Thanksgiving round up

We had an excellent Thanksgiving holiday. We were blessed to have Chris' mom, sister and kids (Nina & Billy Jack) share this day with us. They are out west on a 10 day vacation and are visiting most of the national parks in southern Utah.

This is the first Thanksgiving I have exclusively cooked, from the appetizers, to turkey and sides, to pies. The consumers approved and said I did a great job.

I brined the turkey and used this amazing recipe. It worked great, really easy to do. 

I made most if the sides the day before and got them all ready to cook.  You may recall the sweet potato recipe (here) from a few years ago. I also made quick dinner rolls. So easy. While we did have a few vegetables, I made a "salad", more like a pretzel dessert. But the recipe called it a salad, we are going with it.

We ate, relaxed and enjoyed our great company. We are very grateful for family. 

Happy belated Thanksgiving.

Deck the halls

We did a little decorating (and dejunking at the same time) this week. We got our tree trimmed, stocked hung and house decked out!

I tried to put out all the decorations this year and got rid of anything that we didn't use. It seemed to work and the house feels less cluttered.

I'm taking an online class (12 artsy ornaments) and have made this cool star for our mantel. Nicholas helped and he made this smaller version.  

Christmas card blitz!

Nic and I got together with Grandma this morning to make her Christmas cards. I prepped the supplies a bit this weekend and that helped us make almost 80 cards in under 2 hours.  It was a nice morning chatting, crafting and basically hanging out. She should be ready! And it's nice to use up some of my massive amounts of craft supply. 

Nic is so cute. He gave Grandma hugs, multiple kisses and was very polite. Sometimes he can turn that charm on. I really should try to document and live in the moment of his sweet comments more often.

A few Nic gems from today:

"I am three and last year I was two. Next year I am six!"

"I already kissed you... check!"

"Goodnight, goodnight, where are you?" He said this in reference to Grandma's horse named "Midnight".

"Grandma, you stole that candy from our house". Referring to the candy corn we gave her at Halloween.

"This ski boot is tight. My sock says get me out of here". Trying on his new ski boots.

Love this boy!

Ski season has started!

The big boys are lucky! The have already hit the ski slopes, Andrew has been twice. Andrew went with a few friends to Snowbird on Saturday, and Andrew, Ben and Chris skied for a few hours yesterday afternoon. Skiing before Thanksgiving... Woohoo.

Looks like all their gear fits and is in working condition. We opted to purchase Nic skis this year (instead of rentals). The ski swap price was just a few bucks more than the season rental price. Bargain.