Giving Thanks.

I am thankful for our cozy home. But sometimes, boy- do we miss having a landlord! It is so nice to have someone else responsible for the upkeep of your residence. Since purchasing our home I have found myself having this sentiment several times. Most recently... The morning before Thanksgiving. We were hosting it for Nick's family again this year. Nick and I both thought it would be fun to build a fire in the wood stove that we recently had installed in the basement family room and decided to give it a trial run the morning before Turkey Day. Nick prepped everything, Scout Style, and lit the match. He got a big fire going in a matter of seconds, but much to our dismay the smoke was not disappearing up the pipe. Rather, it was seeping out of every crevice of the wood stove directly in to the room! We put out the fire, but the damage was already done. Our basement smelled like campfire.

Nick enlisted the help of his brother to try to solve the problem. We don't have a flue on the chimney, so that couldn't have been the problem. Nick and Brian climbed on to the roof and lowered a flashlight down the chimney. It did not meet any resistance, and proved that nothing was blocking the fireplace. We were at a loss??? It is still a mystery, and to boot: my basement still smells like icky campfire. I don't really want to pay to have someone come out and diagnose the problem, so we may just end up not using the wood burning stove, in fear of having a repeat scenario.

Thanksgiving day, itself was awesome! Nick, ever the chef in the kitchen; did not disappoint. He made a "from scratch" herb gravy that was the best I have ever tasted.

Reagan really stuffed herself, not!

She had Cereal, and Celery.


And some of uncle Nathan's pie, that she enjoyed feeding to him, more than feeding to herself.

We had a riot playing Guitar Hero, World Tour after the meal and between several helpings of pie.

I (once again) showed my ineptness at cooking. The night before thanksgiving I started making pies. The first piecrust was cooking by itself. I took it out of the oven and started to empty the beans that I was using as piecrust weights in to a bowl, and ended up dumping the piecrust out. Of course. Nick made a trip to the store and got me two more piecrusts. While he was gone I cooked another pie shell, and poured the pumpkin pie filling in to the crust. The crust shrunk and Nick said I added too much cinnamon to the filling. Pie #2 ruined. I cooked the two crusts Nick brought home from the store and they turned out fine. I put Nick's favorite (Raspberry Sour Cream) pie in the oven. The brown sugar crumble topping wasn't cooking, so my brilliant idea was to turn on the broiler and finish the pie. Little did I know I was actually FINISHING THE PIE OFF! The brown sugar ended up caramelizing and pie #3 went to the garbage. The last pie turned out, but only because it had a pre-done piecrust and the filling was instant chocolate pudding.

Village Inn came to the rescue Thanksgiving Morning. I managed to get their last pumpkin pie.

My talent never has been AND will never will be cooking. Shopping, however, is a different story. Yipee for Black Friday. I hauled Nick out of bed at the wicked hour of 4AM to go shopping with me on the day after Thanksgiving. Nick was a good sport, but it was obvious he didn't get a "charge" out of it the way I do! I felt a real sense of accomplishment at the end of the day when we returned home from our visit to the countless number of stores we patronized and realized that we had managed to buy everything I set out to get (with the exception of two items. The Power Wheels Barbie Jeep, and the Leather Executive Chair). I was so tired by the end of the day, but that doesn't deter me from doing it again next year!