November 25, 2008

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Thanksgiving!

We've had a light school week this week, just finishing up some things we didn't get to last week plus reading some GREAT Thanksgiving books I had reserved from the library. Yesterday I made a double batch of sweet potato casserole and a double batch of cheesy hashbrown casserole. This morning I baked the squash to have ready for butternut squash puree, which I made for Thanksgiving 3 years ago and we really liked but for some reason have never made since. I also baked THREE pecan pies. The plan was to make two, but I forgot that the recipe I use (which I had doubled) really needs to be poured into a deep-dish pie crust. Since I only had purchased the regular size, I ended up filling three crusts! Good thing I had gotten an extra package while shopping!

Tomorrow I'll bake cinnamon-apple-upside-down-coffee cake, a new recipe I got from Janet, who is hosting our ladies' Bible study this semester and served the cake to us a few weeks ago. It is YUMMY! It uses the pre-made cinnamon roll dough with icing, so it looks easy to put together. I figured it would be faster than "real" apple pie. I'll also make pistachio jello salad, a J family favorite. It has pistachio pudding mix, Cool Whip, crushed pineapple, and marshmallows. If there's time, I may also do the pineapple sauce to go with the ham (out of this world!!) and the squash puree so all we have to do is heat them up on Thursday.

Our friends the F family will be joining us for Thanksgiving. Heather will be bringing green bean supreme, corn, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and Oreo truffles. Maybe other stuff too, but that's all I remember. I think she mentioned real cranberry sauce, too. We shouldn't be wanting for food, that's for sure!! With 6 of us, 5 in the F family, and 4 in the T family, we'll have plenty of mouths to feed for sure, but I'm hoping that with double batches we'll have lots of leftovers to prevent having to cook much the rest of the week, LOL!

Tomorrow at noon Ted's squadron (or wing??) is having a family meal, so we actually get to go up to Creech AFB! It will probably be my one and only time to see where he works. The community is providing food, so we don't even have to bring a dish to share. I think it is non-traditional Thanksgiving stuff so that we don't have the same feast twice. :-) The kids are very excited to meet Daddy at work. After we're finished eating we can come home! Then Charis has dance class at 3:15, her last class before their performance at Willow Creek next Wednesday. After that we'll go to her and Tobin's LAST taekwondo class. Clint and Ski and their girls should arrive around 3 p.m. or so, so I will probably have Ted stay home with Kenna while I take the kids to class. By the time the Taylor family gets their luggage and their rental car, it could be close to 5:00 or later when they arrive. Our church doesn't have any services tomorrow night, which is probably just as well since we'd be so rushed getting back from taekwondo. This way we can eat dinner, relax, and visit while the girls settle in and get used to being here before bedtime. I'm really looking forward to getting to know them! I have no idea what their personalities are like! Charis is so excited to be hosting her little girl cousins. Even the boys are looking forward to having company.

I LOVE Thanksgiving!

1 comment:

Bob and Claire said...

Oh, we're celebrating with friends too, and we're also going to have a grand feast! I'll be doing my cooking tomorrow. Your menu sounds yummy!!! I'll post what we're having tomorrow or Thursday.