Thanksgiving 2010

We woke up on Thanksgiving to a dusting of snow on the ground, and very cold temps - perfect for fast snow down our back hill!

My first order of business was making pies.  One traditional apple, one crumb topped apple, and one pumpkin.  Yum-O.  I love Clara's little turkey.  She was our resident Thanksgiving decorator this year:-)

My wonderful husband likes to fry the turkey each year.  Something about submerging an entire bird in gallons of boiling oil that just makes him happy :-)

I love an opportunity to pull out the good china.

Clara also made us all napkin rings...along with a note on everyones plate saying that she'd like to give us a kiss.  I was touched that I got two notes...

My Grandma was on my mind as I mashed potatoes (always my job at her house), and as I filled her apple bowl with green beans and corn.  I also thought of her as I quickly cut the apples for the pie.  I could almost hear her voice saying, "Ach!  You're wasting so much apple.  Slow down and cut more carefully!" :-)

The bird is done!  Look at that good lookin' turkey!  And the bird - look at the bird! ;-)

We got to celebrate wit a couple of our favorite people.  We're so blessed!

Oops - these are out of order - they belong at the top with the sledding pics (and I'm too lazy to move everything around right now).  Look at my cute little man getting un-bundled from his sledding adventures...

These pictures aren't from Thanksgiving DAY...but are from Thanksgiving vacation.  WE MADE POTICA!  Potica (poh-teet-zha) is a traditional bread made by my dad's side of the family for generations.  I LOVE making it, but we never do because you're supposed to fill it with a mixture that includes walnuts or pecans, and Clara is terribly allergic to tree nuts.  We experimented this year with a potica recipe we found that had cream cheese as a filling (blech), and we did another with ground sunflower seeds instead of nuts (YUM).  It was so fun to share the potica tradition with my children!

My Dad's old recipe with his handwriting, and a few of my husband's hand-written notes.  It's funny how little things like this are so precious to me.

Pardon the hair.  This is what happens when I take a shower right before bed - I have clean, but crazy, hair the next day.  My kids were good enough to call me the 'mad scientist' all day.

Ha!  Oops!  Another sledding picture - filled with neighborhood kids.  It's sort of a good representation of our lives anyway...life happening with kids running in and out from all over the place.  Happy sledding season!