Thanksgiving was a eventful

My family has been struggling lately. I have been trying my best to be there for everyone. It is so difficult being a good daughter, wife, sister, friend, and mother; in the end I know my responsibilities begin and end with my son. It was hard this year to find something to be thankful for especially with the mind boggling news we were all hit with. In the end I will say that I am thankful for my health, the happiness of my son, and my husband and my growing love and friendship.
 Wednesday, we spent the evening with my mom and grandparents. I made amazing snicker-doodle cup cakes to celebrate my sister's birthday (it was Nov 10 and she was in Austin). I also made my usual pumpkin pies, which were better than usual; I think I may have added more spice since I know the recipe by heart and only eye the amount of spices. The cranberry sauce was great, except I'll have to strain it the next time; I added frozen black berries which tasted great but had a lot of seeds. Lastly, I made sweet potato balls a la Paula Dean; really good! Even though Nick couldn't eat much of this, he was able to enjoy green beans at the table. Pre-Thanksgiving dinner was yummy!

Thursday, we went to my mother-in-law's for an early dinner. It was good, as always. Nick enjoyed himself also. He loves playing with his uncles and grandma. Now that he constantly babbles, it's difficult not to have fun with him. He also ate more green beans and some sweet potato; of course he wanted more and more potatoes since they were sweeter than what he's used to.

We finished Nick's 1st Thanksgiving at Marcus' uncle's house. Many of the cousins still had yet to meet Nick, so it was fun showing him off a bit. He played with a couple of his 2nd cousins, which was great since he spends most of his time at home playing by himself. Of course, Great grandma had to get a good picture in.

Since I still wanted to make my own turkey and didn't stock up on leftovers we had an After-Thanksgiving dinner on Friday. I made my Salvadoran-style turkey, which came out off the bone awesome. I made a sweet potato casserole from Wednesday's leftover potatoes, a veggie medley which included red potatoes, carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts and some herbs all roasted in the oven, a tomato and mozzarella with basil and balsamic vinegar salad, and a green bean casserole I made Thursday. It was just as tasty as every other dinner we went to.
I love Thanksgiving, and I hope that Nick will love it when he gets older. Now to get ready for Christmas...

Halloween is only the beginning

We had a great Halloween weekend. I think it's the most we'd done in weeks, maybe months. On Friday we dressed Nick up as a tiger. This was a costume that my co-worker let me borrow, but it was a little too big. He loved it though and could not stop smiling.

Saturday we went to what was supposed to be a pumpkin patch. It was definitely not much of a patch. Half the pumpkins were going bad, and there were about 100 total pumpkins which isn't much when you count the small ones. I did get some pumpkins for pies though.

 The place we went to was actually a persimmon farm. We didn't know what we were picking, but it was fun, and Nick had a great time on the tire swing they had. 

 

  

The big day, Sunday, was good. Nick put his cute pumpkin pjs on and wore his great pumpkin around his neck (you can't see his feet, but they're pumpkin footies). He was curious as to why Leni would bark when people knocked on the door, and he kept observing all the kids in there costumes. He lasted until the 2nd group of kids and fell asleep in daddy's arms. He was too cute for his 1st Halloween though.

Little did he know that once he put his head down the planning started for all the holidays coming within 2 months (3 if you count his birthday).

OMG! HE'LL BE ONE ALREADY!!!  That is spooky.