today, Saturday, we still have lots of leftovers except for the green bean casserole.  Since we have ingredients for another one I will put one in the oven today.

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Something that we’ve been doing for many years now is to go to a Christmas tree farm on the day after Thanksgiving.  We have two small farms within minutes of our house, but in the last six years or so we have been opting for the full Christmas tree farm experience and drive a little further to see more varieties of trees, get a fun tractor ride, eat homemade donuts, fudge, browse the ornaments in their heated barn, etc.

Weather-wise it wasn’t the best day:  cold, windy, EXTREMELY muddy (cars were getting stuck in the mud), cloudy; but we got our fraser fir tree.  The needles aren’t too sharp on this variety, so it’s a nicer experience putting the lights on, which my husband is doing right now.

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We brought along our chihuahua.  This little girl loved him; I thought it was so cute.  Even though he had his parka (the only clothing he will tolerate) on, I think he was cold.  He has very little fur on his belly and the tiniest paws that get cold so quickly.

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christmas tree farm 674These trees were the variety we looked at first; they were beautiful and old-fashioned looking, but the needles were too sharp.  There were lots of these in the field, so maybe others thought the same thing.

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christmas tree farm 668

The birds and (greedy) squirrels were very busy at the feeder yesterday morning.  I caught some photos of the birds through the window.  You can see some in mid flight.  This morning the feeder is completely empty and so is our bird seed pantry.  Time to go shopping…

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You can see many pairs of cardinals in this photo.  The red birds are the males and the neutral colored ones sitting next to them are the females.birds feeder 646

I quickly snapped a photo of Amelia’s new Christmas dress.  Don’t you love these blown glass Christmas trees?  I picked them up at our church’s rummage sale this past  June.

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And here’s little miss Sugar modeling her new Christmas set in the same color combination.puki christmas 635

That’s all for now.  We have a busy day today and also hope to get our tree decorated.  Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy the weekend.