This year, we did not make it home for Thanksgiving and I knew that I had to prepare a feast even though it was just 2.5 of us. The task was daunting. Even though I wanted to preserve tradition, I felt like I had to put my own spin on things.  So I did an herb roasted turkey, stuffed with a combination of 3 stuffing recipes, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, made from scratch green bean casserole and a made from scratch pumpkin pie (crust and all!).

We decided to skip rolls entirely, and Nick prefers canned cranberries…like the kind where you can see the rings from the can. I didn’t even know that existed until I met him.

Everything was set, our pie turned out great.  We woke up Thanksgiving morning ready to rumble. Except the turkey was still partially frozen. AHH! 3 FaceTime calls with my mom later, our turkey was thawed and in the oven. It turns out, Thanksgiving is an exhausting day filled with carefully timed moments of kitchen panic and chaos. And never ending cleaning. All to sit down and stuff your faces for 20 minutes and then more cleaning.

A BIG THANKS TO EVERY WOMAN WHO HAS EVER COOKED A THANKSGIVING MEAL!

Ally loved pumpkin pie the most. This was the first time she has ever really cried because we took something away. Uh-oh. I think we created a monster.

She’s also getting her first tooth. While it hasn’t yet quite popped through, it’s definitely there and we expect to see it in a few days. That is, if she will let us get close enough to her mouth to see.

We’re still struggling with eczema on her face, especially now that the dry winter weather is upon us. I’m putting Eucerine on her 3 times a day but she still scratches her face at night. It looks like we beat her. Or we have a vicious cat. Any suggestions?

We hope you had a wonderful thanksgiving with your family and friends!