Between the Holidays (Thanksgiving and Black Friday Recap)
Last year I remember San telling us that the week between Christmas and New Year’s is called “Between the Years.” With Thanksgiving things still out and the Christmas tree up, I’ve decided to call this weekend “Between the Holidays.” Usually I’m a stickler for separating Thanksgiving and Christmas, but this time I’m kind of enjoying the overlap. Let’s rewind to Thanksgiving Day. When we went to bed Wednesday night, my son was sick and I was in despair over the pumpkin pie. After firming up overnight in the fridge, the pie looked FINE??? Keep in mind it was liquid the night before. Then my son got up and said that while he was a little tired and congested, he had plenty of energy to start the day. Two crises averted! I spent most of the day cooking- I made rolls, cauliflower stuffing, marinated tofu, and the salad. My son made stuffing (a traditional bread stuffing with Beyond vegan sausage) and mashed potatoes. It was such a fun day, but when I was putting dinner on the table a wave of sadness came over me, and I thought, “It’s over!” I know- this makes NO SENSE. The whole point of making a Thanksgiving dinner is to eat it, right? But I knew that once we sat down to eat, the meal goes so quickly, and then it would be over. My mind is strange sometimes. Here’s the dinner! Everything was so good! The Gardein roast was the least flavorful thing on the table, but at least we all agreed it was not rubber-y (you can see the bar is set pretty low for these roasts- next year I think we’ll make our own.) My two favorite things were the salad- and the cauliflower. I got the recipe from Suzanne, and YUM. I’ll make this anytime, not just Thanksgiving. Oh, and the rolls were insanely good. Of course. You can’t go wrong with rolls. After dinner we went for a walk, and spotted the first Christmas lights of the season! Then it was home for pie… the moment of truth. The family’s pumpkin pie was FINE. Actually, they said it was great. Now, my sister made this exact same recipe and she said hers came out really dry, but also tasted great. So if you want a recipe for a pumpkin pie that’s apparently indestructible, here it is. My pie was delicious, and the best part is, it’s ALL MINE. No one else will eat it (I make it sugar free and with a coconut oil crust) so that means over the course of four days, I eat an entire pie. Heh heh. After the pie, we watched “Charlie Brown Thanksgiving” while I put the lights and tinsel on the tree. And then the day really was over. Friday my husband was up before me and turned the tree lights on. When I came out of the bedroom I saw this sight: I had to go to work, and all day long I was dreaming of my traditional Black Friday post-work piece of pie. But this year it was extra special, because the Dolphins were playing! I got home and settled happily on the couch with my pie and the football game. Dinner was leftovers (obviously) and then we decorated the tree: The house is still halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but by the end of the weekend it will be all Christmas! My son is heading back to school. He’ll be back in three weeks, but I’m still sad. You’d think saying goodbye would get easier, but it never does. This year I’m wondering how many Thanksgivings like this we have left. My son is almost 21, and who knows what will happen in the next decade. He could be married with his own family, or have a job where he doesn’t have time off to come home. No matter how you look at it, things change. Sigh. Is Black Friday a thing for you? Did you have the day off? Do any shopping? Are there lights up in your neighborhood yet? – I’m not even attempting outdoor decorations this weekend. Hopefully next weekend!
Black Friday Runfessions
Sigh. The pies have been eaten… leftovers put away…. and my son goes back to school tomorrow. I’m feeling a little melancholy. But, on the other hand, the Christmas tree is up and we can now throw ourselves fully into the next holiday. Onward! I have a full Thanksgiving recap coming tomorrow (hint: it did not involve a trip to the grocery store OR a trip to urgent care!) but today is the last Friday of the month, which means I’m linking up with Marcia for Runfessions. Of course I’m also joining San and our fearless crew for NaBloPoMo… one more week, you guys! Anyway, I really just have one big, fat runfession this week… I didn’t run a Turkey Trot yesterday! I planned to… I really thought we were going to… and then on Monday (we hadn’t signed up yet) my husband asked “Do you really want to?” Um. Well, no. I really didn’t! I didn’t want to get up super early and go run a race, where, no matter how hard I try to tell myself it’s just for fun, I’ll be comparing my time to my faster days. Instead, my husband and I slept until 7 am, got up leisurely and went for a run together- something we rarely get to do. It was fun! I just listened to the recent Rich Roll podcast episode with Alexi Pappas. If you haven’t read her book, Bravey, I can’t recommend it highly enough. And I love listening to her talk- so many nuggets of wisdom in the episode. One of the things she said that stood out to me was “Lead the pack of your own running journey.” Alexi transitioned from Olympic runner, to film director, to author, to ultra runner; she had to figure out, and she’s still figuring out, what kind of runner she wants to be. And she encourages us all to do the same with our own lives. I’m not saying I’ll never run another road race- I’m sure I will. But right now it just doesn’t appeal to me. I want to be out on the trails, having adventures! I don’t want to run in a crowd of people and be worried about how fast (or slow) I’m going. If you ran in a Turkey Trot yesterday, I hope you had a great time! If not.. I hope you had a great morning and a happy Thanksgiving. Do you get sad when Thanksgiving is over? If you celebrate Christmas, is your tree up yet? – Ours is up but not decorated- we’ll decorate it today when I get home from work. Did you run a Turkey Trot this year?
