We
tend to do our holidays a little different than some people, it’s hard to
celebrate when you are so far from the ones you love. But we have been blessed
with great friends who are willing to spend time with us and I wouldn’t change
our “traditions” for the world. Here’s what we did this holiday season.
Thanksgiving
When
it comes to Thanksgiving ours isn’t the traditional kind. We live thousands of
miles away from our family so we can’t just hop in the car to spend the day
with them. For us it’s been six years since we spent the holidays with our
family and we miss them a lot around this time of the year, so each year we try
to do something special to make the holidays memorable. In the past we have
went to the movies, went on mini vacations, hosted for friends, went to other
people’s houses, and boycotted tradition with tacos.
This
year, Thanksgiving 2017, we hosted Thanksgiving again! We were excited and
blessed to be able to do this for people who are like family to us. This was
only my third time making a Thanksgiving dinner, 2nd time hosting,
and I feel like I have the whole thing down to a science. When we host like
this I try to make it epic! I want the food to be homemade and everything a
person could possibly want for Thanksgiving is on the table. Here’s what I do
to prepare for our feast.
I
start at the beginning of October (crazy I know!). At that point I start
planning the menu and making an insanely detailed grocery list. Once I have
that all nailed down I’ll go ahead and start shopping for the nonperishable
items, the stuff with a long shelf life, like sugar, turkey pans, pie pans,
plastic plates and utensils, and seasonings. By the end of the month I’ll have
my husband ask around at work and start inviting people. When he’s able to give
me a loose headcount I start shopping for my turkey and buying items that I
know will be okay in the freezer, like butter, cream cheese, shredded cheese,
and pie crust. By the time the great turkey month rolls around I am pretty
close to done with my shopping. I did have to go in last minute for some items
I wanted to add and of course for the rolls (the one thing I don’t make).
The
cooking process for all this food is just as complicated. I usually start
prepping about a week in advance. I’ll double check to make sure that we’ve
bought everything that we need, and make sure the turkey is in the fridge
thawing. Then the day before Thanksgiving I work on some of the baking. This
year I did 3 pies, 2 dozen cookies, and 2 dozen deviled eggs all the day
before. We’ll also go ahead and prep some of the other food so that it will
just need tossed in the oven for a bit before eating, we try to keep the oven
totally available for the turkey.
Here was our
Thanksgiving:
Appetizers:
Crackers, Cheese, and Summer Sausage.
Main Meal:
Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Company
Potatoes, Baked Mac n Cheese, Rolls, Candied Yams, and Deviled Eggs.
Dessert:
Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, and Oatmeal Cranberry White Chip Cookies
Christmas
Christmas
was a little impromptu for us. We weren’t sure that we were going to have
people over, but Thanksgiving went so well that we couldn’t resist a chance at
round two. There wasn’t as much planning put into Christmas since there wasn’t
much time in between the two holidays but I think we pulled it off nicely.
The
menu was simple. We decided on lasagna and salad for our main dish. There was
no reason behind that choice other than I wasn’t feeling the traditional foods
and lasagna sounded good at the time. Dessert worked out the same way. I picked
a peanut butter pie because I had never made one before and chocolate sounded
good and a red velvet cake for those who didn’t want the crazy rich pie. We
also did some sugar cookies and fudge.
The
hubster and I did an intimate Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve. That was
when we decided to open our gifts from family and each other. We had crackers,
summer sausage, and cheese while watching A Christmas Story. We knew that Christmas
Day would be hectic, what with me trying to make a lasagna from scratch for the
first time ever, so we wanted to take a moment the night before to just relax.
The
day of we had friends come over. We played some holiday games, like the white
elephant gift exchange and the saran wrap ball game, as well as games like
Cards Against Humanity and Trivial Pursuit. We ate lasagna and had a blast! We
didn’t focus so much on the food, like you do during Thanksgiving, but rather
we focused on spending time together and having fun.
We
spent the rest of our Christmas vacation (my time between classes and the
hubby’s time off of work) relaxing, cleaning, and celebrating. We went to the
Santa Claus house in North Pole, Alaska and we went to the Ice Park next door.
We also won the Christmas decorating contest for our neighborhood and it took
us DAYS to get all the decorations taken down. But it was all worth it!
Unfortunately, we both ended our time off with the flu.
Thank you to all that joined us and I wish
everyone a good year in 2018!
