How is it almost Christmas....like in just a few days...and I am just getting around to blogging about Thanksgiving? I blame it on Mom brain. If it wasn't for instagram, I wouldn't journal anything. Instagram makes it very easy for me to go back and see what I have shared and what I haven't. It's a life saver :)
This year for Thanksgiivng, it was just our little family. We got up in the morning and I made cinnamon rolls and eggs. We then watched the Macy Day Parade, which is a family tradition. I started it with my parents and have continued it with my own kids. I watched in between nursing sessions. Miss Tallia likes it super quite when she nurses, which is quite a feat in our household. I usually go in the bedroom, so she can eat and not overly fuss.
Later in the afternoon we had our turkey dinner. I made turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, candied yams, rolls, and cranberry sauce. There was a lot of food, but we ate like kings for the days following. It was nice to have a break making dinner for a few days. We ate turey till we couldn't stand it any longer.
We ended our evening with some movie watching and baby play. It was a really good day. I'm thankful for these people I get to call mine. They make each day fun.
I'll tell y'all, I was good up until about midnight on October 31st, then it registered that it was November, N-o-v-e-m-b-e-r?........ Thanksgiving, then Christmas, oh my! My mind began to uncontrollably race, menu plans, tablescapes, house cleaning thoughts were dancing through my head. I began to receive e-mail after e-mail from stores urging me to get my home holiday ready. Oh dear, yes, my home needed lots of fluffing, or did it? Can you relate?
That was the moment that I began to think, really think and realize that I had to slow it all down, waaaaaaay down.
It's so easy for us to lose focus and forget what Thanksgiving is all about, being thankful, grateful for all we have. That requires us to be fully in the moment. Fretting over menus, and decor is a surefire recipe for disaster. No one will remember if the paint was peeling on my shutters or if I didn't mop my floors or if the light bulb's out in the hall. But, they will remember my grateful spirit and my hospitable heart.
I think this post is more for me than you friends. I really needed the reminder to slow it all down and re-focus my efforts before I get carried away in the frenzy. I desire to fully enjoy this Thanksgiving season and embrace all it's goodness, and I plan to accomplish this by first looking up to the heavens and thanking God for clarity.
From our home to yours, have a most blessed Thanksgiving.
As I was sitting here, thinking about the up coming holidays, my mind turned to the yummy dishes people make to share with friends and family. I thought it would be fun to share my family's menu plan for Thanksgiving and maybe you all could share your family favorites in the comments below.
Sounds like fun right?
Now I'm well aware that our menu is a smidge...OK a lot...carb heavy..and I'm OK with that. Turkey day is our day to eat our favorites. I try to let everyone pick a favorite side dish. This is how our menu has panned out this year :)
We'll start with the turkey. Turkey is one thing I love/hate to cook. I hate cleaning the turkey and I REALLY HATE pulling out the neck and gizzards. It totally gives me the heepie jeebies (not sure about that spelling??) I love a turkey though because they're so many ways to cook it and it truly is one of my favorite proteins!
When you cook a turkey, you can do one of two things.... You can either freeze all the leftovers and use them in all sorts of recipes months later or you can binge on turkey for the following days. Growing up, we did the latter. I have many fond memories of turkey day leftover munching sessions. We'd watch Christmas movies and enjoy all the delicious leftovers.
Now that I have a family of my own, we do a mix of both options. I try to get the biggest turkey I can. We pull off as much meat as we can. We eat as much turkey as we want the first night, afterwards I bag up all the leftovers. I leave some in the fridge for turkey day leftovers and the rest is labeled and put in the freezer.
This year I'll be making my turkey like I did in the video above. It's my go to turkey recipe :) I'll stuff the turkey as well with my favorite stuffing...basically two boxes of turkey stuffing, 2 apples chopped, celery, and craisins. I throw it all together and try to keep it on the dry side, that way it'll soak up some juice from the turkey. It is dang good!
Next we'll have a Wagasky staple of green bean casserole. I follow the recipe on the can. The only thing I do differently is add 5-6 fresh mushrooms chopped, a handfull of cheddar cheese, and lots of pepper. Yum!!
Corn..because well it's my daddy's favorite. I make it straight from the can because it's tradition and I figure if it ain't broke, don't fix it. ::wink wink::
Mashed potatoes... Oh how I love me some mashed potatoes and gravy. I'll be using this recipe. I cook my potatoes in the pressure cooker and whip them with my mixer. I keep the skin on my potatoes to add some rustic charm.
