Merry December

Good Monday morning friends. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Ours was lovely and I'm linking my weekend recap with Holly and Sarah as per usual here on a Monday.  

We spent Thanksgiving with Daughter2 and her family in Tennessee. Technically it was the in-laws year for Thanksgiving and it's our year for Christmas, but she asked us to join them and we all enjoy one another's company so it was nice. 

I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread in this cute dish a friend gave me back in October and this recipe is really good. I added white chocolate chips mainly because I thought the bag in my pantry was semi-sweet, but  turns out they were white chocolate and it also turns out white chocolate chips in pumpkin bread are a winning combination.

My daughter always makes the trip to her grandmother's the day before Thanksgiving to collect her and bring her back to her house for the holiday. This makes my heart so happy and I hope one of my grands does the same for me and the hubs someday. Hubs mother lives about an hour and a half from my daughter which means three hours of driving with her two littles in tow. She loves doing it though and my mother-in-law really enjoys it too. 

This thought reminds me I was mostly a photo failure because I don't think I have a single picture of my mother-in-law. 

Hubs got one. Whew. 

We just do not seem to manage the family picture taking thing very well. We try, but not too hard. Littles this age have places to go and people to see and sitting for a posed photograph is way down on their to-do list. We snagged this one (barely) the day after-

We did get a fun picture with our girl on the actual turkey day-

She bought these shirts for us at least four years ago, but we all decided to pull them out this year for Thanksgiving morning. My older daughter who is currently living in the UK and thus not celebrating Thanksgiving with the family, saw it and asked for one to wear next year. I cannot wait to have everyone on the same continent once more. 

Hubs and I drove over to Tennessee Thanksgiving morning. It's about three hours but we left early and arrived before 11. There were charcuterie style snacks and my mother-in-law's cheeseball, and we all just relaxed and caught up on life and baby girl snuggles. She is scrumptious...

 So is this one-

He is so smart and so funny and so chatty and we love him to bits. Nana had to bring him an early Christmas present because that's what Nanas do. He's a big fan of the Grinch. 

We ate about 4 PM and shoutout to my girl who made a fabulous meal with two under two, not only in the house but also under foot or, quite literally, on her hip. My son-in-law smoked the turkey and it was so good. He also cooked the brussel sprouts on the Blackstone because oven space was at a premium. 

I brought the dressing I'd made at home along with the cranberries, and Daughter2 did the rest-green bean casserole from scratch (no canned soup for her), mashed potatoes, the most scrumptious sweet potato casserole (recipe linked here-trust me, it's a keeper)-

There were homemade!! yeast rolls, plus two pies from scratch. Oh and there was a glazed ham too, which was yummy. 

Somebody 'helped' whip the cream.  

Friday we were back at it, the eating I mean, and we pulled out all the leftovers for lunch. My son-in-law was on call this weekend and ended up having to go in for a mostly minor work emergency Friday morning, and didn't get back to the house until almost 10 PM. 

Luckily there were four grandparents and a great grandmother in the house to keep everyone entertained. 

Hubs wonders why his back aches???

We spent the day mostly just chillin'. We read a lot of books to sweet baby J, watched Sugar trying hard to take her first steps, went for a brisk walk around the neighborhood...

And we set up a big jigsaw puzzle which kept us all occupied...

J couldn't wait to get into this 1000 piece puzzle lol. It had been sitting in the box on their dining room table the week before Thanksgiving, and every time we spoke on the phone he would tell me we were going to work this puzzle. 

Hubs and I headed home Saturday morning after dropping his mama off at her house. It's a challenge to get from our house to hers just now as Hurricane Helene continues to be a problem. The interstate we normally take is gone and the rebuild is going to take at least a year which means a work around for us. 

We found the Vols-Vandy game on the radio, and man the Vols like to keep you guessing until at least the third quarter. A win though so we'll take it. We stopped for lunch on the way home and ended up skipping dinner. 

We.were.full. 

Sunday we pulled out all the Christmas decor and made a dent in the decorating. Technically not all because we're not hosting and I won't have kids in the house, but can you decorate just a little? I'm finding that challenging. 

I've got a full day today so the dining room table will remain a mix of beads and baubles and Christmas cards waiting to be stamped. There are ornaments waiting to be hung, still in boxes in the family room, and we can't remember how we hung the garland but it will all get done eventually. I'll post some pictures here soon because I realized today I posted very few last year and a picture would sure be a help with that garland right about now. 

Happy Monday everyone!