Thanksgiving. And the Jolly Old Elf Himself. As Well As Some Magic.

Thanksgiving came with a little bit of ceremony.  Mostly in the actual foods that were prepared and the setting up of tables, and finally the watching of "While You Were Sleeping" while the big stuff was in the oven and it wasn't quite time to start the little stuff yet.

That's a big part of Thanksgiving ceremony, "While You Were Sleeping."

Cali learned how to make a Dutch Apple Pie.  Cas learned what it was to make pumpkin pies with Grandpa Dick and why that's a treat.

Our house was full to the brink.

 I posted this picture of Casidee on my Instagram:

And then this happened:

The yelling didn't start until the playing cards came out.

Slapjack for the younger crowd and nertz for the older and slightly more violent crowd.

And we may have come out of the experience with a broken stair banister, but you can't have family holidays be all good, right?  If that's the worst then all is well.

And then it happened.

December is here and I hardly even had time to realize it.  It takes me by surprise every year.

We kicked December off last night with Cali and Tayler's choir singing at our City Hall for the lighting of the city's lights.

And a visit with the Jolly Old Elf himself.  Cali asked for Monster High dolls.  Tayler for earmuffs.  Blue ones.

And it struck me, with the growing of my Circus, how very little time I have left for Christmas to be full of magic.

It will be always be magical.

But it changes from magic and wonder to a more specific awareness of giving and love, which is not bad, it's really very good, but I realize how little time I have left with the added bonus of a child's magic and wonder at it all.

Though when it's all said and done I suppose it's the awareness of giving and love that creates the magic for children, and whether they realize it or not, that will always be there, so we'll lose nothing in the growing of our children, the reason for it all will just change.

And that, perhaps, might be even a little better.

To have the magic with a purpose instead.

3 Thoughts on the Holiday Season

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1. Though it's only happened a few times, my favorite thing to do at Thanksgiving time is make pies with my Dick-Dad.  I volunteer to host Thanksgiving for one big reason: to keep the leftovers for days of eating goodness.  Turkey sandwiches with stuffing and cranberry sauce?  Be still my soul.  Turkey Rolls?  Always.

But in addition to that I extend an invitation to my parents with the thought of baking pies with my dad, among other things.  My parents usually don't come because, let's face it, who wants to leave the warmth of St. George and enter the coldness of pending winter in Salt Lake City?  Not my dad.

I don't blame him at all.

But this year.  Oh this year.

He's doing it.

Which means tonight... I get to bake pies with him.  The candles in the house will lit, the kids will be in the way, and the smell of hot sugar and chocolate, pumpkin, and banana will be drifting through my house.  I don't even care how many others have volunteered to bring pies to Thanksgiving dinner, I'm still making some with my dad.

Needless to say it will be pie central this year, and I can't wait.

2.  When I lived out yonder in the country (for six years! here), the one thing I looked forward to when coming "home" to the city (I can't say that without hearing five year old Casidee exclaim as she say the city scape at night for the first time, "Look at all that city!" and my heart broke a little bit at what she was missing) was a visit to Target.

I can't even begin to describe the excitement that bubbled up inside of me at the thought of that red and white store.

And if I was lucky, at that point in my life, I got to sneak away after my baby girls were snuggled up with other family members and wander those red and white aisles all. by. my. self.

I have yet to outgrow that love of Target, and come the holidays (usually the time I got to escape the country and get back into the city for a visit) my thoughts always go to Target for shopping needs.  Don't get me wrong, my thoughts generally tend to drift to Target for shopping period, but holiday shopping, for nostalgia sake, must happen at Target.

3.  One of the worst English assignments I have ever received (and being and English major there have been a lot of English assignments in my life) is the one from Jr. High when we were told to group up and rewrite a Christmas song.

And then act it out while singing it in front of the class.

You have empathy for me now on this one, don't you.

My friends and I rewrote "Away in a Manger" to tell the story of a baby who snuck out of bed and played in the toilet.

And though I'm digging the Christmas music on the radio this year (yes, even before Thanksgiving, because in my mind it's just all one lovely holiday season), I can't listen to "Away in a Manger" without thinking about my teenage friend sitting in a cardboard box toilet in front of the whole class.

Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow everyone.

And don't forget to enter out giveaway for cute necklaces here.

My Life is a Chick Flick.

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Remember to enter the give away that's going on HERE.  I do believe there are some "daily" option(s) for an entry if you're interested.  The winner for that will be chosen on Friday morning.  Not a bad way to start a weekend, yeah?

Have I ever mentioned before how I hate mornings?  Just thought I would throw that in there.

As it is I declared the weekend boldly to be date weekend and loosely to be math homework weekend.

Turns out I should have switched those declarations.  The Man was sick on the couch from Friday afternoon until this morning.

We did fit dinner in Friday night.

Saturday I had sole possession of the remote control while The Man slept on the couch for almost the entire day.

Chick flicks and math homework.  How ya doin' Saturday?  Which wasn't a bad way to go considering the whole day was just rainy and cold and cuddling up with a blanket, a sick man, the remote control, and a math book, really wasn't a bad way to go about it.  Not to mention that Lord of the Rings (all three!) were playing that day.  Related: I stayed up way too late watching TV.  And didn't even finish the second movie.

Sunday morning I was sitting on the kitchen counter, back to the door, leg crossed underneath me with my foot hanging off the edge, while I wrote the week's menu up on the chalkboard.

I heard The Man come into the kitchen and the thought crossed my mind, after watching so many chick flicks the day before, that if my life were a chick flick he would come up behind me and wrap his arms around me.

Before I had even really thought it, I felt a warm hand on my foot, and a strong arm come around me, and a tight hug and a kiss on the neck.

He is perfect for me.

And I have to admit that those chick flicks have nothing on the real thing.

Advice to my children: marriage isn't about you.  And as long as both of you remember that, everything will be okay.  Also remember that an angry snap comes out of hunger or exhaustion, or stress over other things, and should by no means be taken personally.  A lot of fights could be spared by remembering that.

Thanksgiving's coming up and I'm hosting dinner.  I'm trying to decide how I should do this to make it fun.  Always we play a big round of Nertz ( a card game where I get my butt handed to me every year).  But I'm thinking I want to buy the newspaper that day so the ads can be there to sort through.  Whether we're Black Friday shopping or not, the ads are fun to look at.  And perhaps create a kid table with a paper table cloth and a giant jar of crayons as the center piece?

What do you do at Thanksgiving dinner that makes it enjoyable?

Aside from stuffing your face, that is.

Thanksgiving. That's Pure Happiness Right There.

Thanksgiving without The Circus is a calm day.

Especially when we aren't hosting dinner.

Especially when our dinner assignment is drinks.  And cranberry sauce.

The past four years I've spent Thanksgiving day cooking, which isn't a stressful thing for me.  I have it all mapped out and know exactly when to start things.

The turkey goes in first thing in the morning and the smell wafts through the house making the whole place feel warm and holiday-ish.

The house is cleaned top to bottom.

And with the turkey cooking and the house sparkling, I fill up the hot chocolate maker with mint hot chocolate and sit with a hot mug, the Thanksgiving sale ads, and watch "While You Were Sleeping."

That's pure happiness right there.

But not this year.

This year our house was torn to pieces as we push forward with our floor remodel.

Apparently it's been enough of a mess that it's driven The Man to drink, as I discovered this one morning:

We got hot chocolate from Starbuck's (over rated) and The Man continued to work on the floor.

I holed up in a corner where the work was already finished and cranked out a couple of chapters of homework.

Doesn't that floor look amazing?

And then I mashed up some cranberry sauce, piled the soda into the back of the car, and we drove over to visit with West's family at Uncle Tim's house.

Where we did get a peak at the Thanksgiving ads, but didn't see anything worth braving the Black Friday chaos over.

Aunt Shirsten is a culinary genius.  We've claimed next year to host again, since we'll have The Circus (hopefully we can talk Grandpa Dick into coming out of the desert to join us in the cold temps) and hands down, I need Aunt Shirten's recipes.  Her gravy was to. Die. For.

After dinner I got my butt handed to me in cards.

No surprise there.

Someone has to be the loser, it may as well be me :).

