WagMommy: pumpkin pie and birthday cake

For as long as I can remember, Thanksgiving has always been a loud day filled with laughter, a bit of chaos, and a lot of family. And it has been one of my favorite days of the year. This Thanksgiving was one of the few times we celebrated at home. The last time we did turkey day here was when we brought Addie home from the hospital. She was born on the 27th and the holiday fell on the 28th that year. My mom took the big girls to my sister's and exhausted Dan and I had a lovely quiet meal with our sleeping newborn. A super sweet friend brought over dinner complete with turkey, green beans, stuffing and sparkling cider. We felt so loved. That was one of my favorite Thanksgivings.

I have to say that even though I miss my big loud family terribly, this Thanksgiving was really nice too. Dan and I prepped and cooked together pretty much all morning while the kids played. I cranked up the Christmas music cuz why not? We rarely cook together. I think we're going to do more of that in the future. There's something so gratifying about working together to put dinner on the table and then sitting down and enjoying your delicious teamwork.

The prep did not go perfectly, however. Dan worked the day before Thanksgiving so I did the brining of the turkey. It was just a turkey breast since it was only our family of 6 eating. I had never brined before. So, following Dan's instructions, I removed the plastic wrapper from the turkey breast. There was also a net/rope thing that was wrapped around it. So I cut that off and threw the clump of turkey in the brine and put it in the fridge.

When Dan fished it out the next day, the turkey breast was in pieces. Apparently, that's not supposed to happen and the net ensures that the turkey breast stays together. So, he went to plan B and pan-fried it. It turned out great!

Also, we had another near mishap. The stuffing recipe called for dried cranberries so I bought some and put them in the pantry. Dan grabbed my fresh cranberries out of the fridge that I bought for homemade cranberry sauce, thinking I mistakenly bought those instead of dried ones, and not wanting to hurt my feelings, tossed them into his pan with the butter and onions. In his defense, I'm pretty sensitive about my ability to buy the correct items at the grocery store.

"Wait, those are my cranberries! I need those!" I told him. He quickly fished them out and apologized for the oniony taste he might have given them. I rinsed them off and the cranberry sauce came out great. And so did the stuffing, complete with dried cranberries from the pantry. All is well that ends well.

All the food was delicious. Dan and I stuffed ourselves and the kids picked at their food. I didn't really expect them to eat most of it. They did, however, love the storebought rolls, the canned corn, and the sparkling apple cider. But I was not mad about all the leftovers we had (and still have).

Oh and I found some cute little mini pies at Vons. A pumpkin for me and a pecan for Dan. The kids didn't like either of them.

Yesterday was Addie's birthday. This is our 3rd Covid kid's birthday. I've felt so bad that they can't celebrate with their friends at a fun place so I've been trying to make it extra special for each kid. I've been buying those helium balloon kits at Target and waking up super early to blow up all the balloons before the birthday kid wakes up which is always way earlier than I do.

So, for Addie's birthday, I set my alarm for 5AM and got started on the balloons. Winter woke up a few minutes after I did so I put her in charge of the blueberry muffins Addie requested for breakfast. I walked her through it from the couch where I was on balloon duty. Winter put all the ingredients in a bowl, spooned them into cupcake liners and I put them in the oven. After about 15 minutes it occurred to me that we never mixed in the blueberries and sauce that comes in the box. It is in a separate little can I forgot to tell Winter to open and put in the bowl.

So I pulled out the blueberry-less muffins and poured the blueberry sauce over the top. "Good enough," I said and put them back in to fully bake. The kids said they were the best muffins ever. Dan was very disappointed. "The blueberries in the muffin are the best part," he said sadly. I told him it wasn't his birthday and I'd make him some muffins with big ol' blueberries in the middle next time.

Addie woke up to 50 balloons floating in the family room and the smell of blueberry muffins filling the house. Again, all is well that ends well.

Addie requested Lunchables for lunch which the kids ate at a near-by park followed by Yogurtland. She requested Trader Joe's teriyaki chicken and spaghetti with no sauce for dinner. Dan could have made her a 5-star quality meal but that's not what she wanted. So he reluctantly pulled out the frozen bag of Trader Joe's Teriyaki chicken and a box of pasta and threw it together for her and the kids. They were all very pleased.