Thanksgiving ..... it's really a 4 letter word.

Turkey Chocolate Cupcakes

You might say that Thanksgiving just is not Thanksgiving without the turkey.  I say nonsense!  This year we did a traditional, non-traditional Thanksgiving.  Tradition in the sense that we all got together for good food, good fun and good family.  Family in my book is anyone coming to the gathering.  Blood or not if you are there you are family.  That is the best tradition in my humble opinion.
What we did do differently is the meal.  No turkey, no stuffing, no mashed potatoes & gravy, no cranberry sauce, no pumpkin pie.  None of it.  My husband, brother and father got together and pow-wowed about the dinner.  They decided to do the non-traditional dinner.  By the time they told my sister-in-law and I we were having perch and bass.  Can anyone say VETO!  I can do the non-traditional dinner, but it was not about to be perch and bass for the main course.
My father called to ask me if I would put together a menu and do the cooking.  When all was said and done we got input from the little kitchen helpers (my nieces) and had a nice menu.  We also came to an agreement that we would still have perch and bass, it would just be as an appetizer....and boy was it delish! 
Menu:
Crown roast of pork
Twice baked potatoes
Creamy Gorgonzola brussels sprouts
Roasted green beans
Homemade rolls
Bourbon pecan pie
Cranberry pie
Apple cheesecake
....and the best most amazing turkey chocolate cupcakes (see photo above)

I have to put a little about the turkey chocolate cupcakes....These were made by my two nieces and my brother.  They were the most amazing cupcakes I have ever seen.  Tasted great too!  These kids have talent, I see a cupcake business in their future.

I wish I had pictures of the dinner, but alas I was the cook not the photographer.

I spent the day in the kitchen, even getting help from the SIL....boy do I love her.  She can make a great cocktail too.  We managed to squeeze 12 around a table for 8 and all said what we were thankful for.  I have to say there were some really great things said around the table last night.  Many tears and lots of laughs.  We had two Marine vets with us (my baby sister and her boyfriend) and my baby brother was with us in spirit since he is currently deployed to Iraq.  So needless to say we were all very thankful for them and their selfless choices they have made for all of us.  One of the things that was really special is what my sisters BF said.  He told us how thankful he was to have all of us.  With our crazy antics, corrupt sense of humor and all that goes with being a big family, he was thankful for us showing him what it means to be family. He had never experienced the "family traditions" like our family has.  You see, we don't just get together for holidays to celebrate family and time together, we try to do it on a regular basis.  He has been to many of our gatherings and can't believe how much we enjoy being together and how important it is to our family to make time for each other.   We are very blessed to have him in our family.
My father is amazing.  He has taught us what is important in life...family.  It was so evident last night when he was saying what he was thankful for.  Now mind you it is not often that he gets worked up over anything.  He is the most even keeled, level headed, patient person I know.  Last night he had us all in tears.  He decided to tell us about a letter my brother had wrote from Iraq.  He told my father that he was so thankful to him for teaching my brother to be the best person he could be.  Well, my father, through the tears, told all of us how incredibly proud he was of each and every one of us and that we are who we are because of our choices, not because of him.  Now, I have to agree and disagree with him.  We are who we are because of our choices and because of his guidance and his complete faith in us.  He has been an amazing father and I could not ask for more.  He is my rock, my teacher, my guide, my Daddy.  He is amazing!  What he said was not just directed at me and my siblings, but to our spouses as well.  He is proud and loves each and every one of us.
I guess it all comes down to what is really important.  It is not the turkey, it is not the stuffing or the pumpkin pie.  It is not the meal at all.  It really is about family and about the time we take to be together.  It is really a 4 letter word.  Love.

Easy & inexpensive holiday centerpieces

I thought I would share my ideas for easy holiday centerpieces. I had the privilege of preparing a large meal for my family and friends as our contribution to the holidays. I was (and still am) on a tight budget (since I have been laid off since October). So here is what I did.

First centerpiece...4 candle centerpiece.

1. One long narrow serving dish

2. Add four votive holders votive candles
(I already had red votive holders and white votive candles but you could use clear votive holders with red, green, silver or gold or any other color of candle that works for you.

3. Add a couple of sprigs of greenery
(I walked across the yard to the neighbors tree and whacked a couple of sprigs....well it was closer than my trees and it had better sprigs!)