Macaroni and cheese. This is a new addition this year and was picked by the kids. Right now I'm not sure what recipe to use...any suggestions? I usually use Velveeta, but I haven't decided yet.
Candied Yams. Another request from the red heads. I haven't made this one in years, so I'm looking forward to making this treat. I use two cans of yams, sprinkle with brown sugar, and top with marshmallows. Bake till marshmallows turn golden.
Lots of cranberry sauce, which I snagged for 75 cents each at Winco last week. Woot!! Woot!!
I'll also be making my dinner rolls, seen in this video. We can't have a family dinner without them :) Served with butter and honey.....Nom! Nom!
To drink, we'll be having soda. The kids are going to pick their favorites. They're excited for some Rootbeer and Mnt Dew. I think this mama will need some cream soda :)
And last, but certainly not least, dessert...
Because somehow we'll find a way to have pie after eating everything else. We'll be enjoying a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie from Costco. You get your biggest bang for your buck and I haven't mastered the pie crust yet. It's on my list.
Now I want to know what's on your turkey day menu. Let's share some tips, tricks, and recipes lovelies.
Today I am in the kitchen, showing you how I make our Thanksgiving turkey. You can find the recipes in the video description as well! Happy cooking lovelies!
Now
that Halloween is over, November has opened the door to the holiday
season. November is always a reflective month for me. Not only is
Thanksgiving fast approaching, my birthday is also the week of
Thanksgiving.
In
the past couple of years there has been a month of thankfulness on
Facebook. This is nice, but I try to incorporate a few extra ideas to
help our son learn about Thanksgiving and being thankful as well. Today I want
to share a few ideas with you.
My
son and I made a turkey out of a toilet paper tube and some paper. I
had him place his hands down on the yellow and orange paper. I drew
around them and then cut out the hands. We taped the hands onto one side
of the toilet paper tube. (Fingers up, to look like turkey feathers) We
drew on some eyes and cut out a triangle for the nose. My son wanted to
add an eyebrow. While we put this together, I talked about what being
thankful means and some things we should be thankful for. Keeping in
mind that my son is four, we kept this part simple and short. I asked
him what he is thankful for and he named a couple of things.
Making
a Thanksgiving chain is also a great idea. You can cut out strips of
yellow, red and orange paper. For older children you could have them
write something they are thankful for on each strip of paper, staple
them in circles forming a chain. Hang this in your dining room, so that
on Thanksgiving they will remember spending the time with you and what
they are thankful for.
Coloring sheets are popular and I found some free ones HERE
Making
a Thanksgiving tree would be a good idea for a family group activity on
Thanksgiving Day (or an awesome family night). You can call your local newspaper and get the end of
the roll of paper they print on. Usually they give those away for free
or you can purchase some butcher paper. Roll out the paper and draw the
tree trunk, then attach your partial tree to a wall in your dining room.
Make sure your tree is not taller than your kids. They will enjoy
attaching the leaves on to the tree. You can cut out leaves from
different colored paper; red, orange, yellow or whatever you have. Or
you could cut out each child’s hand prints and use those as leaves. Have
each child (and adults) write something they are thankful for on their
leaves. Have the children use tape or glue to attach the leaves to the
tree.
All
of these ideas are simple and open a door for communication with our
children. Talking about why we celebrate is important. I hope your
family has a wonderful Thanksgiving with good conversations. I am so
thankful for all of you.
Hi there lovelies! Today I wanted to hop on here real quick and share a few quick tips on how you can save money with your Thanksgiving Turkey. Whether you are cooking a turkey yourself or going to someone's house for dinner, there are things you can do that will save your family money this month!
Right now a lot of grocery stores are having deals, where if you spend a certain amount of money, you will get a free turkey. I have already planned and shopped for this month, and I was able to score two FREE turkeys. One we will use for Thanksgiving and the other we are cooking this weekend. Turkeys have a lot of meat on them and can be very beneficial if cooked, bagged, and then frozen for later use. We do this each holiday season and we end up with cooked turkey in our freezer that lasts for months! It is so nice to be able to pull a bag of cooked turkey out of the freezer to throw into soups, casseroles, and various dishes. Having half the work already out of the way, since it is cooked, saves me so much time! I don't know about you, but this Mama is all about saving myself some time in the kitchen. You do a little bit more work now, so you don't have to do as much work later.
