Thanksgiving 2022

Hey guys! It's been a busy week around here, and Asa and I are about to go off for the week to cruise to Nassau, and spend the holidays in the parks in Orlando- so I'm trying to get caught up before we leave. Lets rewind to Thanksgiving where we had ALL FIVE WATERSTRAUTS reunited again. 

The day started with the Turkey Trot, where Asa finished 18th. 

And then we watched the parade with some munchkins from Dunkin Donuts. 

Though, it was mostly just Asa, the dogs, and me hanging out waiting for everyone else to get up. 

We watched the National Dog Show, of course. Etta was real sad she'd never get to be like those dogs. 

For lunch, we had a charcuterie. 

Peyton was flying back on Thanksgiving, but not until later- so we knew we'd have to have dinner sans Peyton. It was a good idea, because the flight was delayed. While Asa worked on cooking most of the food, we did watch the Lions lose. An annual Thanksgiving Day tradition. 

Here's our Thanksgiving spread, in case you were interested: 

Our dessert plate consisted of Nothing Bundt Cakes, truffles, and Crumbl cookies. 

I also picked up an apple pie from Publix, specificially for Peyton. It's a favorite for her! 

Obviously the cranberry sauce had to go in the cranberry bowl (though, I cheat and instead of dirting the Ainsworth family cranberry bowl, I just put my glass dish inside it). 

I had picked up our annual butter sculpture from Publix. 

And then we had all the obvious stuff: greenbean casserole, turkey, stuffing, mashed potoes, apples, squash, carrots, rolls, mac and cheese, and gravy. 

I do want to shout out to my awesome neighbor, Teresea for making me some sweet potato casserole. Originally we were going to do Thanksgiving with them, which all started because I asked if I could have a serving of sweet potatoes- because I'm the only one that likes them and I didn't want to make some just for me. But I had totally forgotten that Peyton's arrival time wasn't conducive for a normal dinner time. Teresea, however, still made some for me and sent it along the night before with some dip. 

After our delicious dinner, we all wrote on the table cloth as we do annually. (I apparently didn't take a picture of mine, but I wrote "Happy Harvest Day" because Jasmin had heard it's sometimes called that (though I had never heard that, I wanted to include Jasmin in some subtle way). 

Of course, the doggies get to celebrate Thanksgiving too. I made them all plates to let their food cool. They also got a lot of things pre-seasoning (like mashed potatoes and squash) . Depending on their size they got varying portions. 

They all chowed down. 

Etta had a lot of squash on her nose, but this was my best attempt at a picture of it. She goes kind of crazy for people food. 

After dinner and some more football, Asa and I headed out to the airport to await Peyton's arrival. Luckily, we were able to watch the rest of the game while we waited, on a giant screen no less. Asa also resued a balloon and donated it to some kids. 

And there's Peyton! Back stateside! 

When we arrived home, I made a plate for her so she could have some Thanksgiving ON Thanksgiving at least. And of course, no Thanksgiving is complete without writing on the table cloth. 

It was a nice Thanksgiving, made better with Peyton's arrival home. It's weird though, because I'm so excited to see her and have her back, BUT I know she'd rather be with Jasmin in the UK (and we'd love to have Jasmin here too, it just wasn't in the cards. Hopefully soon!) 

In other pre-Thanksgiving news, Calib passed his first WGU class, and asked grandma if the Taco Bell reward applied to him as well. Obviously she said it did, and that's awesome for the kids. However, if all three of these kids is getting Taco Bell on grandma every time they pass a class thats A LOT of taco bell trips. I'm going to have to bow out of some of them. 

There has also been quite a few changes around the house in the two months since Peyton has been gone. We have the new front door lock with a fingerprint, the new kitchen blackspash, the new couch on the back patio, new doorknobs, a new dog gate, and I even made a new little door for the cat door so you can slide it closed or leave it open. Obviously the biggest change was the new car. Peyton is not known for being the most observent person in the world, so we didn't tell her about any of it- waiting to see if she would notice when she got home. I wasn't shocked when we got in the new car and she didn't say anything, but it was slightly surprising. It's not even the same color. 

But, when we got home and pulled in the driveway and she saw the Accord sitting there, and the Fit obviously not, something clicked- and she was like- "wait a minute!" This surprise was immediately followed by us walking in the door (which says "unlocked") and Peyton immediately was like 'wait. what?' And then she walked in and noticed all the changes, down to the new interior door knobs. Apparently, Peyton is more observant than we thought. 

In other news, Wawa still has their Gobbler, so Asa and I went out for free coffee Tuesday and got ourselves some lunch, too. 

And, we've been able to pick our first leamons off the tree. Not as many lemons as last year- and they are all ripe at about the same time, so we're going to have to give some to our neighbors again (which they are all very excited about). 

Shout out to Asa who babies that tree all year, and then lets me be the one to pick all the lemons. He's awesome like that. 

Up next: You're going to see a lot of Christmas lights! I had a plan, which we executed and is amazing- so stay tuned!!!