Thanksgiving at Home - A First

We made a decision to follow the advice of local government and health leaders and celebrate Thanksgiving at home this year. 

On Wednesday Libby and I made pies. We made all the pies. We made pumpkin, pumpkin chiffon, apple, pecan, and walnut brownie. Then Michael had to hide them because bits of crust and bits of filling kept disappearing. They all came back out for Thanksgiving dinner, though, and mostly unscathed.

Thursday I spent all day in the kitchen while Michael and Ethan replaced the ball joint on the truck. I think Ethan is developing an unhealthy relationship with the truck, but at least he is learning new skills.

The olives and pickles didn't last long enough to make it in the food spread picture, but they did start out full. They ate an entire jar of baby dills before dinner even started. We had a fabulous spread. Libby made the mashed potatoes and baked mac and cheese, Ethan made deviled eggs, my father-in-law dropped off (another) pie. Everything turned out incredibly well with the notable exception of the ham.

I threw the ham in the Instant Pot to free up oven space. For the first time in its history, it refused to come to pressure, even after multiple attempts.  I cut off a few pieces of ham to heat for dinner and told Michael about the problem when he came in from fixing the truck. I was about to pull my hair out. Michael started poking and prodding at the Instant Pot, trying to diagnose the problem. Then he asked, "What happened to the water in the bottom of the pot?"  At which point my brain finally turned back on. I had put everything but water in the pot, meaning it couldn't come to pressure, because, you know, the lack of liquid. I'm an idiot. Thankfully, the pressure cooker still works and we have plenty of leftover ham.

 

Had to take a picture of the table actually set for once. We are usually content with a plate and fork each, but we decided to go all out for Thanksgiving. We even got some festive plates.

Ready to eat. Just patiently waiting for dad. We actually had a very enjoyable dinner and all the pie we could hold. Two days later and we are still eating pie. And ham. And, actually everything. It seems I made extended-family size portions of everything. The fridge looks like a crazy game of Jenga. And I have not a single regret. We loved our holiday at home, and we are looking forward to holidays with extended family next year.

Giving Thanks

With most of our activities canceled this year, we have had the most free time we have had in years. We used a few of those hours to volunteer. Michael and I helped assemble care packages for the United Way (no pictures taken) and a week later we dragged everyone to the Foodbank.

Where we bagged carrots. Lots and lots of carrots. Our family and three other volunteers bagged somewhere around a ton of carrots to be packaged for food boxes destined for Payette. We were stiff and sore when we finished, but it was also crazy satisfying to empty out these huge bins of carrots into usable portions. Our group sorted four bins worth.

We are thankful for the extra family time this year. We are grateful we are healthy and strong. We are grateful we are able to help others. We have a bounty of blessings, although sometimes we forget. It's nice to take a moment to remember.

Spooky Day in a Spooky Year

For my birthday dinner I decided on a crudités platter. Initially we were calling it a charcuterie board, but then discovered that term referred to an assortment of meat. We did not have any meat. It became a crudités platter. I bought all the expensive fancy cheese and it was amazing. Libby did all the dinner prep, which is why it is cute. She loves to make things fancy. I love that about her.

Crackers, cheese, veggies, Greek olives, fresh veggies, roasted veggies, and pickled asparagus. Nobody walked away from the table hungry.

The pickled plate is on the right. Learned I am not a fan of pickled cauliflower.

After dinner we sent the kids around the neighborhood on a photo scavenger hunt. Libby fell down and scraped herself and Sam came home early, but they still enjoyed themselves. The kids even found some neighbors with no contact treats outside, so they came home with their pockets full.

Michael and I ensured their candy coma was complete by giving them a bucket of treats. This is Grace's haul for the day. The bucket was from us and her neighborhood haul. The pink treasures are from her friend. Nobody was feeling deprived at the end of the night. 

After the kids came home we broke out the new chocolate fountain for my birthday dessert. It was enjoyed by all.

Everyone hovering around waiting for a turn. During the celebration I looked particularly fetching in my paint splattered shirt. For my birthday this year I decided to paint the bathroom wall and cabinets and replace the light fixture, hence breaking out my fashionable painting shirt.

After dessert we finally watched the 2016 Ghostbusters (deemed Ghostbusties by Ethan several years ago). The movie was just okay, but we still had a lovely evening. 

Everyone pitched in to help, but it still took most of the day. I was screwing cupboard doors back on at 11:00 o'clock at night and finished putting the caulking strip on the tub at midnight, after which I finally went to bed. The bathroom isn't finished but it looks SO much better. Happy birthday to me!

