Monthly Musings: Thanksgiving Prep

So exciting to be talking about Thanksgiving!

1.What are your Thanksgiving plans?

Last year was the anomaly in the 19 years of our marriage where we DIDN'T do our normal routine - when we went to Hawaii! 

Not a bad Thanksgiving!

Our typical plans include being with Brent's family on Thanksgiving day and with my family the Saturday after.

Thanksgiving 2021 in Brent's parents' backyard

We also celebrate my sister's birthday and Dad's birthday - they are always around Thanksgiving.

My dad lost his dad when my dad was 22 and his dad was 62 - 

it is never lost on me every year how much time my dad didn't have with his.

2. Favorite Thanksgiving dish.

I don't care AT ALL about the meal at Thanksgiving. I am there for dessert. Which is basically a fundamental of my whole life. I love the chocolate pie my mother-in-law makes, and I'm hoping we can make a pumpkin roll again this year.

I will eat this over turkey, dressing, etc. ANY DAY.

The main meal is Brent's favorite meal of the whole year. He loves everything his family serves. It cracks me up how different we are - I don't think he even eats the dessert?

3. Best food prep tips?

Share the load! I've never cooked a full Thanksgiving meal - we always split up the responsibilities so everyone shares in the preparation.

4. Favorite Thanksgiving traditions?

We don't really have any traditions minus where we are for each day, and I love that! 

I've also gone the last few years to a Christmas bazaar with Kristen and Susannah the Friday before Thanksgiving, and that is quickly becoming a favorite tradition.

5. Turkey? Ham? Other? Both?

I enjoy both, and we have both at Brent's parents' house. With my family, the menu isn't super consistent. Sometimes it turkey or ham, sometimes it BBQ or chicken, ha. 

6. Apple pie? Pumpkin pie?

If I have to pick, I'm choosing apple pie, but see my dessert picture above. {grin}

7. Football or family movie?

We watch football! The Dallas Cowboys play on Thanksgiving Day and the Texas A&M Aggies play on Saturday.

8. Stuffing or dressing?

I didn't eat this EVER until I was an adult, and I only eat Brent's mom's, and it's 'dressing'. Not my favorite food, but I like it pretty good. It is Brent's favorite recipe on earth.

9. Turkey trot or Thanksgiving parade?

AmpedUp - where I workout and teach Body Pump - has a 'Huff 'n Puff Before You Stuff' workout class on Thanksgiving morning, and I really love going to that. It's a variety of jazzercise and all the other types of classes offered, and it's about 90 minutes and sets the day up for FEASTING haha. I've done a few turkey trots in the past, but I have learned I really don't like to run anymore, so I don't see that happening anytime soon.

10. Have you ever done a Friendsgiving?

We haven't! A few years ago we did go away with friends before Thanksgiving {in 2020 when our 40th birthday trip to Costa Rica got canceled}, and that was a blast!

It wasn't Costa Rica, but we sure had fun!

Book Club Does Maggiano's

 If you don't know this about me, then you haven't been reading my blog for very long, but I LOVE a good tradition. Our book club has been going strong for 12 years and almost since the beginning we have done an annual holiday gift exchange. At some point along the way, we added going to Maggiano's for dinner as part of the experience. We don't go to Maggiano's every year - and we didn't last year - but everyone was super sad after last year, so we 100% knew we needed to go this year.

Coordinating schedules with 9 wives/mothers is no easy tasks, so our 'holiday' dinner was last week ha. It's a super fun kickoff to all things holiday! We ended up with 2 ladies out due to illness, but the other 7 of us had a blast.

There's a lot of years of friendship here!

Rhonda ~ Susannah ~ Jennifer ~ Allena ~ Tricia ~ Desiree ~ Karin

I always get lasagna with a take home meal of 4-cheese ravioli. As always, it was DELICIOUS.

Check out that dessert! Pumpkin pecan cheesecake!

And a very dark Colorado bulldog as my dessert drink of choice.

We are the worst {or possibly the best?} at a gift exchange and very little stealing happens because everything we open is so fun. I ended up with coasters that look like old-timey library checkout cards and a bag that says 'I'm with the banned' - 100% perfect for me! I still use the cake stand I got in our first gift exchange!

We had a great time, and I don't think we'll ever miss again unless a catastrophe happens - we talked briefly about going to another restaurant and we all agreed we have to stick with what we love - if it ain't broke, don't fix it! {grin}