Thanksgiving 2014

This Thanksgiving was pretty forgettable. I mean, it was a nice mellow family day since we ended up not going anywhere, but after slaving in the kitchen for two days straight, the meal itself was surprisingly blah and then over before we knew it. Which left me thinking, "I spent two days on my feet for THAT?!"

This turkey was so dry that it was almost jerky. I am not joking. Such a sad day!

Even our low-key hors d'oeuvres were tastier than the actual meal:

But what I really loved about this year's Thanksgiving holiday was all of the happy November days leading up to the actual feast. Something about this year's November brought so much satisfaction and joy to my little heart that I ended up thinking (for the first time ever) that November wasn't actually so much a dud month after-all! More like a nice cozy reprieve in the busy holiday season. Sure there was a house to decorate and a big meal to prepare, but most of that was spent working in our kitchen with these guys, so I had nothing to complain about:

This year we made our turkey handprints a little differently by drawing them with ceramic pens on plates! It was so fun and hopefully will be a nice keepsake for happy thanksgiving's in the future.

 Besides, Family-time + food is pretty much my favorite combination in the entire world! 

Our first attempt at making a pecan pie! I might have been totally obsessed with this pie for some reason. I was so excited to make this flop that you would have never have known that I am actually allergic to pecan nuts and had no plans on munching on it! Sadly, I tried a non karo syrup recipe that didn't really do it for the pecan-lover's in the family. (I swear! Nearly everything we did this year was a swing and a miss!)

My happiest day of all was the day before Thanksgiving when the boys and I spent most of our time in the kitchen baking pies. Our boys love to help me cook and helping me with pies was no exception! 

 My mom gave me fun little thanksgiving pie punches that made the coolest shapes! The boys got a kick out of them as they designed the top of the strawberry rhubarb pie:

 I am sure that Martha Stewart will be asking to borrow this picture for next year's Thanksgiving issue. So fancy!

They were so proud of their work!

 Mason took this picture of Charlie while we slaved in the kitchen. I love how you can tell how much Char loves his big brother in it.

When lunch-time finally came around, Mason and Char decided that a picnic in the frigid outdoors was an absolute must! So while I made fancy peanut butter sandwiches, they headed outside to the common area behind out place with a bazillion blankets to get ready:

Hot dog!

 Can't beat a good pile of leaves!

 Poor Coobie was pretty sick that day, but there were so many blankets provided by our hosts that even he could feast in comfort!

 I am sure that we looked like loons because it was so incredibly cold and windy outside that day, but we didn't mind!

 To the founders of our feast!

So who cares if the actual meal was a bust? I still felt like the luckiest girl in the world!