Nov 24 - Thanksgiving

(Yes, I'm getting behind, but isn't that just how life goes? hopefully I'll be getting caught up soon though, now that the semester is over. So, still trying to finish up 2011 stuff.)

For Thanksgiving this year, Danny and I were able to go visit my family up in Allen (since we would be spending Christmas with his family).  ... none of us really take many pictures, so I only got a few at the last minute. But we had a lot of fun for the week.  We did a lot of the usual, spent time together talking, playing games, baking, shopping, etc.  We also got to go bowling which was a lot fun!  I actually beat Danny and Dad one of the three games we played (Mom just wanted to watch), and I got my first turkey (getting three strikes in a row)!! fitting for the holiday, haha.  Though by the third game, Dad had a really good streak while Danny and I were getting really tired.  By the time we were a few frames in, we realized how behind we were, so then it was just a matter of Danny and I getting a combined score higher than my dad ... and we still lost! by one point! lol. something like 183 to 184, so we weren't really bad, Dad just had a great game.  It's still a lot of fun to go bowling when we visit my parents.

We also of course spent Thanksgiving day with football, parades, lots of food and more family, Michael and Meghan were able to join us too.  A fun part about this Thanksgiving was we kinda made it potluck.  I made the desserts (pies, of course), Mom made the turkey and rolls, and Michael and Meghan made all the sides.  It was fun to try a bunch of new sides.  They brought stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, mashed potato and parsnips, and green beans.  It was all so good and a nice change to the usual, plus it helped ease the cooking burden from Mom too.  We had a really nice day with everyone.

So, of course, my famous pies - it just wouldn't feel like Thanksgiving without them.  I got a new ceramic deep dish pie pan (the red one in the back) on clearance for only a few bucks.  It bakes really nicely, and I just thought it looked great with an apple pie in it.  The pumpkin pie turned out well too (I really need to buy some mini fall cookie cutters, it's getting pretty old always trying to cut them out by hand), but I wasn't thrilled with the pecan pie... tried a new recipe from my Lion House Desserts book, just to see if it was any better than the BHG pecan pie I had made the previous year. ... definitely not.  It was much harder to make with odd measurements and instructions, plus it just didn't taste very good. oh well, live and learn. ... I really need to figure out a way to make a smaller pecan pie, a whole one is just too big I think.

... pretty much the only pictures took all week... don't I look so thrilled? I was just tired after all the baking and shopping :)

... hmm, yeah, my side of the family definitely doesn't do pictures like Danny's family does, wait till I post those, lol.

another Thanksgiving must - Black Friday Shopping! :) I got all this with totalling nearly 70% off original prices. yay for great sales! (and haggling with cashiers ... well, not really haggling, but we did have to fight a bit for the men's shirts, because in the ad they looked labled for $9.99 each and we found them under the $9.99 each sign, but they claimed they were $19.99 each.  Usually I don't like to bother with double checking prices, but luckily they let us get them at the lower price).  Danny was such a trooper while my mom and I tried on dozens of sweaters and shirts, and browsed tons of other different sale items.  We were planning on going to a few stores, but we had such great success at our first stop, Kohl's, we didn't even bother trying any other stores.  Dad of course hit up a few other stores and got some really good deals on electronics (we got the all of the Lord of the Rings dvds for only $4 each!).  ...this is probably the only day of the year that I actually look forward to shopping.

And a little bit more fall stuff, some extra decorations for halloween - I just thought the felt witch hat for my bear turned out really cute for making it in under ten minutes with a few scraps.