Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving vacation!! I felt like we had been on "vacation" for a long time! We left Tuesday night and came back on Sunday. We packed in a lot during our time away and loved every minute of it. Especially all the mornings of sleeping in. Thanks Mom!!

We spent a lot of time just being together as a family and visiting with my parents, sister, and grandparents. Benny had to spend the holiday in London. We missed you, Benny! We also got to see Ryan's parents for a few hours on Thanksgiving. They happened to be celebrating in the same town. We are so blessed and thankful for wonderful families, parents, and grandparents. It was so great to see everyone!

Mom hosted Thanksgiving this year for all of us. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but it sure was delicious! Here are a few recipes from our meal. I found these two on other blogs I follow. I'm not usually a fan of green beans or pumpkin, but both of these recipes were amazing! They will definately be made again!!

Green Bean Bundles
Kelly's Recipes

Ingredients:
2 or 3 cans of whole green beans
Bacon slices
1 stick of butter
1 cup of brown sugar
tsp of garlic salt

Wrap a handful of green beans in half a slice of bacon. That makes one bundle - keep going for as many bundles as you would like to have. Melt a stick of butter and stir in one cup of brown sugar (more or less depending on how sweet you would like it). Add a teaspoon of garlic salt. Pour over bundles. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Then put under the broiler for 4-5 minutes at the end


Pumpkin Crisp
Jenny at Beyond Our Wildest Dreams

Ingredients:
1 (18.25 ounce) package yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup white sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Set aside 1 cup cake mix for the topping. Combine remaining cake mix, 1 egg, and melted butter or margarine. Pat into a 9x13 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, mix pumpkin, 2 eggs, spices, 1/2 cup sugar, and milk. Pour pumpkin mixture over the cake mix crust.
3. In a small bowl, combine 1 cup cake mix and 3/4 cup sugar. Cut in 1/2 cup softened butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle mixture on top of pumpkin mixture.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 55 minutes.


We joined the crazies on Black Friday at 3:30 am!! There were just too many good deals to pass up. Plus, I really enjoy the craziness of it all. We ended up getting most of our Christmas shopping done. Yay!! Ryan and I divided and conquered spending most of the day apart shopping for each other and our little man.

It was so good to see family and to spend time together as our own family unit. Now we can't wait until Christmas!!

Great-Grandma and Orin

Great-Grandpa and Orin

Our little family- We forgot to take a picture until the end of the night which is why Orin is in his pajamas!

Auntie Molls

Grandpa and his Little Man