Thanksgiving, what a great day to be together as a family and to think about our blessings. When we had a discussion in our little family about "what we are thankful for." I summed mine up in "ease of life." What a fabulous time to live on the earth, our conveniences and comforts were not even a "dream" for so many before us, and yet we often times take those comforts for granted. We truly are blessed to live at this time... and I hope that I recognize that everyday!
One of those comforts of life is good food... in a comfortable warm home... Our family tradition is having Thanksgiving at my parents house. We all bring something as per my mother’s assignment. And the menu is always the same… so the recipes are given to us by my fabulous cook of a mother… She taught me all she could, "that is when I wasn't hiding" (according to her :)) Obviously I missed out on a few lessons... One of those was definitely the art of bread making... (Thank Heavens for comforts like "Great Harvest"!) Actually I thought that was about all I missed, but I must have missed the "jello" lesson too! This Thanksgiving I was assigned “Pretzel Salad”, a fairly basic recipe with a pretzel crust, cream cheese center and raspberry jello top. The crust and cream cheese layers were no problem, so the jello part should not have been either. The recipe I copied from my mom called for 2 cups of water - maybe 3 (that confused me right there). It was 1 AM (after playing a killer game of settlers online with Kimi, Jeff and Shane). So I couldn’t call my knowledgeable mother to clarify. So I mixed up the jello in the 2 cups of water. (plus a little more?) I swear I stirred it for like 5 min. it wouldn’t fully dissolve, but I poured in on anyway and went to bed. When I woke up Thanksgiving morning I checked out my two pans of yumminess and found no beauty… just a disgusting mess. Apparently I hadn’t sealed the edges of my cream cheese so the jello went right below, and hadn’t set up. I was confused, I mean I can read a recipe and it said nothing about sealing the edges but oh well, I decided to mix up yet another batch of jello, and hope I could salvage it. (I also tried desperately to seal up the edges). A few hours later it was time to head to dinner, with my flop of a recipe, Driving there we had to take every curve as slow as possible because both pans were sloshing all over. (Not an indication of a great jello dish!) So I walk in and say to my mother… “what happened here mom, please don’t assign me this again!” She looks at it and says, “Hmmmm, I have no idea, it doesn’t look like the jello dissolved?”. I reply with… “well, how long are you supposed to stir jello to get it to dissolve? I stirred it for like 10 min., I’ve never done it in cold water before.” My mom’s face told it all, I reply with, “I didn’t boil the darn water.” (But actually I didn’t say darn.) I made 3 batches of jello in cold water. FYI... for jello to set in NEEDS to be cooked. BRILLIANT! (In my defense it said NOTHING about boiling water – yes most people with half a brain would have thought that, but apparently I’m not like MOST people!) Actually, minus the soggy pretzels and the runny jello… it didn’t taste half bad, but then we were just eating the cream cheese/sugar/cool whip drenched in gelatin! I’m guessing that next year I won’t be assigned the pretzel salad. (Although just for a good laugh it might be my assignment for the rest of my life!) The rest of the meal was fab, we washed lots of my “contribution” down the drain though… (and we have plenty of leftovers of in our fridge, so come on over! :) ) I tell that story to make other people feel better about themselves. Someone recently said to me, "what can't you do?" Well here you go... I can't make jello, or bread, or rolls and I definitely can't jump canals, (I also can't hold small animals without freaking out!)... so now everyone who can do those things should feel better about themselves! See there is ALWAYS something to be Grateful for!!!
(I always forget to take pictures of the actual meal... I guess I have food as a higher priority than pictures... that is HIGH! Luckily Tayler took some of her and her cousins!)
