Thanksgiving festivities

Thanksgiving was great this year! I am so thankful that my husband was home this year and that we got to spend thanksgiving with friends and family. On Thanksgiving day we ate a dinner time meal with jakes family and a few of our friends. The next morning we got up early and did a little black friday shopping, but only went to one store. We got some great deals and ended up getting people what we wanted to get them all while staying inside our budget which is pretty tight this year. After shopping we headed off to Hertford. Every year when I think of Thanksgiving and Christmas I think of hertford and the nice crisp breeze, the waterway, and mom and dads house out in the middle of farm land. It is so nice to escape the crazy town we live in and sneak down there for awhile. My brother and sister in law were there as well and it was awesome to hang out with them. We discovered the new trivial pursuit card game which is a blast to play if you ever get the chance and had some good bonding time with mom and dad as well. After a nice long weekend it was kind of a bummer to return to work, but I have my vacation days coming up in a week or so and then maternity leave so i'm not complaining, especially since we really need the money right now.

Thanksgiving Recipes

Here are some of my favorite recipes my mom makes at Thanksgiving. For the cornbread dressing make sure you use home made, crumbly, non-sweet corn bread. If you try to use a sweet corn bread like jiffy mix or a recipe that calls for sugar it just tastes weird.

Corn bread dressing

6 cups corn bread, crumbled
6 cups dry bread crumbs
4 medium onions, chopped
½ cup celery, cut small
1 tsp. poultry seasoning, or to taste
3 cups chicken broth or more
1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 eggs, beaten

Saute onions and celery until just tender. Mix with bread crumbs. Add poultry seasoning. Stir in beaten eggs, chicken broth and Worcestershire. Bake at 425 Degrees for 30 min. or until done.


Corn Pudding

2 C. corn
2 or 3 eggs
1 C. milk
¼ C sugar
¼ C butter, melted
1tbsp. Flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix dry ingredients. Add corn. Beat eggs; add milk and stir into corn mixture. Pour into buttered casserole. Bake in 350 degree over for ½ hour. Serve hot.


Chocolate nut pies

1 stick margarine
4 cups sugar

Cream together first then add rest ingredients and pour into three pie shells

5 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 c chopped nuts
3 unbaked pie shells
1 large can evaporated milk
1 c. coconut
½ c cocoa

Bake in preheated oven at 350^ for 50 min

nursery and other stuff

Tristans nursery is starting to look good! The crib is all put together and every thing is hung on the walls. All we are missing is the changing pad which I will pick up when I go make some exchanges this weekend. I went to the doctors this week and it looks like Tristan is getting big! I was just barely 34 weeks when I went in on Tuesday and the doctor measured me at 35/36 weeks! The doctor also said that at this point Tristan can come any time he wants and he would be perfectly fine, so if I go into labor they will not try to stop it because the baby would be fine! I don't want to go into labor this early, I would rather stay pregnant until about 38 weeks or so but we will see what the baby decides to do. My hips and lower back are getting more sore every day so I hope that as he grows my body will adjust and it won't be so painful to move around.
On a totally different note, next week is Thanksgiving!! I love Thanksgiving and this year we get to spend it with both sides of our family which is really nice. We will spend Thanksgiving day with Jakes family here in Durham and then the weekend we will spend in Hertford. I am most looking forward to my moms dressing, it is soooooo good. I will post the recipe if I can find it, truly amazing stuff.

Letting go

Two weeks ago we let our dog Lela go to a new home. God really answered a lot of prayers by sending us the perfect christian family with two kids (ages 10 and 13) with a fenced in yard in a nice neighborhood. I couldn't be more happy about the family she went to, but it is really hard to let go of a dog you have had for 2 1/2 years. It is for the best that she is in a new home because we were having a lot of problems giving her the time and attention she needed and she was like a ball of energy caged up in our little town home! Still, every time I walk in the door I miss her smiley face and tail wagging furiously, I miss taking her on rides and seeing her sleep in her chair and buying treats for her. The first week she was gone I confess I really enjoyed it because all of her bad habits were fresh in my mind and I was enjoying not having to take her out every day a million times. However, the second week is harder because all I think about are the good things about her and that makes me sad :( . On the other hand, the cat is REALLY happy and has been playing and rolling around in the floor now that the dog is gone. I know it is a win-win situation for us, Lela, and her new family, but I sure do miss that stupid dog.