I absolutely cannot believe it’s December 1st already! It certainly doesn’t feel like it outside (although last week it was below freezing). I hope everybody in the (U.S.) blog world had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Ours was pretty fabulous.

Wednesday night my in-laws arrived. We ate some leftover red beans and rice, relaxed, and did some prep work for the next day’s big feast. I baked Angela’s sinless sticky toffee pudding (for the 2nd year), which is always delicious, and threw together Jen’s easy (but amazing) slow-cooker cranberry sauce.

Thursday morning we slept in a little bit and got to work. Mark made his fabulous mashed potatoes while I put together a shredded kale, Brussels sprouts, pomegranate, pistachio, and walnut salad, which I topped with Gena’s simple dressing from this similar salad.

We got ready and arrived at my parents’ (deliciously smelling) house around 3:00 and had an early dinner shortly after. As usual, everything was mouth-watering. I made sure to load up my plate with a bit of everything (except deviled eggs; for whatever reason, I just don’t care for them). In the bowl: cucumber salad and kale/Brussels sprouts/pomegranate salad. On the plate (clockwise): turkey, sweet potato casserole, green beans, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and a sweet potato-stuffed orange.

We laughed and talked and settled into the TV room to watch some football. Dessert (my toffee pudding and my mom’s should-be-famous rum cake) and coffee soon followed before we went back to our house to relax before Christmas Tree Friday!!! 🙂

Black Friday shopping is not and never will be our thing, so we slept late Friday and went to Lowe’s to get our Christmas tree. I think we may have found ours in record timing. Since my dad’s birthday was Saturday and the in-laws were leaving Saturday afternoon, we had my parents over Friday night for gumbo and muffulettas for his birthday dinner. Both were tasty, and we had a great night.

Saturday we said farewell (for a few weeks, anyway) to the in-laws and were probably the only couple in Alabama not watching the Iron Bowl (what an amazing game; we did see some highlights and were listening to the radio when Auburn ran back the missed field goal to win!). We bought a new tree topper and came back home for some leftovers and tree decorating. Looks pretty good!

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving (and beginning of Hanukkah, if you celebrate). Have a good week! 🙂