Thanksgiving Wrap Up
Today is the Saturday after Thanksgiving as I write this. I have a small dog on my lap and just finished another helping of leftover green bean casserole, for the third time today but hey who’s counting?
We had a lovely little holiday just me, my husband and our dogs. It was the first year in our entire relationship where we made a traditional thanksgiving feast (minus the turkey because we both prefer ham instead). In the years prior, we would either go to a relatives house or we would order out to eat. Our usual would be hibachi since its one of our favorite’s and usually hibachi places are open on Thanksgiving day. This year we wanted to create some new traditions and make our own food.
Something I would like to acknowledge is how blessed I am that I broke another cycle from my upbringing. Where I come from, the women slaved away in the kitchen preparing all the food, while the men watched the game or played cards from the other room. I always carried so much anger at this gender norm that was so heavily instilled in me as a child, asking why the boy cousins and uncles got to relax while the women did all the work. The girl cousins were in charge of setting tables and basically doing anything and everything that was asked of us by the aunts. Then, when the meal was over, the men would go outside for an after dinner smoke and back to their activities, while the women hurried to clean up and put left overs away.
I am blessed because my husband is nothing like those men I grew up around. We spent Thanksgiving day cooking, setting the table, enjoying the meal and cleaning up, together. He was actively participating for every part of it from start to finish and we had so much fun enjoying in the present moment together. And after our Thanksgiving meal, we took our dogs on a nice long walk in the beautiful 63 degree weather we had. It was a truly lovely day and I am very thankful for my family. The only thing that could’ve made this day more perfect would be to enjoy the company of all of my siblings, but I know one day we will be able to celebrate together again.
Our Thanksgiving Spread
We are not fans of turkey so we skip it each year. This year we made ham, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn, cranberry jellies, mashed potatoes & gravy, crescent rolls, Hawaiian rolls, pumpkin pie with whip topping and cran-raspberry juice.
Casserole Caught Fire
This was a first! Luckily we made 2 sweet potato casseroles and only 1 caught fire so we were able to eat 1! It was a bit scary in the moment to see flames coming out of the oven, but our survival instincts kicked in and we resolved it quickly. Everyone and everything was perfectly fine.
Finished Christmas Decorating
We normally start our Christmas decorating the day after Halloween and we finish by Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving day we put up the lights outside of our apartment, they look so cute! I love the look of the nostalgic, classic colored Christmas lights.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. I pray you enjoyed a good meal, spent time with your loved ones (even if its just your pets) or had a relaxing restful day. If you did all three, you are truly blessed! Happy holidays :)