Late Thanksgiving or Early Christmas?

I decided to make a late Thanksgiving or early Christmas feast today. I bought a 12 lb. frozen turkey the weekend after Thanksgiving for less than $5 and proceeded to plan the sides. After two days of brining, "Tom" (or is it Tom-ina?) the turkey went into the oven this morning thanks to some help from Matt since I was busy with Jay at times today. Three hours in the oven with basting every 30 minutes and wa-la! a beautiful golden turkey emerged.

Homemade Turkey Gravy

(I added parsley and pepper for color and seasoning)

The Feast

Homemade Pumpkin Pie

While I was busy in the kitchen one time this morning, I left Jay in his bouncy seat. When I looked over at him from the kitchen Jay had slumped down in his seat so his legs were hanging way off the end and he was swinging them up and down, up and down, and happily gurgling while doing so. I'm sure he was giving his core muscles a good workout. Notice where his "bum" is so he could obtain optimal swing. Ha!

Matt and I are enjoying a glass of Cider Ice this afternoon while Jay is napping. Matt has been so kind to me and has gone to our basement storage area and dug out all the Christmas decorations so I can work on unpacking them to display around our home. I hope to finish doing that in the next few days when I'm not busy feeding/playing/caring for Jay.

This past Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights I played prelude Christmas music on my violin accompanied by my good friend, Courtney, on the piano, for our church's sixteenth annual Ladies' Christmas Friendship Dinners. The church removes all the sanctuary chairs and sets the room with 44 tables of 8. The women table hostesses decorate the tables with their own tablecloths, china, centerpieces, etc. and invite 7 other friends to join them. Every night the room is set differently since there are 44 new table hostesses. The men of the church volunteer to serve the dinner (which is done family style). This year Taproot Theatre was the main entertainment. It is fun to walk around the room and view the different and beautifully decorated tables. The event was fun to do and is a great kick-off to the Christmas season.