Thanksgiving 2013

This is the only picture we got from Thanksgiving. It was time to make the rolls and I decided to give in to the kids' pleadings to let them help me . . . because I figure if I let them help me now, in ten years they can do it themselves. (I had been doing a lot of cooking and had just gotten the counters cleaned up some, so I was reluctant to let them help because I knew it would be a big mess.) I think there was about a cup of flour on the floor and the kids and I were covered in it. It was a good memory for them, though.

We had Thanksgiving with our neighbors the Rasmussens and the Pulsiphers. The Monsons came over later for pie. We have had Thanksgiving with the Rasmussens for four out the six years we have lived here, so it was a little bittersweet because they will be moving soon.

The kids were really excited about Thanksgiving. I had told them that we would be taking the pie to the Pulsiphers' house and eating dinner and pie there, so they were really looking forward to it and kept asking if it was time to go yet.

Unfortunately, Ryan got sick with the flu two days before Thanksgiving. He slept most of the time and could barely stand up for the first two days. On Thanksgiving, he was doing better, but he had a sore throat and thought he was probably contagious, so he decided not to come to dinner. I brought him food and pie and he spent the time making economic models on MatLab for fun. I'm glad none of the rest of us got sick (and that he can give me kisses again).

The kids all played together incredibly well. We hardly saw them the entire time we were at the Pulsiphers' house because they were playing in their son's room the entire time. (There was a nightlight in there that made it possible to play in the dark, so they were having a fabulous time.)

I ended up making three pies this year. I made a pie with a graham cracker crust and pudding in it, as well as a peach pie and a berry pie. The pie crust was my best yet. It was very flaky and it didn't shrink. I think it helped that I mixed it as little as possible. The berry pie was a last minute decision. I was remembering the razzleberry pie we used to have often at my Grammy's house, and since we had frozen berries in the freezer, I was able to do a single pie with a top crust using this recipe for the filling. It was a very good pie and turned out pretty similar to the razzleberry pie. Kevin really liked it. I think we had enough pie to last until Monday, and that's how it should be. Pie is one of the most important parts of Thanksgiving.

The day after Thanksgiving I spent the day loading my samples into Strontium columns to get the Strontium out and ready for the mass spectrometer. I was done by 7:00 pm, which was a record for me. Every other time I've done it I have been finished much later. Once I didn't get home until 11 pm. It was nice to have plenty of Thanksgiving leftovers to snack on all day, even though it was not so nice to be away from my family on Thanksgiving weekend. I'm blessed to have a family who is very supportive of my education.