The Day After the Day After Thanksgiving

Normally I would have dished a little yesterday about how J and I spent Thanksgiving Day, but since I posted my simple still life results instead, I saved the turkey day stuff for today. Our weather here in Kentucky was cold and very, very windy, but otherwise pretty nice. The weather gods spit a few snowflakes at us here and there throughout the day, but you could tell their hearts weren't really in it and it never amounted to much. We did a lunch-time get-together with the family, mostly because J had to be back on the road again the next day and wanted to get back home before too late in the day. We met up at Dad and Merle's, and originally one of Merle's kids was going to be there, but he was sick that day (hope you feel better, Steve!), so it turned out to be a bunch of Keetons and former-Keetons around the dinner table. Merle and Dad volunteered to make the whole meal so it ended up that I didn't lift a finger to cook all day. I have to say that was very nice! It's been a long, long time since I didn't do any cooking at all for Thanksgiving dinner! I'll do a little after-Thanksgiving holiday dinner- for-two for J and me sometime soon, since we have our own personal holiday favorites we have to have every year, but it was lovely to let Merle do the cooking for the gang this year. I'm always willing to be spoiled a little! [grin] My friend Morven requested a run-down of the menu because now that she's back home in New Zealand, she really misses US Thanksgiving celebrations. So ok, Morv, here it is, just for you! We had turkey, gravy, dressing (Midwest-style white bread dressing, which tends to not be my favorite since I was raised on southern-style cornbread dressing, but I have to say Merle's is good), yeast rolls, corn pudding (for those who've never had it, it's not a dessert-type pudding...it's a creamy, savory baked dish with corn, eggs, milk, and seasonings), and green bean casserole - but not the typical "can of creamed soup and French-fried onions" kind. This one had fresh green beans and fresh mushrooms and a home-made sauce and was really yummy! (Merle and/or Dad, if you're reading this, don't forget to email me that recipe! And the Derby pie recipe from last Christmas. And Sandy, if you're reading this, don't forget to email me the Sour Cream Walnut pie recipe from 2 Christmases ago!). Uuhh...where was I? Oh yeah, the menu. Also Sandy brought a fruit salad that has been a family-tradition recipe for as long as I can remember. I like it when Sandy makes it because she's the other member of the family besides me who is allergic to bananas, so I never have to worry about picking them out when she does a fruit salad. We had a nice chardonnay for those who wanted wine, while those who didn't had water and/or coffee. For dessert we had pumpkin pie and apple pie. I couldn't decide which sounded better, so I had a small piece of each. For the record, I liked the apple better, but the pumpkin was good too. I totally forgot to get the camera out of my bag until we were finished with lunch and had been visiting a while and J was trying to urge me out the door, but I stalled him long enough to snap off these three photos, none of which include J or me, but Oh. Well. Here's my brother, Mark, and my nephew Josh, with Prince Teddy. They foolishly thought that if they didn't look at me and smile that they'd ruin the picture and I wouldn't post it. HA! Dream on, guys! (Check out the colors of their shirts...Christmas preview!) Here's my niece, Amber, who shares my love of Shiny Things. Pretty much all the women in our family love Shiny Things. I think it's genetic. I loved her chandelier earrings. And you can't see it in the photo, but she'd adapted a beady bracelet as a hair ornament. Creative, yes? And last but not least, here are Merle, Dad, and Sandy, lingering at the table with the remains of the wine and the pie. You now know who the smart ones in the family are! While we were talking about old times, one of the things we discussed was my Grandma Keeton's Red Velvet Cake that she used to make every year around Christmas. Since I'd signed up to do another collage swap project with the Traveler's H'Art group about "Winter Traditions", I decided to make my card about Grandma's cake. Here's the card I did: Grandma's Red Velvet Cake I didn't actually have any photos of Grandma with her RVCake, so I used Photoshop Elements to collage together bits and pieces of 4 different photos to create this one. I was happy with how it turned out. It isn't perfect, but it gets the idea across. Now I'm going to go reply to some comments from the last couple of days and then try to decide if there's anything I need badly enough from the grocery store to fight my way through the mad crowds of weekend Christmas shoppers or if I can make do for a couple more days. Crowds...bleah.