I am grateful

for these little stinkers.  They are the biggest source of joy in my life.

They like to DANCE DANCE DANCE to Dynamite by Taio Cruz.

How about you put your hands up, all you single ladies?

Man, that smile gets me every time.  So stinking cute.

And how cute is Princess's new haircut? (Not the easiest picture to take, she don't hold still for long.)

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

a Thanksgiving meme

Lawyerish put up a Thanksgiving meme, so I will play along.   You should too!


1. Are you celebrating Thanksgiving at home or elsewhere this year?  With whom will you spend Thanksgiving Day?
This year, we are off to the inlaws (about an hour away).  In years past we did both sets of parents in one day (my parents are about two hours away), but that is just an insane amount of driving and eating, so after we had two kids we set a holiday schedule.  For the past few years we have spent Easter at my grandmother's, Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve with my inlaws, and Christmas Day with my family.  Still a fair amount of driving at Christmas, but its the best plan we've come up with.  

2. What do you have for breakfast on Thanksgiving?

Nothing special.  As a kid, we used to have pumpkin pancakes.  However, we eat pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes in my house every weekend, so they are not exactly a special treat.  I made the mistake of adding chocolate chips to the pancakes, and now my children turn up their nose at any other pancake, which is annoying.  Breakfast here tomorrow morning will probably be cheese sticks and waffles and yogurt, just like every other morning.  

3. Do you go to a Thanksgiving parade or watch one on TV?

No.  

4. Do you serve appetizers, lunch, or snacks during the day (i.e., for the men to eat while they lounge around and watch football)?

Not really.  The first course at my inlaws' is an antipasti, so there's not much served while we are waiting. 

5. What do you wear on Thanksgiving?

Mah Eatin' Pants.  Just kidding.  I save those for the Feast of the Seven Fishes on Christmas Eve (now THAT is a ridiculously huge meal).  I usually just wear jeans and a nice sweater.   

6. What's your Thanksgiving table like -- do you use special plates/silver/glasses, etc?  Do you have a centerpiece?  A color scheme?  Candles?

I just show up and set the table with whatever plates happen to be available.  There are usually 11 of us attending, so we tend to go through all of the holiday plates plus the regular plates plus the dessert plates and all the silverware, since there are so many courses.  

7.  Do you serve buffet-style or family-style?  What do you have to drink?

At my grandmother's house the meal is served buffet style, although everyone sits at multiple long tables.  My father is the oldest of 11; there are 40+ people in the immediate family.  There is a turkey, and everyone brings a side.  

I grew up eating a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy (omg my grandmother's mashed potatoes and my uncle's gravy YUM YUM YUM--I can't eat most dairy anymore, so that cuts off both items for me, waaaah), ham, lots of bread and butter, and green beans with eggs and breadcrumbs. Year after year.  

My inlaws have a more traditionally Italian meal which happens to have a turkey in it; the meal is pretty big (not as much food as Christmas Eve, but still substantial) and is served in courses at the table.  There may be the occasional crudite while waiting, but since the first course is an antipasti course, we usually don't have have snacks while waiting. We start with four or five small vegetable sides plus the finest cured meats and cheeses in the land, then a meat course (turkey and stuffing in this instance), frequently a pasta course (everyone eats lasagna for Thanksgiving, don't they?), a salad course, then dessert.  Yes, the salad is served last. I love salad, so I have learned to pace myself so that I have room at the end. 


I cannot discuss Thanksgiving at my inlaws' without noting that my mother in law makes a stuffing that is UNBELIEVABLE and constitutes the majority of my meal.  Yes, I just eat plate after plate of the stuff because it is DELICIOUS.  Thank goodness its only made once a year because its probably a thousand calories a spoonful.  It is fresh sausage, mushrooms, onions, rice, a gallon of olive oil and 47 tubs of fresh parmesan.  To die for, I tell you.   


There is wine aplenty at both families. I don't drink anymore (yet another food group denied to me by my stomach issues), so I usually have water or Pellegrino if I'm feeling fancy.  


8.  Once you're at the table, do you say grace or a toast or does everyone go around and say what they're thankful for?
Not at my inlaws, but I think its a tradition we should start now that the kids are old enough to participate. At my grandmother's we said grace and would go around the table and say what we were grateful for.   


9.  Do you have dessert right after the main meal or later on?
Holiday meals at my inlaws tend to be a few hours long, with a small break between courses.  So we have dessert right after dinner, but dinner has been slowly creeping along for about three hours.  I am bringing a lemon cake and a French apple pie this year.   


10.  What do you do with your leftovers?
Since I rarely host, I don't usually have the problem of what to do with the leftovers.  We get sent home with a large tupperware container; with any luck it is 90% stuffing, which is generally gone by the time I go to bed.  


11. I'm adding a question here--what's your favorite food item at Thanksgiving?  
Mine is clearly the stuffing, followed closely by leftover turkey sandwiches.  

Food coma

omg, food coma.

We had a crudite/cheese/fruit course, and antipasti (olives, sopressata, bread, eggplant, shitake mushrooms, mushroom caps), pasta with lobster sauce, then the turkey with stuffing, sweet potatoes, and a bunch of other stuff I'm blanking on, then a salad course, then pumpkin bread pudding, cheesecake, brownies and coffee for dessert.

It doesn't sound like as much food when I list it.  But I assure you, it was. Actually, it was a fairly small meal, comparatively. (Christmas Eve's Feast of the Seven Fishes is a dinner that last about six hours and you won't eat for two days after.) Greg took a break after the antipasti, came back to the table, and cried "someone took away my first dinner! I'm not ready for second dinner yet!"  When we were eating dessert, he came back for "third dinner. Plus dessert.  Then some more third dinner." As we were cleaning up, he said, "how about some more third dinner?  I want more meat."

Since our families are about two hours apart, we used to have a first Thanksgiving dinner, then drive to the next Thanksgiving dinner.  But then we had kids and decided to split up the holidays on a schedule.  Thanksgiving was my family, Easter was my in-laws.  About two years ago, however, we ended up at my family for Easter, and I had forgotten how much fun it was for kids.  I have a zillion cousins so there is an Easter Egg hunt, and an egg-throwing contest from the second floor.  So, this year we decided to switch it up and spend Thanksgiving with my inlaws, and Easter with my family.

My inlaws are amazing cooks.  I haven't had my mother in law's stuffing in about five years, and OMG SO FREAKING GOOD.  But, food coma.  I've learned my lesson a long time ago--its a rookie mistake to eat too much antipasti.  Pace yourself, there are always at least 3 courses for holiday dinners, and more food than you can shake a stick at--but I stuffed myself today like I haven't in a long time.  I even held back on the lobster pasta, knowing how much more was to come.  But I wished I had worn my eating pants.

I am grateful.

For so many things, but here are just a few.

For these little guys:

For this guy, who works so hard so I can be home with our kids, who turns a blind eye to my decorating obsession, who does everything he can think of to make my life wonderful:

For living in Craptasticville.  Not that I like Craptasticville, but living here means that we are all together as a family again, that the Mister is no longer commuting 5+ hours per day, and that my generous in-laws had the space for us.

For my sister, who has moved much closer and now I can nag her into visiting us ALL THE TIME.

For blogging, because it has made me start taking 1000+ pictures a month of my kids and our life.  I don't think I have a 1000 pictures of the previous five years.  Sorry, Greg, for not documenting the first five years of your life.  (I'm not saying they are all in focus or good pictures, but hey, better a blurry picture than none at all.)

Happy Thanksgiving!