Thanksgiving 2011

I am finally getting around to posting about my Thanksgiving! We had a great time. Auntie Kathrine and her husband came to visit us for the holiday. We had a fun time just hanging around, watching movies and playing Monopoly. I won 2 games out of 5 and Kat won the rest! She is just soooooo good at the game! She taught me how to win and it is great when I actually beat her. Poor Devon didn't stand a chance playing against us! I got a cake to celebrate our 30th birthdays, her birthday is in Oct and mine is in Dec. I didn't get a pix of the cake but it will be what I get for Mason's first birthday because it is soooo yummy! Chocolate cake with butter cream filling and a chocolate fudge frosting! YUMMO!!!

I got to cook! I haven't been able to cook some of the food I really like to make because it just makes too many servings, and I don't like the left overs for those particular dinners. They just aren't as good the next day. I also did the Thanksgiving day spread and boy it turned out yummy! The turkey was one of the most tender turkeys I have ever had. I did a knock off of Anne Burrell from Food Network with doing a herb butter rubbed turkey. I used sage and fresh rosemary from my own plant and covered the turkey with the herbs mixed into the butter. Also I used the yucky bag of gizzards and the neck in the base of the pan to help with the gravy and it made the gravy super yummy! Kat had to handle the gizzard and neck stuff for me cause I just couldn't do it. Anyhew we had a very low key Thanksgiving and I was very thankful that they were here with me so that I didn't have to do the holiday alone!

The day they left I transformed my home from a fall foliage look to CHRISTMAS! We only get one month to celebrate Christmas so I like to deck out my house just a bit. It is not as much as what my parents usually do with their Christmas village but I still have half a closet shelf filled with just Christmas stuff.

I am on day 2 of super strict mommy with the crib. I am still trying to get Mason used to the crib so that the transition to night sleeping in it won't be so scary for him. Today's put down went a lot better. I still had to do some rocking and light nursing to get him conked out but I made sure he was super tired before I put him in there which meant he was more cranky. Yesterday left me with crying from both him and me and I realized how hard it was to hear him be mad and upset. We are 10 minutes in to him sleeping now and hopefully it continues for the next 1.5 hours, knock on wood.

The grout is going in as I type right now for my Christmas present to myself. I am getting a tile backsplash in my kitchen and I love it! I will post pix when it is done but it looks so AMAZING and it adds sparkle and bling to my kitchen!

Matt is still hanging in there. He is still in Kuwait and is being kept super busy. Please keep him in your prayers for his safety. It is a safer place but I still worry about him.

I am adding some pix from Thanksgiving and Mason's first pictures in front of our Christmas Tree! I love this kid so much! He always give me something to laugh about when I see his "out takes" which I have posted below!

~Auntie Kathrine loving on Mace~

 ~Thanksgiving table scape, as Sandra Lee calls it~

 ~The spread~

 ~Christmas Tree out takes. Archer wanted part of the action. Mason thinking, "Camera Hog"~