Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving when you are little involves talk of Pilgrims and Indians. When you are older like me, you generally think of it as the holiday that is snuck in between Christmas and Halloween. OR, if you hunt Whitetail deer like most of the guys I know, you are inspired to put on your orange and get up early.

I am not a hunter by a long shot. I do love the woods, but sitting still someplace cold is not my thing. I do like food however. A LOT. (and venison, sorry, but it's yummy)

So, although Thanksgiving is for sure the "Thankful" Holiday where you reflect on your blessings, it is also about lots of yummy food, time off work, and to use a big word, fellowship. I am choosing with my page to focus on the food! Hence the title....It's All About the Food (& family). Not that I am not thankful, but that is an around good thing to keep in your brain all the time.

So, I'll start with my menu below.

We had turkey this year. My Dad posed special for you guys so I could get a shot of him cutting up the bird.

So, we had two different kinds of potatoes. I lobbied for sweet potatoes WITH marshmallow and brown sugar on top and won. My Mom has this THING against the green bean casserole so THAT was not on the menu. Her green beans were from the garden, so needed no extra help.

Dessert was awesome. I made the pie with apples Shirley cut up off our trees (OH MY they were good) and some pumpkin cupcakes. I adapted a recipe I got off Allison's blog that looked yummy. Mine were without the cool whip since I like making whip cream frosting from heavy cream. I also used a white cake. Mine were pretty cute but I didn't get a photo for some reason. Maybe it was the five kids I had running around while baking?

AND, the banana pudding is a Pratt FAVORITE. Seriously. It's off the Nilla Wafer box or was years ago. I had to google it to find it when I was making it. And, why is my text above in purple for the word "Banana Pudding" don't ask. It was right after I sprayed some glimmermist and it didn't flick but went over my ENTIRE printed out photo of our Thanksgiving table. Had a small melt down. AND then decided I didn't care.

How do you like that table? It's pretty with some bittersweet my parents picked on the farm. Notice the place mats? They have been in our family since I was little and were from when my parents were in the Peace Corps.

Here is close up of the oak leaves I ran through my Big Shot. Lisa at You Made Me Ink came up with that idea. Sadly it was after our leaves were mostly dried up and gone, so I had to hunt down some leaves that would work. These oak leaves were at my parent's house and were pretty dry so I went through a stack until I got two that held together. Then I sprayed them carefully and stuck them down! Phew!







































My little burgundy gems were dyed! I can't wait to show you. Tomorrow I will throw together a very small tutorial. And the flower is from Helen. It has been just waiting for me to use it and somehow it matches.







































And two last photos to leave you with now that I am officially moving past Thanksgiving and into the start of the Christmas season. We took our pumpkins out back to feed the wildlife. I had already frozen one for pie and these got hit with an unexpected snow so were starting to get mushy. They are now a good start to a feast for the squirrels and mice. We also gave them a helping hand by shooting them full of holes! NO, I am not normally dragged along for these events although it's almost a tradition in my family to shoot pumpkins after Thanksgiving. BUT, my hubby said he would scrapbook a page IF I shot his new gun. Fine. Fine. Fine!

It was easy. No big deal. Pratt on the other had did not enjoy his foray into scrappin'. He found four or five of his favorite photos containing dead deer and opted to try to create something digital. He said with disdain that he really didn't want to touch PAPER! Was it perhaps because I gave him the option of four or five different kinds of adhesive and it look him over an hour to navigate through Picasa to find the photos he wanted? And I didn't even bring out any glitter! I am still waiting for his page. Should it emerge at some point I will be SURE to share it. After all, I shot the gun!