To get my free turkeys, I planned out my grocery trips as normal. I wanted to score a free turkey, but I didn't want to buy stuff I wouldn't normally. Two grocery stores are having the turkey deal in my area. If you spent $100 or more, you got a free turkey, up to 20 pounds. I checked out their store ads and I was able to plan my trips, so that at each store I spent $100 of my grocery budget. Two grocery stores and $245 dollars later, I had two FREE turkeys, totaling a saved cost of over $40! Each turkey was over 15 pounds and each costs over $20. That is a lot of savings in the meat department, which will help my family in the new year.
When digging through the pile of turkeys, I always try to get the biggest bang for my buck. Since I am getting the turkey for FREE, I try to get as close to the highest weight mark as I can. My two turkeys are 15.99 lbs and 19.89 lbs. These will be great to cook this holiday season!
When I cook the turkeys, I love to cook them in an oven bag (they cook faster this way). We also have a regular turkey dinner the first night I make it. Once the meat is cooled, we pull as much meat from the bones as we can. I bag them in one cup portions of shredded meat. Make sure you label and date your bags as well. Don't throw out the bones though! You can save them for homemade turkey broth later on! I plan to can my broth this year, since my freezer is already full with chicken broth.
So take advantage of this awesome time of year and plan your trips, so that you too can stock that freezer with some yummy turkey goodness! Woot! Woot!
I know! I know! I am a tad late posting our turkey day pics, but I couldn't let anymore Christmas posting go on before getting these pictures on the ole' blog. We spent Thanksgiving with our family, eating too much fun, and laughing way too much. I am so thankful for family to spend the holidays with, to laugh with, to play games with, and to always have by my side. Also those little nugget smiles always melt this mamas heart. I hope you are all enjoying your holidays. We start our 10 days of service countdown today. I can't wait!
P.S.
My photo editing here was done with the #abeautifulmessapp
I love creating something new to add to our holiday decorations each year. Whether its Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas I love creating things that will bring the joy of the season into my home. With Halloween and Thanksgiving falling in back to back months, I try to keep my decor versatile. I love it when some of my Halloween goodies can roll over into November to help celebrate turkey day.
I've been seeing chalkboard pumpkins all over the place, so I knew I needed to jump on the band wagon. You know how much I love chalkboard paint. I've used it on my walls, my coffee table, and basically anywhere else I can work it in. Its just too fun! So how could Halloween be any different?
I purchased some fake pumpkins from Joann Fabric and Craft Store. They were 60% off. I shouted "Yippe!" in the store when I saw that sale sign and then people stared at me doing a happy dance in the Halloween Aisle. I have no shame when it comes to sales. I get way too excited. It's always a good time when you get to embarrass your kids at the craft store :)
I busted out my fabulous chalkboard paint and painted my large pumpkin. Once it completely dried, I adding a fun Halloween Phrase. I love the fact that this can be changed throughout the season. "Boo", "Happy Halloween", "Spooky", "Fall", to name a few. Get the littles involved and let them come up with some wordy fun too!
Once my chalkboard pumpkin was finished, I decided to add a little bit of glitter to my other two pumpkins. I used Elmer's Glue and basically "drew" with my glue to create my design. I then added my glitter. (I did this over the sink. This made the clean up a breeze). I then sprayed both of my glitter pumpkins with a clear coat of spray sealer. This helps the glitter to stay exactly where it should be..on the pumpkin.
These pumpkins are simple, yet classically fun. Oh and when Thanksgiving comes around, change out your "Boo!" for a hand print turkey. You can never go wrong with an old school hand print turkey :)
Here is a fantastic coupon from JoAnn Fabrics so you
Hello lovely Blissful and Domestic readers! My name is Janiene and I blog over at A Bunch of Bishops where I share about life, the Lord, homeschooling, crafts and I even share an occasional recipe. I am over the moon to be here with you all today! I am in the throws of decorating my home for the fall season and to start my guest post off right I made a free 8x10 printable for you all! Here is what it looks like...
Want this beautiful "give thanks" printable? Simply click on the printer icon on the bottom of this image...
Now onto my easy peasy fall decorations. I simply hand painted the "give thanks" word art onto brown craft paper and framed it! I am not an artist by any means (as you will see) but I went slowly, used a small fine tipped paintbrush and white acrylic paint and voila! I kind of love it...
I let it dry and I taped the brown kraft paper to the back of the frame. I even added some twine to the back in case I want to hang it somewhere later :)
I cut out some fall leaves from the kraft paper and cut some fabric rectangles and made a quick garland...
When my husband came home his reaction was all the praise I needed, he simply said "WOW, you painted that?" It is not perfectly painted but I don't care, it sure is making me ready for autumn!! YAY!
