Thanksgiving weekend recap

It's been fifteen days since my last post...
That almost sounds like a confessional eh!?
And yes, I do confess, I've been a slacker on here. However, in real life, I've been pretty darn productive!
So please forgive me...

A few years ago I made Mexican food for Thanksgiving. We weren't having any company that year (this rarely happens) and we weren't going anywhere either. So I thought "what the heck", "why not something different?"
My kids were beyond upset! There were tantrums and looks of disgust. There were even some tears. Two of them down-right refused to eat.
They made me promise to never, ever do it again. I had to cross my heart and hope to die, then they stuck a needle in my eye.
Well, they didn't actually stick me with a needle, but I'm pretty positive they would have liked to! I'm sure you get the picture. It was ugly around here for a week. Every time someone went to the refrigerator to find something to eat, they'd moan about "if we only had turkey leftovers..."

I didn't realize as young as they were, that my kids were already set in tradition. It never occurred to me when making the Carnitas, beans, rice and what not that year, that I would be upsetting the way the whole day felt for them!
So I'm careful to ask them now what they are looking forward to most on Thanksgiving.
These were the "must-haves" they requested for the day:









Well, this last one is a must for me! Mmmm...Pecan Pie!

I usually have the table done up with place settings for everyone, but I didn't have a final head-count and it was possible I wouldn't have enough settings. So I didn't bother at all!
Then the girls thought it looked a little plain, so they cut out all these leaves, and then strung them into a garland to hang above the table!



We chose to spend "Black Friday" at home where we decorated for Christmas.




(Good ol' Santa. My momma made him for me years ago in her ceramics class.)

I think I'll post the other two days in the next entry. There are too many pictures to upload and re-size.
But it will contain the progress I've made on my handmade Christmas gifts!

How about you? Do you have any traditions you HAVE to stick with each year? Have you ever destroyed Thanksgiving by not keeping them?

Whatever your tradition, I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving full of new memories!