events of thanksgiving

6:54 am
thanksgiving and christmas morning are 2 of the best mornings to awake to. i can never sleep in very late because once i'm up. my mind is busy racing around with anticipation and i always have to check and see if we were blessed with any more snow. every holiday seems to be more different from the last, and this year is no exception. so many things have changed in the past year, and with the trials and hard times there have been abundantly more blessings. blessings for our family and for yours.

9:00 am
for the past 5 years or so my family has participated in the turkey trot on thanksgiving forming. well this year the price has risen exponentially making it not really worth while for our family to participate. the phrase "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade" could not be truer in this situation. so we thought of making our own 'turkey trot', and instead calling it the 'cranberry crawl.' {courtesy of my mom & sister} we sent out e-mails to the neighborhood and gathered a small group together to make a 3 mile walk together in the first annual cranberry crawl.

{missing a few cranberry crawlers}

cranberry muffins were made in the morning {by yours truly} to munch on after our "grueling exercise." our thanksgiving morning couldn't have been complete without out the macy's day parade and the traditional thanksgiving episode of gilmore girls!

11:40 am
this year S and my sis took on the job of naming the turkey {Gilbert Norman Rockwell Jr.}, stuffing it, basting it, carving it and tending to it's every need.
with 'while you were sleeping' on in the back round J was busy at work in the kitchen making batches and batches of Lefse {a Norwegian family tradition}.

2:21 pm
by this time, i was busy with the pies {my little tradition}. this year i made a quadruple berry {raspberry, cherry, blackberry, blueberry}

{my precooked berry pie}

a traditional pumpkin, and a new recipe that will be added to my cookbook. i am a devoted fan of the pumpkin spice lattes at starbucks, and when i saw this recipe i knew i had to try it! it was a hit and a new favorite of families.

4:12 pmwe munched on appetizers throughout day {trying to save room for the big meal} and sifted through the piles and piles of ads, seeing which stores had the good deals.

6:14
by now Gilbert Norman was done
the table was set and decoratedand we were so ready to eat and give thanks for the abundant blessings that the Lord has blessed us all with!