4. Pour a package or more of fresh cranberries around the plate.




There you have it. A beautiful - inexpensive holiday centerpiece. Mine cost me the $2.00 for a bag of cranberries.


2nd Centerpiece - Taper Centerpiece

1. 1 large wide mouth glass vase

2. Add fresh cranberries about 1/3 - 1/2 way up vase

3. Place a couple of sprigs of greenery inside with berries
(Again from the neighbors tree :)

4. 1 votive holder
(Mine was clear but you can use any you have)

5. Fill votive holder about 3/4 full of salt.
(I used Sea salt)

6. Place taper candle into the votive holder
(The salt will hold it in place)

7. Place votive holder & taper inside your vase nested in the berries.



Again, another beautiful, easy and inexpensive centerpiece.

Holiday stress? What holiday stress?

If you are anything like me the holidays tend to be really stressful. Starts with the gift buying. You go and get all of the gift buying done and then you realize you forgot someone or you have been invited somewhere and need to take a hostess gift or exchange gift. Your child comes home and wants to get a gift for a couple of friends. You feel guilty because the gift you bought for Sally was more expensive then the one you bought for Mikey so you go and get something else for Mikey....and it goes on and on and on and by the time you are finished making all of the gift purchases you have exceeded your budget by hundreds. Now to wrap them all, tag them all and distribute them all. Humphh.

Then if your family is like mine, it is big and crazy! You have your family (you, husband, child(ren)) to celebrate with, your Fathers family (your siblings & children), Mothers family, Husbands family, then with your Fathers side of the family (your Aunts, Uncles, Cousins), Mothers side of the family and so on and so on and so on. By the time you are done, you have cooked 15 different things to take to the gatherings, spent more time in your car then time with the family traveling to each of these places all to get home and be completely exhausted. And good golly if you miss one of the events because then you will be cornered and told how you spend time with one side of the family more or how you never get together with this side and you should make more of an effort. Don't even think about leaving early either. You better plan on a full day for each because to leave one event for another....I don't think so. Now mind you this traveling does not include the school functions, holiday concerts, parties and social gatherings. Those are all in addition. Ughh, really some of us have all of these things to do too. Crazy I know.

So now that you have survived but barely, you sit back sometime after the new year and reminisce on the events of the last few weeks. You look at your bank account and/or credit card bills and say "holy bat crap I spent that much?" You have exceed your budget, your bank account is looking like you may be living on Top Ramen (that you get on sale 12/$1.00) until the next pay day and just think of the interest you will pay on the charges you made to your credit card. Now that $10 ITunes card you bought for Mikey is going to cost you $50 by the time you pay it off. You still try to find the bright side and think about all the happy faces you saw opening the gifts you purchased. Well, they were really happy faces while ripping the wrapping off, then those gifts you put a lot of thought into are now thrown under the tree only to be looked at when they have to be packed up to take home and probably not used, played with or appreciated in the future. Money well spent, again.

But hey it was all worth it. You got to spend more than you had, spent so much time in your car traveling that you now need another oil change and you just had that done before the holidays hit and try to appease everyone for everything. No stress in any of that.
So........after the last 15 years of this same "tradition" I have decided to try something new this year. No holiday stress! None! Nope, not gonna do it! I said NO! Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more, no more, no more, no more!

How am I doing this? I thought you would never ask! Well easy. The only gift we are buying is for our son. I have allotted $25 for my husband and $25 for myself to buy each other stocking stuffers. $25 is not much when our stockings usually cost around $100 each (ridiculous I know). Now we have to be creative. We have told our families that we will not be traveling all over and making all gatherings this year and that we will not be giving gifts. We explained that we would really love to take the commercialism out of the holidays and just enjoy each others company, talking, laughing, playing games, eating snacks and watching football (for the guys). I'm taking the "no worries, it's all good" attitude.

What I decided to do was have a nice dinner for our family (those that were close enough to drive and not everyone decided to attend) and a few of our closest friends. There ended up being 12 of us total (14 if you count the two that showed up after dinner). I prepared a big meal, naturally. Do I ever really do anything small? Uhhh, no, seriously? I will tell you all about the meal in another post. We had a wonderful time, enjoyed a great meal and I even did it with a limited budget. We got to spend time with most of the "most important" people to us and created another wonderful memory without any stress (well except for my husbands 5 minute freak out - but he got over it and we moved on).
"Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays" I say. I love my family & friends and could not have been happier nor could I think of a better way to spend the evening (well except in Tahiti maybe).