All the Pumpkins

We can't celebrate without the annual pumpkin carving. Thursday we got out the knives, pumpkin scoopers and mini saws and got to work. Everybody found their own design, carved their own pumpkin, needed only minimal assistance, and no blood was shed. Huzzah! 

All finished!

Lighting up the dark.

Michael's masked jack-o-lantern.

Grace's bat. This one took the longest by far. Her perfectionism took over.

A truck. Yes, this is Ethan's. It's hauling a pumpkin, which is a little hard to see. He made modifications later so the pumpkin lit up.

My cannibalistic pumpkin. He actually looks like he is smoking a fat one. C'est la vie.

Libby's standard pumpkin. She was done first. She also made the biggest mess. How is that even possible? I think the lines are smoke from the candle. Mentally edit them out, please, I haven't the energy to do it digitally. (Editor's note: they're lens flares.)

Sam's cyclops. After Ethan and I used a mini pumpkin, Sam needed one as well. Inside his cyclops in a mini cyclops who had been eaten.

I may have spent way too much money on pumpkins. The house may have ended up covered with orange guts. But I don't care. The pumpkins are cute. The seeds are roasted. Fall is celebrated. Life is good.

Slowly Returning to our Previously Scheduled Programming

Mid October, after six months, church was back on. Only twice a month, and only for forty minutes, but it was sure nice to go back. It felt a little lonely only having half of the ward there and maintaining social distance, but it was lovely to see our dear church family.

Just a week later the library also opened up! We have been requesting library books online for the last six months, but nothing beats browsing. I did a happy dance around my kitchen when Michael told me. The next day we headed to the library for their limited browsing hours and it felt like coming home. Don't let Sam's face fool you, he was very excited as well. Ethan wandered off to the youth section while Grace and Sam headed to the children's section, where they were enthusiastically greeted by some of our favorite librarians. We were only allowed to be in the library for twenty minutes, but we made good use of our time.

These are Grace and Sam's books. The stack under Sam's hand goes all the way to the floor. I refuse to believe we went overboard.  Ethan and I each had a canvas bag of books in the back. For the rest of the day I barely heard a peep from the kids. They were buried in books and stories.

Along with church and the library, school is open. Kinda. Ethan, Libby, and Grace all attend their respective schools on Tuesday and Thursday and then are online the other three days. They are so happy to be able to see their friends and finally meet their teachers in person. Sam is still being homeschooled, but we are hoping to start him back at the neighborhood school in January.

Just a few weeks after in person school started Grace brought home a bag full of goodies. She won the Jefferson character award for Honesty/Integrity. She was very pleased with receiving recognition. I had to laugh at her prize bag. It was full of pencils, crayons, paper, pens, notebooks, assorted office supplies and a box of nerds. It looked like they emptied the school supply storage closet into a bag and offered it as a prize. It wasn't a bad prize; just unexpected. I think this year is all about making do. The pumpkin and water bottle were not part of the prize pack, they just jumped in the picture.

The school is making do and Ethan is doing for himself. The truck was in desperate need of new shocks. Michael suggested we take it to a mechanic and get it done. Ethan crawled under the truck and announced he thought he could do it himself. Michael found some shocks that were on clearance and ordered them. Once they finally made it to the house Ethan started ripping apart the truck, and even managed to get it put back together. He spent a couple afternoons on it, scraped his knuckles, borrowed a jack from the neighbor when ours wasn't steady, and got the truck back in fine form. No longer does going over speed bumps feel like riding a slinky. It's amazing. As a bonus, Ethan went to the junk yard and found a horn and replaced the truck's broken one. $50 for the shocks, $3 for the horn, and the truck is in fine form. I'm proud of his willingness to attempt new things. I would never consider trying to replace the shocks myself, but he did it, and did it well (I hope). As he saved us a fair amount of money, he has been released from his car insurance payment for a month or two. I may have got the better end of the deal.

We still spend a couple days a week with this dude. He brings much needed levity to our home. The kids adore playing with him. He and Harley have a special relationship, built primarily on mutual tolerance. He will occasionally throw the ball for Harley and Harley will frequently steal his snacks.  They don't seem to have much more use for each other, but sometimes it's obvious they love each other. A lot.

P.S. This is my 601st blog post!! That is crazy. I've been doing this for a long time and apparently I think I have a lot to say. Crazy!