A Happy Little Turkey Day

Hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving yesterday! We had a great day. We watched the parade with our Krispy Kreme breakfast and after naptime, we headed over to our cousins' house for a family dinner. James fried a turkey like he does every year and, like every year, it was deeeelish!! Though we always miss our far-away East coast family, we had a nice time with our California cousins :) 

So many things to be thankful for, and we try to live each day with gratitude. 

We are laying low this "Black Friday." James is doing some home repair stuff for my grandmother upstairs. The babies are listening to Christmas music in their jammies and playing (Calvin has been climbing and jumping on the couches like a monkey - and is taking a much needed nap at the moment - and Henry is playing with his toys like an angel.) And I am ready to whip out our Christmas decorations!! Let the Christmas season begin! 

Happy Holidays :)

Thanksgiving

On Thankgiving, I love drinking coffee and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in my jammies. This year, Calvin got to see the parade too! James and my cousin Hartley and I treated ourselves to Krispy Kremes while we watched the marching bands and Broadway performances, the floats and giant balloons with the babies. 

Calvin gets to watch the parade! 

Henry's first Thanksgiving <3

I did a little decorating to make our little place feel festive. Calvin helped :) I took some of his fingerpainting masterpieces and turned them into a banner by cutting them into triangles and attaching them with brads! 

Before...

...and after!

My cousins brought over most of the food, but James deep fried the turkey like he does every year.

Honeybaked Ham and a Deep Fried Turkey!

Lumpia, spinach dip, cranberry relish, and an assortment of salads

Dessert station! My absolute fave this year was this cassava cake that my aunt made.
Not your traditional American Thanksgiving dessert, but so so yummy!

Two of my cousins came over with their kids, and of course Hartley and Lola (my grandmother) came down from upstairs. My aunt had to work, but she joined us later in the evening. It really was a great day. Yummy food, and a loving family. 

Henry and Hartley

Calvin had a BLAST playing with his cousins. I think I've never seen him so happy <3

Henry and Mama

Cousins and our Lola Coring <3

We always miss our east coast relatives when we can't be with them for special occasions, especially our parents and grandparents in Georgia. But we are so thankful to have wonderful family and friends out here and we love any excuse to get together with them to eat, and laugh, and celebrate. And our thoughts and prayers continue to be with our relatives in the Philippines as they recover from the devastation of the typhoon. For info on our efforts to send aid to our family and their community in Leyte, please check out our website, YouCaring: Philippine Typhoon Relief. 

Deep Fried Turkey Day

To anyone reading this blog, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I hope you got to eat some delicious food and spend time with awesome people. I'm very happy to say that we were blessed with good food and good company once again this year.

James pried himself away from his PhD work for the day and we all went over to my cousins' house. It has become a tradition in recent years for James to deep fry the turkey. He learned how to perform this culinary feat from his own dad since fried turkey was a tradition at their house when he was growing up (in fact, James' family Thanksgivings hosted so many people that they would have a fried turkey, a roasted turkey, and a smoked ham... plus all the sides of course and something like 8 different pies!). 

The turkey was delicious! Just perfect. Stuffing, cranberry salad, ham, pumpkin cheesecake... it was a great meal! 

Calvin sat at the table with us and got to taste some turkey! (Taste! Not eat :)

After the meal, Calvin was sleepy so we put him in the Ergo to nap... James was sleepy too!

The next day it was back to the grindstone for James. His PhD defense is scheduled for next Friday (eek!) so he is up to his eyebrows in thesis writing and presentation prepping. But he does have to take some breaks so we managed to squeeze in a couple more Thanksgiving traditions over the next two days.

Friday I used the leftover turkey to make Hot Browns. This is another tradition from James' family and it is such a yummy way to enjoy Thanksgiving leftovers! Here's the recipe from it's original source, The Brown Hotel in Louisville. It says it's for two servings, but I found that there was way more than enough Mornay sauce. Next year, I think I'll halve the sauce ingredients. 

Here's one Hot Brown. I burnt the bacon. Oops! 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving is a big day for college football rivalries including our very own GA Tech vs. UGA. This rivalry is quite a hot topic in both of our families. Half of the six kids in James' family went to Tech and the other half went to UGA and the stubborn side-taking has trickled down to our nieces and nephews. One year, the older kids actually convinced the younger ones to switch teams and cheer for their side! As for my family, my grandmother is an alum and a former professor of The University and she and my dad are huge Dawgs fans. I grew up cheering for Georgia and wearing red and black UGA outfits. I learned how to spell "Georgia" by singing the fight song. And while I still enjoy watching the Dawgs beat those wretched Gators, I have become kind of a traitor and changed teams on my dear old dad and grandma. I have fond memories of going to Tech games with James and tailgating with our friends in Atlanta and it's more fun for me to cheer with my husband than against him! So although we are now on the opposite coast (and had to roll out of bed to watch the game at 9 am!), we dressed Calvin in his Tech onesie and cheered for the Jackets. The Dawgs beat them again. It doesn't make me want to switch back teams. Sorry ;)