Hi guys, hope your post-turkey-day recovery is going well!
Ben and I kicked things off at my parents house on Thanksgiving morning with mimosas and cinnamon rolls, natch! My Mom had just slathered the icing onto the warm rolls as we walked into the house, as a way to entice my little brother out of bed. He flew in late the night before from Denver to be with the fam for the weekend.
Unfortunately cinnamon rolls didn’t do the trick, but the smell of hot breakfast sausage cooking with eggs and cheese worked like a charm. My Mom had a big Crock Pot Breakfast Casserole bubbling away and the whole house smelled AMAZING. If you weren’t able to make this casserole this weekend, definitely give it a whirl sometime over the holidays. It’s such a crowd pleaser, and so easy!
We all loaded up our plates then settled into watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Which, maybe it’s just me getting older and not being as hip anymore (well, anymore is debatable) but, I didn’t know 3/4 of the acts rolling by on their floats. Neon Trees? WHO?
A short time later the babies arrived!
My niece, Evie, treated us all to an episode of The Cute Factor.
(and tried to not cry at my brother’s hideous no-shave Movember mustache, which was the butt of everyone’s jokes all day long. Not him, his mustache. Oh there’s a cobweb in this corner? No worries, Ryan’s mustache will take care of it!” GROSS.)
While my nephew, Finn, along with his bear, played us all a piano concert.
Mini-Mozart!
The rest of the afternoon consisted of playing, and losing miserably, at cards. Seriously I have never failed so hard at Hearts. I think I got the queen 15 times out of 18 or so hands. :(
And watching copious amounts of football. I can’t even handle this picture. I don’t know what’s more cute – the fact that father & son are perfect mirror images, or that my nephew looks like a 70 year old man trapped in a 3 year old’s body. HILAR!
The dishes started coming out of the oven, and coming together around 3:00. Time for the big event!
My Mom had an amazing feast prepared, per usual. I am so grateful for her!
I piled my plate with Party Potatoes Deluxe,
Luann’s Kale Salad (my contribution,)
Steamed green beans with bacon & onion (OMG,)
along with mashed potatoes & turkey, of course. Look at that crispy skin! I also need to share my Mom’s mashed potato recipe with you sometime. Best I ever had.
For “dinner dessert” – separate from actual dessert, of course – I enjoyed Grandma’s Holiday Salad and Sweet Potato Stuffed Apples.
All my holiday favorites, in one delectable plate. Did I say how thankful I was?! ;)
Like the rest of America, we all pretty much fell into a food coma next, finishing out the football games, then moving on to watch The Avengers. I thought it was pretty good, though I’m still unclear as to what Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner’s powers were. I am not a fun person to watch movies with. At all. All questions, all the time.
Before the babies had to head home to bed, we took our standard group shot.
‘Til next year! ;)
In other news…
Thank you for being understanding as I took a few days off this week. I really appreciate it. :)
I took the time to go to Homemakers approximately 1,500 times with my Mom while she decided between a few new couches (thank goodness for free cookies and coffee!) and see Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 with her. All I have to say is, THE ENDING! So amazing!
I also hung up my Christmas decorations! There is nothing more cozy that, well, cozying in for the night next to the soft twinkle of Christmas lights. After a streak of record highs last week, we’re officially entering bone-chilling wind and cold land. May even see a few snowflakes this week. Eep!
Oh well, ’tis the season!
Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! :D
[…] no one does big leafy kale like WF. BTW – my sister-in-law made Luann’s Kale Salad for Thanksgiving dinner and – no joke – I have thought about this salad at least twice a day for a […]
Those kids are so darn cute!!
You family is adorable.
I would like to note that your brother (the blond one) has always reminded me of a hilarious character in a comic about PhD students. Here are some cute examples: http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1500
and
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1502
Ummm… as wonderful as all that food looked – I’m caught up with your nude shoes?!? Love them!!
I made the breakfast crock pot casserole for tailgating on Friday morning. Perfect for warming us up after all the set up work. I used some maple deer sausage we had and it was great! I might add more meat next time though… just a personal preference.
I loooovvvee your full tree!
Your Christmas tree looks beautiful! We just put ours up last night, but it’s looking a teeny bit bare. I’m sort of opposed to going out and buying a TON of ornaments because I want to come by them naturally, but your tree is motivating me right now to spice it up a bit. :)
You a excused from your absenteeism but i did miss the Friday Favorites. Thanks for sharing your family with us. FUN BTW- my 26 year old son is also sporting the no shave November look!
Haha love the santa hat on top of the tree- nice change from a star :) Omg, Breaking Dawn was AMAZING right? Their best one by far! Thanksgiving looks amazing, yum yum!
Looks like a great holiday!! LOL @ your brother’s mustache!! The kids are so adorable!! Glad you had a nice time!
Isn’t the holiday great? I know I had a good one and glad to see you had one too…cute kiddies by the way!
I just heard about steamed green beans with bacon on Thursday, can you post a recipe?
I see others have chimed in to answer your Avengers-related questions. Yes, the Black Widow and Hawkeye are just highly trained assassins, not superheroes/demigods like the others.
Looks like a great Thanksgiving! Your family is adorable!
I noticed pickles and olives in the background of the photo of the table. Do you always have those with Thanksgiving? I’m always interested in hearing about other families’ customs!
We felt the bone-chilling cold at the IA State game yesterday…brrrr! But there’s nothing better than hot chocolate and piling on the blankets after a cold day outside.
I made the slow cooker casserole for my family yesterday. Huge success! Thank you and Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you enjoyed your time off this week :)
Looks like you had an amazing thanksgiving! All that food looks delicious and that baby is adorable :)
Happy Holidays, lady! Your family is so lovely! You guys looked like you had a wondeful, cozy day! Your niece and nephew are so freaking adorable!!!
My husband and I saw Breaking Dawn 2 last week for our annual Birthday Dinner and Movie Date (both our birthdays are in November, exactly 2 weeks apart!) It was so good! Better than I expected! Hubby was surprised at the twist!!!
Did you cut your hair??!! I, like you, have hair that just tends to look better when it’s short and I started trying to grow mine out around the same time you did (much to the husband’s delight!) but whenever you cut yours, I am reminded that mine looks so much better short too!!! Anyway, you look fabulous!
Hope you have a great weekend!
Your niece and nephew are just TOO cute! Looks like a great Thanksgiving day!
I remember wondering how Jeremy Renner survived all those ridiculous situations with his apparent lack of superpowers while I was watching The Avengers. Movie magic I guess!
Your Christmas tree is beautiful! It sure gets me into the spirit :).
You have such a beautiful family. I wish mine was that close (figuratively and literally–My sisters & I all live a day or two’s drive from each other)!
If it makes you feel any better re: The Avengers, I had to ask about Black Widow & Hawkeye’s “powers” as well…According to my husband the comic book geek, they’re just regular humans who happen to hang out with superheros and defeat bad guys!