Twists and Turns
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! If you’re not celebrating… Happy Thursday! So our plans for yesterday took a slight detour, when, on Tuesday night, my son announced that he had a scratchy throat. OH CRAP. I told him to sleep in as late as he wanted on Wednesday morning. I was able to sleep until 7 am (woohoo!), eat breakfast, help my daughter dye her hair, and then I went to the gym by myself since my son was still sleeping. That’s okay- I don’t mind going to the gym by myself and I wanted him to rest. I worked out, came home and rolled out the pie crusts, and then my son was up and said he felt well enough to GO GET THE TREE! I love this photo so much- you know you live in Florida when you say “Okay, get your flip flops on, it’s time to go pick out our Christmas tree!” We got our tree, came home and set it up in the stand, and then it was time for pie making. Ahem. WHY is it that every year there’s some freaky problem??? I don’t know why, but the “normal” pumpkin pie did NOT come out well… Meanwhile, my pie came out GREAT! I offered to share my sugar-free, coconut oil-crust pie with my family, and you should have seen the looks on their faces. Ha ha… let’s just say I’ll be running out early on Thanksgiving morning to either buy a vegan pumpkin pie (if possible?) or at least a pre-made crust so I can quickly whip up another pumpkin pie. Sigh. Why are pies so difficult? And… as the day wore on my son felt worse and worse, and he is now (8 pm on Wednesday evening) in bed. I’m hoping he’ll sleep all night and wake up feeling completely better- that’s happened before. If not… well, we’ll deal with it then. Hopefully my Thanksgiving morning won’t include a trip to the grocery store AND a trip to urgent care. But don’t worry about us… we’ll have a nice holiday no matter what. We’re all together, we have delicious food, and the house smells like a Christmas tree! It’s all good. Are you having any unexpected snafus today? Header photo by Mihály Köles on Unsplash
Thanksgiving Eve Eve
Hooray! I’ve started my two-day break from work. I really struggled to get through work today, and I was trying to figure out why. I mean, it’s not like I”ll be lying on the couch eating bon bons for the next two days. There’s a lot to do, and the activities vary on the fun meter. Making pies, decorating the Christmas tree=fun. Doing dishes, cleaning the cat boxes=not fun. Helping daughter dye her hair pink=somewhere in between. I think the difference is, for the next two days my time is my own. I’m not on anyone else’s clock, and that feels good. Here are a few things going on around here… I made the dough for all three pie crusts tonight! For the “regular” pumpkin pie and the pecan pie, I used vegan butter and shortening. But for my pie, since I’m trying to avoid those types of oils, I used coconut oil. I’m not quite sure how my pie crust is going to turn out, but whatever it is will be fine. I’m used to my foods being a little weird. Speaking of weird, I had a request for the sugar-free pumpkin pie recipe. Here it is. The first page is for the crust- I made that crust one year and it was not good, so now I make a more traditional crust (although as I said, this year with coconut oil.) The second page is the ingredients for the filling. Honestly, it’s really good! Tomorrow morning my son and I are going to the gym together. I’m looking forward to it, because he’s been taking a weight lifting class this semester. I’m hoping he’ll have some words of wisdom for me. More importantly, I’m grateful that he’s not embarrassed to be seen at the gym with me- the gym is full of muscle-y guys working out together, and it seem a little dorky to go with your mom. But he doesn’t care. Lastly, I’m reading this apparently controversial book: It seems like people love it, hate it, DNF halfway through, or apparently at 96%???? Well, I’m liking it! It’s definitely not a thrilling page-turner, but I’m interested in the characters and want to know what happened to the dad. I’m reading it slower than I would like, because there are so many other things going on now. But barring any unforeseen circumstances, I’ll finish it and report back. Have you read Happiness Falls? What’s your favorite kind of pie? Header photo by Nik on Unsplash