Sunday - Looking forward to Christmas

Stores have us thinking about Christmas as soon as Halloween is over, and after this year's freak snowstorm it almost seemed reasonable.  But the winter holiday season really starts in earnest after Thanksgiving.  I'm so excited to buy my Christmas tree and deck the halls of my new apartment.  On our last day of Thanksgiving break my mom was doing the same thing - hanging garland everywhere the eye could see.  It will be our first Christmas by the shore and the house looks so joyful!

Saturday - Leftovers, Thanksgiving II, and Small Business Saturday

Every year my mom makes a second Thanksgiving dinner, creatively dubbed "Thanksgiving Two."  It's because my mom knows the importance of the thanksgiving leftover.  Whether it's the classic turkey sandwich with stuffing and cranberry sauce, or the inventive "stuffpuppy," Thanksgiving leftovers are as American as, well, Thanksgiving - it's all part of the tradition.

Kristen sent me this idea for the "stuffpuppy," which anyone with an at-home fryer should most definitely try.  It's basically a fried ball of mashed potatoes and stuffing.  I didn't get a chance to put this into action, but it seemed like a worthy enough idea to blog about anyhow.

Saturday was also the answer to Black Friday - small business Saturday.  I obliged by going to the Stonington Farmer's Market to buy blueberry scones and the local coffee shop, The Yellow House, to get a double espresso to sneak into the library for Jake.  The local realtor had a sign in their window that said "Shop Local - Buy a House," but after the coffee and pastries I just didn't have enough pocket change left over.

Friday - Black Friday Deals In the Dark

Midnight openings made it so Black Friday really started on Thursday.  At 11 o'clock, Jake and I lined up outside of Target in a line that wrapped around three sides of the store.  At midnight I was wondering aloud why the line hadn't started to move and the girls in front of me told me that because of some silly Blue Laws, stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts weren't opening until 1:00am.  I was devastated.  But it felt good to watch the line continue to grow behind us, giving me at least some sense of superiority in exchange for an additional hour spent outside in the cold.

My feet grew quite chilly, but we exchanged Black Friday horror stories and judgments of the teenagers wearing nothing but leggings and sweatshirts with the mom behind us and played along with the Would You Rather game of the three girls in front of us (yes we agree we'd rather have huge ears than a huge nose, but no we don't think choosing electricity over running water is your best bet).

Once we got inside I made a beeline for my new netbook (on which I am currently blogging) at a cool $157 and some other gift items not to be named yet.  Overall, it was a great head start on my Christmas shopping which I am not ashamed to brag is now almost complete!

Despite a long wait in the cold, Black Friday ended beautifully with a perfect golden sunset over the ocean, reminding us all of the truly beautiful things in life (shopping and sunsets, if you were confused.)

Thursday - Thanksgiving Means Pie!

I love to bake and (aside from the stuffing) one of my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal is the dessert.  This year I made an apple blackberry pie as well as the classic pumpkin.  I decided to spice them up with with my Nordicware pie crust cutter.

I used the side with the leaves and the apple blackberry pie showcased the negative space and the pumpkin pie used the leftover leaves that were cut out.  

This recipe is courtesy of the Goddess herself, Martha although I admit I used a pre-made pie crust.  

This recipe for pumpkin pie is super easy, and also mostly comes from a box or a can!

Wednesday - Remembering Fall at Rowe

Now the leaves have mostly fallen to the ground, but a few weeks back that wasn't the case.  In October, I went to a conference for work.  I spent three days in the woods learning about fundraising and eating (mostly) no meat.  At first, I was scared (no meat?!?), but Rowe turned out to be this wonderful place full of hippies and happy people where I felt that little piece of me that actually does like nature re-awaken.  So now that we're transitioning from fall into winter, and moving full speed ahead into the holidays, I thought I'd just look back at the beautiful scenery and changing leaves; it seemed like the perfect way to welcome the Thanksgiving holiday!

Thanksgiving Week Review

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, is happily full of turkey and stuffing, got some great deals, and is grateful for all the good things in their life.  It was a nice long weekend, but it went by very quickly.  There wasn't time to blog about the holiday as I experienced it so now that it's Cyber Monday and we've all slept off the turkey coma I thought I'd do a review, looking back starting with Wednesday, a.k.a Thanksgiving Eve.  So stay tuned for an avalanche of turkey day posts including lots of cooking, shopping, and good cheer!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Not really.  Apparently, Canadians think today is Thanksgiving.  Don't they know this is the day we celebrate Columbus bringing disease and disaster to India, I mean America?

Canadians didn't officially have Thanksgiving until 1957.  And as far as I'm concerned if you don't have a Macy's parade with a giant Sponge Bob Square Pants, you still don't officially have Thanksgiving.  But then again, could I ever take seriously a Canadian Thanksgiving?  Not really.

I love my friends up north, but please, leave the overeating to us.  We're better at it.