Great Thanksgiving

Most of the time, as with any holiday, there is some kind of major family drama on Thanksgiving. This year was really different. Somehow, it seemed that everyone tried to relax and enjoy the moment despite all the stress of the economy and all the work that comes with coordinating a holiday.


Jonathan went hunting Thursday morning and I pacified myself with sleeping in after staying up late making 4 chocolate pies and a cranberry salad. I should have taken a picture of the cranberry salad. It comes out so posh-pretty. I made 2 of my homemade silk-chocolate pies and 2 from a mix.


The story behind the pies is that Jon always raved about his Aunt Susie's silk-chocolate pies that she makes every holiday. Well, one year I was asked to take over the tradition of making the pies for the family gathering. I was so nervous about getting them right, but I found a simple recipe and put all my efforts into making them. However, I noticed that they did not look like the ones that Aunt Susie made. I was so disappointed and I almost decided not to bring them to the share. When we arrived, I asked Susie what her recipe was for the pies, and she told me that she made them from the Jello box mix! I have to say, after all the pining I did, I felt a bit cheated whenever I found that out. Well, my homemade pies turn out to be really good. I mean I had people asking if they could keep the rest of the pie and get my recipe.

Well, despite the success last year with my homemade recipe, Jon wanted to go back to making the box mix for his family again. He is not much of a chocolate fan and it turns out that the real thing is just too much chocolate for him to handle. I have to say, that even with the knowledge that Susie made pies from a box all those years, I felt so ashamed of making fake pies. They turned out pretty horrible too. For some reason the mix would not whip out smooth so there were these big visible lumps that appeared after the pie set up. Not to mention that the pies really just tasted like lumpy pudding in a crust. I was so embarrassed and I thought about making an announcement to everyone that it was Jon who wanted the fake pies and that if they remembered last year, I really do have baking potential!

My pride aside, we really did have a lovely weekend. Thursday night was dinner with my parents full of good conversation. I stayed up almost 'til dawn talking with Mum while the boys slept. Liz and family could not make it because Tommy had the stomach virus, but we are going to have a make-up dinner either this weekend or next. Friday we spent out of the stores and at my mother-in-law's house for the first half of the day. I got to play with my nieces and nephew. Then Tommy was feeling better so Jon and I went with the Brown family to take Seri to see "The Fairy Christmas Lights" as Seri calls them at Tanglewood park. We had so much fun despite the long wait. Jon is such a good uncle and held Seri up out of the sunroof so that she had front row seats of the lights.

Favorite moments:

*Shopping on Saturday with Jon
**Late night talk with Mum
***Seri, her little hand in mine, on the way back from the lights, telling me that we were friends.