Category Archives: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

30 days of Thanksgiving

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Last November I posted each day about one thing that I was thankful for.  I am planning to do this again this November! 

Who wants to join me? 

Though there are many things in my life that I want to improve, (and many things that I complain about,) in reality I have a wonderful life!  So many people in the world live with so much less, and I am SO lucky that I was born in the time and place I was to be able to turn out the way I did.

Who wants to join me?  30 days of Thanksgiving.  The hard part will be narrowing down to only one each day.

Perhaps there will also be 30 days of inappropriate Thanksgiving humor?

Oh, and a hearty HB to my BFF SS. 

Food, Running, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day

I woke up early on Thanksgiving to do the Chesterfield 11th Annual Turkey Trot (5k race).  The race started at 8:30 am so I wanted to get there in plenty of time.

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It was pretty cold, so I wore my new workout skirt (ha!) and a long sleeve tee I bought myself in honor of the upcoming Phoenix Half-marathon.

I was cold and tired, and I should have wore a hat or something over my ears!  By the time the race started, my ears were freezing.  In any case, I ran pretty well—it was a crowded course and pretty boring (around a mall), but I kept going pretty well.  I actually thought I would break my last time, but I guess due to the cold and drizzle I wasn’t moving as fast as I thought.  My next race won’t be until mid-December so I’ll have a bit more time in between to train.  And then nothing until the half-marathon in Phoenix, yay!

Results: 32:17, 1269 of 2347, 76 of 172 in my age group (30-34)

Okay, race done, off to eat!

The night before I made my pies and upside down cake.

 

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Pumpkin Pie, Sour Cream Apple Pie, and Cranberry Upside-down Cake.

It was raining pretty hard when it was time to load up the car, so that was annoying.  We headed over to our friends’ house (Laura and Jon) around 11 am.  Chris was making the turkey.

The menu:

Turkey and Gravy

Classic Cranberry Sauce

Grand Marnier Cranberry Relish

Potato Fennel Gratin

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes

Spicy Cornbread Stuffing

Parmesan Broccoli

Mustard Cauliflower with Lemon Butter

Maple Roasted Squash

Martha’s Mac and Cheese

 

Yes.  It was ridiculous!  Also, of course, appetizers, dessert, and wine.  The rest of the people came over around 3:00, and we probably ate dinner at 5:30 or so.  The food was fantastic!  (My friend Laura is a tremendous cook).

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A sampling of the day’s activities, and my dinner plate.  We cooked, played wii, ate, and talked.  Some people watched football (I did not.)

It also snowed a bit in the afternoon!  Our first snow of the season.  Very pretty!

Okay, one last picture of the pies…and a topping for the pies…

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I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well!  It was great to spend the day with good friends.  I am thankful to have so many wonderful people in my life!

Food, Thanksgiving

So full!

I am so ridiculously full!  I am never eating again 😉  I am thankful for a wonderful, bountiful Thanksgiving dinner with dear friends….it was a wonderful day!

Today was the first snow.  No real accumulation, but snow nonetheless.

Off to bed.  The pies/cake were a huge success!

HBBC:  Turkey Trot 5k (3.1 miles): 3.1 points, 1 mile walk: 1 point, 8 to 9 servings of veggies: 1 point, Total points: 5.1

Food, Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Eve

Wow, what a day!  I’m finally sitting down for about the first time.  I’m THANKFUL today for my good health!  Without my health, well, I wouldn’t have anything 😉  But seriously, I’m thankful I am healthy and able-bodied and that I am able to do whatever I need to do. I’m talking both minor ailments such as colds and more major illnesses or handicaps…I’m basically thankful I’m not suffering from anything at all at this time!

I just finished making three desserts and a topping for Thanksgiving tomorrow.  Two are my grandmother’s recipes and two are from the internet.  Here and here.  I’ll post pictures later, don’t want to spoil the surprise!  Suffice it to say that although I did make my own crusts from scratch, and I’m sure they will be tasty…wow my crusts look atrocious.  I struggled with them and finally just did my best.  I really need to work on my pie crust skills.

Today I almost turned off my alarm and skipped Bikram Yoga, but I would have felt too guilty.  I went to my second class today.  It was tough but not as tough as the first one.  The class was taught by the same teacher as yesterday’s but was much larger (probably twice as many people).  It was at 9:30 versus yesterday’s 11:00, and I didn’t get to eat enough beforehand–they say not to eat for three hours beforehand, but I was VERY hungry during class, so I’m pretty sure that was a bad idea.  I’m still not sure how I feel about the classes, but I’ll continue to go during the two week period no matter. Probably will be there sometime on Friday.

When I got out of class, it was POURING rain!  I almost just drove home, but after a few minutes (and a bit of powerade zero 😉  ) I continued with my errands.  Packet pickup for tomorrow’s race and groceries, followed by a quick lunch then a really intense workout with Mike.  Then home to bake!  Now I must get ready to head out to a friend’s potluck dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers (particularly my family 🙂 ) !

HBBC:  90 minutes of Yoga:  4.5 points,  Treadmill running 1 mile: 1 points, 60 minutes weight training/core work with Mike: 3 points, Total points for day 8.5.  Total points for week (so far) 30.

 

Thanksgiving

Hair Towel

Today I bought a new hair towel.  I love this thing!  I can’t remember when I first started using one, but it’s been years.  The problem is that after a few years (or less, I really can’t recall) it starts to look grungy and also doesn’t work as well.

Today I am thankful for my hair towel!  It seriously makes my hair dry faster, plus it’s smaller and thinner than a regular towel so it’s much easier to wrap around my head after showers.

Chris and I went shopping today, mainly for him.  I did however get a new winter coat (!–my old one was TOO BIG), the aforementioned hair towel, and a workout skirt.  It’s a little puma skirt made of grey sweatpants material.  I’ll have to wear something under it.  I am not sure how I feel about working out in a skirt, but I have been embracing lots of pink workout clothes this year, so a skirt seems like the next logical option.  Tennis players have been doing it for years, right?  Chris got a couple pairs of jeans and a pair of shoes.  We also ordered a large (18-20 pound) turkey at Whole Foods, which he will pick up on Monday.

Can you believe I had never gone into Whole Foods?  It looks awesome!  We were in a hurry plus I had a fridge full of groceries already, so I didn’t shop…but I MUST go back.  If nothing else to pick up some delicious looking cheeses for my upcoming cookie swap party (if you live in town, are reading this, and didn’t get invited, please let me know as I may have inadvertently left some people off 😉  social gatherings are such a minefield!).

In any case, I can’t wait to use my new hair towel tomorrow morning (at the crack of dawn, silly Wednesday schedule.)  It looks very bright and white hanging on the towel rack right now!  Thanks hair towel!!