Thanksgiving was a small affair - just the Hubby, Baby E and me in our beautiful new home. I only have a
couple culinary notes to share. Brining a fresh turkey is really the way to go. After a day and a half in his salt, sugar and spice bath, that bird was so tender and juicy and flavorful. I have forsaken my mother's whitebread spackle stuffing. I am now a Cornbread stuffing girl. Strangely, boxed cornbread is far tastier in the recipe than homemade. This year, I also added pecans and dried cranberries. Very good addition indeed. Speaking of cranberries, I made a simple Cranberry Compote at the hubby's request. I never much cared for cranberry sauce, having been raised on the can-shaped, store-bought variety. This was MUCH better. I still didn't use much, but it was a marked improvement. Also served: mashed potatoes, green beans and Caramel Pecan Pumpkin Pie, for which I made my first-ever pie crust from scratch. YUM.
Later that weekend, we went to a local farm and got our Balsam Fir. WOW!
Fresh cut trees are a different experience. Of course, trees that natural aren't as balanced. Ours fell over night one and shattered a few ornaments. Nothing too precious. Hubby and I also got the lights up on the house during Baby E's nap. I'm so pleased with how the house looks with Christmas lights.Christmas
was spent in real snow country with the in-laws, and was in many ways an unmitigated disaster. We dressed E up for Christmas Eve services. She looked beautiful for the 45 minutes we were there early, and the 10 seconds of the service she made it through. Her dress (pictured here) was then shown off only to other parents wrangling toddlers in the coat room. She was fussy all night. We assumed it was because the family party had been that day, and she didn't get a nap. We were wrong. We woke to find her covered in her own vomit. So instead of opening gifts, our morning was spent finding somewhere that was open to sell pedialite, cleaning up stuffed animals and area rugs after a couple more rounds of projectile puke
(Seriously, folks. This kid has RANGE!), and doing multiple clothing changes. Emma started to recover quickly, but unfortunately, I could barely move the next morning and spent that day painfully heaving anything I tried to eat. It hit hubby, his parents and the rest of the extended family the next day. None of us ate much for the rest of the trip.We drove home heavy two nieces for New Years week. While it must be said that I'm thrilled that E won't be a teenager for another 12 years, they were fantastic, and it was the best New Year's I'd had in a long time.
All in all, the holidays were much more good than bad.