One of those comforts of life is good food... in a comfortable warm home... Our family tradition is having Thanksgiving at my parents house. We all bring something as per my mother’s assignment. And the menu is always the same… so the recipes are given to us by my fabulous cook of a mother… She taught me all she could, "that is when I wasn't hiding" (according to her :)) Obviously I missed out on a few lessons... One of those was definitely the art of bread making... (Thank Heavens for comforts like "Great Harvest"!) Actually I thought that was about all I missed, but I must have missed the "jello" lesson too! This Thanksgiving I was assigned “Pretzel Salad”, a fairly basic recipe with a pretzel crust, cream cheese center and raspberry jello top. The crust and cream cheese layers were no problem, so the jello part should not have been either. The recipe I copied from my mom called for 2 cups of water - maybe 3 (that confused me right there). It was 1 AM (after playing a killer game of settlers online with Kimi, Jeff and Shane). So I couldn’t call my knowledgeable mother to clarify. So I mixed up the jello in the 2 cups of water. (plus a little more?) I swear I stirred it for like 5 min. it wouldn’t fully dissolve, but I poured in on anyway and went to bed. When I woke up Thanksgiving morning I checked out my two pans of yumminess and found no beauty… just a disgusting mess. Apparently I hadn’t sealed the edges of my cream cheese so the jello went right below, and hadn’t set up. I was confused, I mean I can read a recipe and it said nothing about sealing the edges but oh well, I decided to mix up yet another batch of jello, and hope I could salvage it. (I also tried desperately to seal up the edges). A few hours later it was time to head to dinner, with my flop of a recipe, Driving there we had to take every curve as slow as possible because both pans were sloshing all over. (Not an indication of a great jello dish!) So I walk in and say to my mother… “what happened here mom, please don’t assign me this again!” She looks at it and says, “Hmmmm, I have no idea, it doesn’t look like the jello dissolved?”. I reply with… “well, how long are you supposed to stir jello to get it to dissolve? I stirred it for like 10 min., I’ve never done it in cold water before.” My mom’s face told it all, I reply with, “I didn’t boil the darn water.” (But actually I didn’t say darn.) I made 3 batches of jello in cold water. FYI... for jello to set in NEEDS to be cooked. BRILLIANT! (In my defense it said NOTHING about boiling water – yes most people with half a brain would have thought that, but apparently I’m not like MOST people!) Actually, minus the soggy pretzels and the runny jello… it didn’t taste half bad, but then we were just eating the cream cheese/sugar/cool whip drenched in gelatin! I’m guessing that next year I won’t be assigned the pretzel salad. (Although just for a good laugh it might be my assignment for the rest of my life!) The rest of the meal was fab, we washed lots of my “contribution” down the drain though… (and we have plenty of leftovers of in our fridge, so come on over! :) ) I tell that story to make other people feel better about themselves. Someone recently said to me, "what can't you do?" Well here you go... I can't make jello, or bread, or rolls and I definitely can't jump canals, (I also can't hold small animals without freaking out!)... so now everyone who can do those things should feel better about themselves! See there is ALWAYS something to be Grateful for!!!
(I always forget to take pictures of the actual meal... I guess I have food as a higher priority than pictures... that is HIGH! Luckily Tayler took some of her and her cousins!)
Jordan and Paige
Cousin Fun
Paige and Kenna
Poppa and Grayson
...after a little turkey induced nap… Paige, Tara and Steve came over to our house for a game of hokie six, and cold stone ice cream “Falslev style” (actually "Bushman style"... but I stole it! :))
What a great Day!!!
us... well we're 
We went to the “
We had…. 12 dance lessons, 6 gymnastics lessons, 4 piano lessons, 2 dentist appointments, I finished 5 Super Saturdays and worked on 6 more, 2 parent teacher conf., helped at Kenna's Kindergarten Carnival, ran Saige's "class store", went for school lunch with Saige, had 2 activity days where Saige made this…
We 
We cleaned up the yard for winter and hauled 6 loads to "green waste"...
I made "
The girls all had “crazy hair day” (on different days) at their schools… ( I forgot to take Tayler’s picture… in my defense she leaves for the bus @ 6:45 AM, I'm not really thinking about pictures then!)
Went to dinner with our friends, then played games. (We also played LOTS of "