I hope you too will have fun with some white paint and kraft paper. Also, be sure to print your free "give thanks" word art and frame it for an easy fall decoration!
Thank you Danielle for inviting me to share on your blog today! I had a BLAST!
Blessings!
Janiene
----------------------------------------
Oh my heck! So.Stinkin.Cute! I love the simplicity of fall decorating. Thanks Janiene for sharing and for the printable too! You guys and gals can find Janiene over on her blog. She's awesome!
Happy Turkey day Lovelies! Today will be full of pumpkin cinnamon rolls, Charlie Brown parade floats, stuffing, and my Sisinlaw's sweet potato pie (I wait all year for this baby). Have a wonderful Thanksgiving from our house to yours.
Hello friends of Danielle stopping in today, hope your week has been
amazing already! I have been participating in a thankful project I'm hosting
on my blog and decided to share something in regards to that with you today..
Are you up for 10 simple challenges to share your gratitude
and thanks this month..? Join in.. You can read more on the Thankful Challenge HERE!!
....................................................
Today's project is to focus on giving thanks and appreciation to the things
that matter the most within our hearts in making US happy. Our Hobbies, our ease
time to be able to indulge in our natural loves and be thankful for the time and
gift of ....Crafting {For Me!} I am really happy and hope my feature reach you
warmly and add a loving touch of "Thanks, love and inspiration to your
season of giving thanks all around this month.."
Yarn{Brown & light brown}
{For my dark brown ~I found yarn with speckles of color}
1 9inch & 1 4inch Polystyrene Balls
Wooden Craft Sticks{Wood Skewers}
Assorted Colorful Craft Paper
Felt {wattle & yellow triangles for beaks}
Eyes - Plastic Eyes From Michael's
*How To* Grab the kids & have some fun!!
To begin, cut a 1-inch sliver off the bottom of a 9-inch polystyrene ball. This will allow your turkey to stand flat. Carefully wrap up the sphere neatly in thick dark-brown yarn, covering surface completely. {Be aware at all times to try to keep the bottom flat to enable your turkey to stand flat at the end}. Tie a knot on the bottom to secure it into place tightly.
Create a 4-inch ball from your light-brown yarn. Once you ball is fully covered in yarn, take both yarn balls and carefully attach your light ball yarn to the dark one using a craft stick (I tried using a craft stick but actually prefer wood skewers much better). It was much easier to insert and I noticed I could move the turkeys head around a bit more. Once your turkey is in place and both yarn ball's attached, it's time to give your turkey a face. Create fun facial features using felt. {Yellow and Red Felt}
Trinkets Needed For Facial Parts Of Turkey
Glue on your eyes where you want to the light brown yarn ball. Cut out yellow triangles for the beak, and long red felt teardrops as the wattle and glue them on to add to the turkey's facial features. . Cut out your feather shapes from colored craft paper and bend in half lengthwise to create seam. Take a moment with the little ones and write out some fun things close to your heart that you are thankful for this year. Carefully glue wooden craft stick to the bottom third of your thankful feathers and insert in a fan shape on turkey body. I
found some fall stickers at Michael's that I added to the mix (Scarecrow head, leaves & fall cut outs.). It really jazzed up my feathers and brought an all around fall feel to the turkey. I added some yellow felt buttons to give my turkey a a fancy little look and a touch of color to the brown. Turned out really cute.
The kids had a wonderful time writing out their notes of thanks!! I got some thankful for loving parents, thankful for candy, & uuum thankful for awesome video games!!! LOL.. What are you thankful for...???...Insert all your lovely notes of thanks all throughout the season of Thanksgiving.. I even added one for a few fun bloggy friends around.. Did you notice..? Take a peak.. : )) YES - I'm thankful for YOU!!
I am sharing my thankful turkey with my friends and family this thanksgiving.
I placed it in the welcome hallway we have, along with a pen and some more cut outs for everyone to have a moment to share a thankful message with us as they come along and visit throughout the season. I can't wait to sit, reflect and read all the amazing thankful notes left at the end of November..Super Excited...
How are you showing thanks and appreciation throughout the month of
thanksgiving this year..? Care to share with me..? There's a linky HERE
to allow for you to please showcase all your lovely thanksgiving crafts
you have created this month all month long.. Can't wait to see.. Please take a moment to stop in and visit all the amazing blogs sharing some awesome projects in various ways to give thanks throughout the month.. Stop in, grab a button, spread the word..
.................................. I Am VERY Thankful For YOU.. Thank You~!
Wishing you a beautiful and amazing month of November...