That's pure happiness right there.

I love this family.

Happy Thanksgiving

No one expresses Thanksgiving better than Norman Rockwell.

Happy Thanksgiving,

With love, The Circus.

Thanksgiving 2011

We hosted Thanksgiving again for the fourth year in a row.  This is actually a very selfish thing for me.  Can I just say that there is nothing better than leftover turkey and stuffing sandwiches.  As well as the world famous (okay, maybe just in my world) turkey rolls.  I claim Thanksgiving before anyone else does simply because I want claim to the leftovers.
And if you haven't had them before, you need to try turkey rolls.  Which can be made with chicken, but it isn't nearly as good.
Mix shredded leftover turkey with cream cheese.
Take thawed roll dough.  Flatten out, fill center with cream cheese turkey mixture, and seal roll around the filling.
Dip in mixture of 1cup melted butter mixed with a dry ranch dressing packet. 
Bake until rolls are no longer doughy.
Make a gravy using leftover butter ranch mix, cornstarch or flour, bouillon if needed for taste, and of course, water.
As for Thanksgiving itself... what's wrong with these pictures?

Yes, that would be the men of the family being completely obsessed with the black Friday ads.  While the women couldn't care less.  We played board games with kiddos.

The man and I were quite certain that although last year, being the first year either of us had ever gone black Friday shopping, turned out to be a fun experience, we weren't necessarily prone to do it again.  Until the man spent the entire evening flipping through ads, circling things with a sharpie. 
We survived 10:00 Walmart, and Midnight at Shopko, and 5:00 Lowe's.  I find it impressive that we're 90% finished with our shopping for our circus when we hadn't previously even started.  I think I would call that a black Friday success.  And it was fun to boot.  Although, come to find out, most everything is fun with the man, no matter what it is that we're doing.

I loved being surrounded by my family.  We had both of the man's parents there, his sister and her boyfriend, one set of my parentals, and my brother and his family. We didn't have my part of the circus as I was nice and traded my ex Thanksgiving for Christmas.  His entire family (including two out of state sisters) were in town and they wanted to do a large family picture.  So our Thanksgiving only added up to 14 people, but that's about our comfortable limit for the dining room.  If we hit many more than that we'll have to take it to our open basement.  I think Julie-mom brought the best veggie dip I've ever tasted, and we had pies galore.  In fact, we've eaten pie for all three meals for the past three days.  I kid you not.  The circus is in heaven over it. 

I love that on Thanksgiving my great grandma's china comes out.  And every time my Brent-dad sees it he says, "she would be really happy about how it's being used now."

This year was the first year that I made a pumpkin pie.  And a banana pie for that matter.  Usually I just do the chocolate and apple pies.  But as I made both the pumpkin and banana pies it was nostalgic.  I have some very dear memories of my Dick-dad making those pies every Thanksgiving.  And I felt a little bit of pride that I was following in his footsteps with the pie making.

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection.  A time of tying generations together.  And with my great grandma's and my mom's china, and with my dad's pie making memories, I'm bringing my circus into a family of traditions.  They're not big traditions, but they're ours. 

If it weren't for the melted crayons...

In the Thanksgiving episode of "The New Girl" Jess and Schmidt cook their turkey in the dryer.  Did you see this?  I was watching it with my circus and after laughing at it I declared that this year we too, are cooking our turkey in the dryer.  Brynn, (who is the master of sarcasm) replies, "we can't cook our turkey in the dryer... it has too many crayons melted in it."

Thankful

Lindee & Sam: My dad & Brother Bill:
"Sistas":
Bro-in-law Fred, and my "twin" (or so we've been accused of being) Nick:
My birthdad:Jayme: Tayler: Sam:My man West:
With Brynn: The whole crazy circus: I'm thankful for good people in my life. Family. Real friends, the kind that stick with you. An amazing man, and a wonderfully insane circus. I'm thankful that I managed to pull Thanksgiving dinner off with no hitches. Well, except the kind Jessica created ha ha. Hey, SOMEONE had to burn the marshmallows on the yams. And spill water on the floor while making kool-aid. And put too much salt in the deviled eggs... (LOVE you Jes!!!).