Thanksgiving Day

 Well, with all the sickies in our house for Thanksgiving, I didn't know what kind of meal I could actually pull off all by myself.  But, I really surprised myself!  The day before, in between taking care of people, I made a custard and a pecan pie.  I also tried a new cranberry salad recipe out that I hoped everyone liked because it made a TON!  

We woke up Thanksgiving morning and I put the turkey in the oven.  I had bought a oven-ready turkey that cooked in a bag to save any extra hassle for myself.  Then I started peeling potatoes and all that fun prep work.  

One of my favorite childhood memories was my Dad calling all of us kids from around the house to come watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on television.  My dad was big into musicals and they always feature all kind of broadway musicals as the parade goes on.  So, Jeremy and I made a tray of cheese, crackers, and summer sausage to snack on and egg nog to drink and called all the kids to watch.  All the kids love that kind of snack food. Some of them were not interested which was irritating but, what can you do.....mostly it was Tristan.  Cullen was enthralled the entire time!! Santa brings up the end of the parade and Matt Lauer kept saying that Santa was coming....Cullen was SO excited!  I LOVE his age right now!  I always think this is the best age for the "magic" of Christmas. 

 My messy little lady watched quite a bit of it too and always tried to sing along to every song!  I LOVE that she does that! 

 A little after noon, I had the dinner done.  It was A LOT of work but, everyone seemed to really enjoy it.  We had turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy, corn, noodles, cranberry salad, sweet potatoes, stuffing, rolls, egg nog, punch, and ginger ale. It turns out that the cranberry salad is a new family tradition!! It was the hit of the day and everyone ate the heck out of it.  Cedric snacked on it for a couple of days after too! The ones who had been sick ate kinda sparingly at our first go around.  But, at supper time we ate it all again and everyone got their fill!  

 We lounged, napped, played games, and watched movies all day.  It was AMAZING!  Everyone was very mellow and happy.  

 Midafternoon I had to turn on the Sound of Music.  One, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE musicals and this one is a classic.  Two, again it reminds me of holidays growing up with my family and my Dad.  Three, it really is the story of my ancestors, The Von Trapp family from Austria.  It is such a compelling and fascinating story.  The kids all seemed to enjoy it too!  

Side note:  I am freaking STOKED about the live version being done on t.v. tonight with Carrie Underwood and Stephen Moyer (True Blood)!!! I will have to record it because tonight is also Asher's Christmas program but, I cannot wait!!!  I was worried when the announced that Carrie Underwood would be playing Maria because of her country twang.  But, I watched an interview with her and she said the first thing she had to do when she started rehearsals was have a vocal coach come in to help her get rid of her twang! Sweet!  And the second I heard Stephen Moyer was going to be Captain Von Trapp, I knew he would be brilliant.  Anyway, end aside. 

Cullen wanted to snack on cereal and poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms...without milk to sit and snack on.  Well, it was the last of it so he poured all the dust at the bottom out too and was shoveling it into his mouth!  haha!  He made a big mess but, we didn't care.  It was Thanksgiving after all!  

We ended up having one of the BEST holidays that we have had in long time.  And we loved just staying home with our family.  It was so special.  We may have to do this more often.  And skip out on all the extra traveling and extended family parties.