Kicking Off Christmas

We kicked off Christmas this year at Angela's with a late Thanksgiving dinner with friends and built ginger bread houses with the kids.  We had a great time and it helped put us in the Christmas spirit!  I still have so much Christmas shopping to do and we haven't decorated a thing. Usually we have our tree up and lights everywhere by the day after Thanksgiving.  So until we get motivated to decorate, my gingerbread house will have to do!  Let's hope my cats don't think it's a snack.

Thank you Paula Deen

I would like to start this off with how much I love Williams Sonoma.  A few weeks ago my mom and I went to the mall and of course I had to stop in just to look around the store.  I sampled all the food and found a few things I couldn't live without.  In their fall collection, they had apple and pumpkin pocket pie molds as well as leaf and acorn cutters for decorating.  I thought with Thanksgiving coming up, it would be the perfect opportunity to make some really pretty and fun pastries!  Take a look at my pumpkin pie

And here are few pictures from Thanksgiving.  I hope your holiday was as memorable as ours!

And as promised here is one of the new recipes I tried and it turned out great! I am not a huge fan of pumpkin, but this is very good  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/pumpkin-gooey-butter-cakes-recipe/index.html.  Thank you Paula Deen!

Giving Thanks

I am so excited about Thanksgiving this year.  Not only will this be our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, but we get to spend it with 35 people we dearly love.  My whole family is coming up to camp along several friends which we consider family.  I have never attended a family dinner this large!  On a side note, I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family.  It means to the world to me that Chris and I don't have to struggle with "what side of the family do we see on what holiday," everyone gets along happily!
And let's not forget about the food.  My father in law is an awesome cook.  Last time I checked we will have 3 turkey's, 2 ham's, more casserole than we will eat in a life time, and enough sugar to make a dentist cringe!  I have several new recipes to try.  If they turn out well I will definitely post them for all to have!

Happy Haunting

Chris and I definitely had a memorable day!  We started off the day going out to Canton with my parents and grandfather and then to a Bethel Temple Reunion.  We had a great time seeing friends we don't get to see often enough.    Although Chris and I never went to Bethel Temple, we have definitely been blessed by the people that did.  For those that don't know, the Rev. Jess Jackson of Bethel temple started Straight Arrow Camp and married both Chris' parents and mine.  Here are some pictures from the afternoon.

Then that evening we went trick or treating with the kids in Stoneleigh. Becky had the coolest house on the block by far.  Spider webbs everywhere, a dancing skeleton, fog machine and plenty of poison to pick from!  Chris and I definitely had a memorable day.  Russ and Becky said they were doing it bigger and better next year, I can only imagine!