Thanksgiving WEEK!

So if you thought you had a Thanksgiving weekend and it was quite exhausting, try Thanksgiving Week! OK, it really didn't last a week, but I guess it felt like it. We had an extention on Thanksgiving this year, so we didn't have the dinner till Saturday and we didn't have quite as much of a time to digest as many of you out there.

The reason that we had the late Thanksgiving was so David's family can join us. Sher and Dad flue to Albany and drove to Utica to pick up Grandma Nancy, then drove to us on Friday. Mom came down on Friday as well.

So my week went like this:

Tuesday night, I picked up my parents from JFK and arrived home late. Good thing we went shopping Sunday prior to get all the groceries we need, of course, we still didn't get all the stuff and we probably ran back out five more times for things like sugar, eggs, etc.

Wednesday, we went to work and left around 3:30pm. We went to the store (2nd time) for some sweet potatoes and stuff, went home and we prep the house for Thanksgiving.

Thursday, we did nothing in the morning. I started making Esther's sauce and meatball for dinner and yes, it was excellent! After the sauce was on simmer, i started making a sugarless, wheat free apple pie. I found the pie crust recipe online and it was VERY GOOD. I wouldn't buy the gluten free mixes again as they were very expensive. I then made 6 mini pumpkin pies in the muffin tins with the wheat free pie crust. I modified my pumpkin pie to make them with honey instead of processed sugar - they were yummy! I also made two regular size pumpkin pies using the same recipe. We had a lot of pies.

Friday, we did the Black Friday at the Clinton outlet. My parents got some good deals at the Coach store - I got a pair of coach leather gloves lined with cashmere :) I was excited. I didn't get anything else though. We had a good time and it really is a ritual that I do with my parents every year. David's Dad, Sher, Grandma Nancy arrived about half an hour after we got home from shopping. David's mom followed not too far behind. Sher made this wonderful soup that calls for wild rice, ham, carrots, onions, celery, almonds, butter, half and half and chicken stocks. I just finished the last bowl today :) I think I had it for breakfast everyday since she made it! I made David and David's dad gluten free lasagna and a regular one for everyone else. David went to the store (3rd time) for some more cheese for the lasagna.

Saturday, I had an appointment with The White Dress By The Shore for Anne Barge's Trunk show. I tried on quite a few dresses and I ended up deciding to buy a dress for the wedding, instead of making one now. It's Anne's newest collection that's not on the web yet. I had a good time trying the dresses on. I thought it was a lot of fun and I didn't want it to end!

This is the gown I went to the bridal salon for but didn't get.

After a two hour appointment there, we came home to make all the dinner fixings. My brother already had the bird done by the time we got home! Luckily, all the fixings are easy and I had them done by the time the bird was all rest up. By this time, David had gone to the store (4th time) to get gravy. Yes, we didn't make our own gravy - but we smoke the Turkey on the grill, therefore there was no drippings to make them from. We did use the giblets with the gravey to doctor it up a bit though.

All the food!

We had a 13.5 lb Turkey, butter loaded mash potatoes, half marshmellowed, half non sweeten sweet potatoes, stir fried green beans with almonds, cranberry relish (with 3/4 cup of brown sugar, instead of all the white sugar, and only one apple), cranberry sauce (with half of recipe), Salad, 2 honey pumpkin pies, 1 apple pie, 1 minced meat pie, 1 apricot tart, and chocolate chip cookies. We forgot to make the corn... oh well.

We ate and ate and ate, well into the night. We cleaned up and started making turkey soup from the left overs. Just a clear broth, which was very yummy.

Sunday, we got up pretty early and went to see the house in process around 10. Everyone liked the house, which is a good sign. We then came home to get directions to go cut a Christmas tree. This is when Sher, Dad, and Grandma Nancy departed to go back to Uitca. The rest of us went to Broken Arrow Nursery to cut a tree. It turned out that we didn't get the tree from this place last year, we went to the nursery next door!!! I promise I'll have picture for the tree soon.

Today, I took a day off from work and bummed around at the mall with my parents. My mom found some good deals at Dick's Sporting Goods. I got myself a external hard drive so I can store all the pictures I took so my laptop can resume to normal speed. NowI am, of course, still stuffed from dinner - leftover lasagna.

Tomorrow, my parents will be leaving for California then to Taiwan on Thursday. I will be returning to work on Wednesday. My Thanksgiving WEEK was great! How about yours?