Thanksgiving 2011

Stayed up late talking to a friend on Skype last night, and got up early to get the turkey in the oven.  Here's the finished product.  It was already seasoned and it was so good.

Here's the turkey carver.

I seem to have a new appreciation for all those years that I only had to go to someones house to eat and I didn't have to cook anything.  Making a thanksgiving meal by yourself is a lot of work, but I really kinda liked it. I must tell you that Megan and Shannon helped too.

I don't really like sweet potatoes but I loved these.  

We had homemade rolls, green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes (these were for Ethan), dressing, and turkey. 

This is how Ethan spent his morning, shopping online.

And last but not least, you always need a family photo on Thanksgiving.  It may not be the best photo but it's memories.

Since being away from family for the holidays is no fun, it just so happened that Shannon's mom had sent the kids shirts for Christmas.  They were really suppose to go under the tree to open on Christmas day but we decided to go ahead and give them to them.  We think it was perfect timing, a little something from home on Thanksgiving to put a smile on their faces.  Perfect!

Getting Ready!

Thanksgiving is tomorrow, as if you didn't know.  This will be our third Thanksgiving away from family and friends and as much as I would like to say it gets easier, it doesn't.  There is just something about the holidays that gets me every time.  (Now that just sounds depressing)  With that being said, we are looking forward to our Thanksgiving meal together as a family tomorrow and we  hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving too.

I've done a little more Christmas decorating.   Don't you love my reflection in the picture?

Today I made a pumpkin spice coffee cake.  This is the second one that I have made and it was requested for tomorrow.  

Dressing is my favorite part of Thanksgiving, not really sure how this will taste but we will see. 

And then Megan and I made these.  Let me just tell you, they are so good.

Shannon couldn't wait.  Yeah, that's honey that he's putting on that hot roll.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree 2011

Well, I caved under pressure from the family to put up the "real" Christmas tree.  I was really wanting to wait until next week but they wouldn't let me.

I think it turned out quite nice.  

Did you know that I could not find any ornament hooks here?  So, I used wire and paper clips.

And a little touch of Ecuador.

I love it!

Cheese and Spanish

Look what Ethan found at the grocery store today.  It's the biggest string cheese that I've ever seen.  Needless to say, he was overjoyed.  He wanted to eat the whole thing on the way home.

Random:
Some of you may have seen this video online.  It's a lady that got a new invisible hearing implant and they turned it on and she heard her voice for the first time.  Very moving.  I saw this lady on a TV show today and it just excited me because this is exactly what Ethan needs.  It just amazes me how far technology has came over the years.  This implant is the first invisible implant that they have came out with.  Right now the implant is only available to those 18 years old and older.   So this may be something that we look into in the coming years.

This is for Macen.

Flat Stanley has been busy learning Spanish while here in Ecuador.

Out of Control

Well, I guess I have no excuse for my non-blogging self.

Is non-blogging a word?

I would like to say that I have been busy this week, but nope.  The beginning of the week I didn't feel very well.  I think it was just sinus issues, but I'm good now.  The weather here as been gloomy all week.  I think it's the official beginning of the rainy season.

Enough about that.

Look what we bought for 30 cents.

Now that's a big thing of broccoli!

Look what I made tonight.  Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing.  

Thank you Pioneer Woman.  These are nothing but sinful.  I don't even like pumpkin, but I. love. these.

You should seriously make these muffins.
You can find the recipe here.
You will not regret it!
You might regret the calories, but it's Thanksgiving for Pete's sake.  (Who's Pete?)

Cooking and baking have become one of mine and Shannon's favorite things to do.  Shannon likes the cooking part, he's not much on the baking.  It's funny how moving to another country can teach you so much.  We love making new dishes and trying new desserts.  (And as much as I blog about cooking on here, one would think that we would weigh 500 pounds apiece.)   We seriously plan our menu for the week and then go to the store and buy all the stuff.  It works out quite nicely.  We are in the process of planning our Thanksgiving meal right now.  Who knows, maybe when we are home next year we might have Thanksgiving at our house.  Oh wait.  We don't have a house, or dishes for that matter.

Look what I made  last week.  Yes, more cream cheese icing.

I'm out of control.

Wonder what I will make next week?

Onto Flat Stanley. Macen, this is for you.

Flat Stanley and Volcano Cotopaxi.

Where in the world is Flat Stanley?

(Again) These pictures are for my niece and her class in Arkansas.  

Flat Stanley went to the middle of the world, in Spanish it's called mitad del mundo.

Here are a few pictures from his adventure.

Flat Stanley balancing an egg on the equator.

Flat Stanley in the Southern hemisphere.

Flat Stanley on the line of the equator.

What will flat Stanley do next?  (I think he might need to learn some Spanish.)

This has nothing to do with Flat Stanley but Macen wanted to see this picture of Molly.

Today's Events

Since the kids are out of school for the rest of the week we have been enjoying some downtime.  This morning we went to the market and found a pumpkin.  It was a green pumpkin but the inside was orange so we thought maybe it would be a real pumpkin and it was.  Why did we want a pumpkin?  Well, Shannon's favorite drink from Starbucks is a pumpkin spice latte and he has really been craving one.  And also Thanksgiving is coming up and what is Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie, right? You can not buy pumpkin in a can here, the only choice we had was to make our own pumpkin puree.  Now I'm pretty sure if we lived in the states that I would not have made my own puree, I would have bought the pumpkin in the can.  Ok, if I'm going to go that far, I wouldn't have made a pumpkin spice latte either, I would have went to Starbucks.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Here's our puree after we baked our pumpkin and put it in the food processor.  Guess how much we needed for the latte syrup?  Three tablespoons.  

Cooking the puree and the spices for the syrup.

The finished product.  That's a lot of syrup with just three tablespoons of pumpkin puree.

 Shannon had his pumpkin spice latte after this.  Doesn't it just look so healthy?  I know. 

Here's the pumpkin spice latte.

The first taste and it was a success.   He loved it and said that it was very close to Starbucks. 

The happy camper.

Look what else we found at the market, sweet potatoes from Peru.  Ok, I know I only took a picture of one potato but we bought more.  We are excited about these!

And this is what the kids did while we made the puree.  Tree one.

My favorite ornament.  

Tree 2.  (It's a little dark)

Now you might find this funny.  I do not like pumpkin spice lattes or pumpkin pie or pumpkin period.

Want to make your own pumpkin spice latte?  Here's the recipe.

Want to make your own pumpkin puree?  Here's the recipe.