Thanksgiving

We stayed home for Thanksgiving this year, which was a nice change since we've been away from home for the past three years. I enjoyed the stress of baking and cooking, even though it was tricky because I was also prepping for Michael's party the night before. We hosted the missionaries, Shirley Tonini, Wanda Olimski (whose husband was in the hospital), Tim Walton (our neighbor whose wife had passed away just a couple of weeks prior) as well. For my own memory, I'd like to record that I made Lion House rolls, mashed potatoes (too dry--add more milk next time!), a lighter version of Pioneer Woman's sweet potato souffle, sautéed green beans, slow-cooker turkey breast with gravy (super easy), a ham from Costco, pumpkin pie "cupcakes," an apple crisp pie, and a chocolate caramel pecan pie which was a lot of work and was quite rich but yummy.

I tried a new pie crust recipe from my fave recipe blog, Mel's Kitchen Cafe, which involved shredding frozen butter. It was time consuming, but the crust was delicious.

Wow kids, good thing you loaded up on vegetables. Next year I need to remind the kids to dress up.

 Filling our plates.

 The banner on the window says "Top of the Hill," which was from Michael's party the night before.

Dessert!

 Michael was kind enough to not request a separate dessert option for his birthday "cake."

Happy Thanksgiving and happy birthday!

 The day after Thanksgiving, we drove up to Baltimore and went to the National Aquarium with the Lansings. The dolphin show was a highlight, although Benjy seems to have enjoyed his daddy's tickles more.

 A giant Megalodon jaw. Yikes!

 The fascinating jellies.

 They even had a jellies touching tank, which was pretty cool. I am not super into ocean creatures, but  I did enjoy the dolphins and the boys especially liked the sharks. Clara wanted to go home basically the whole time, but she made it through. We went to Shake Shack afterwards and had fun hanging out with our friends. It was a good time.