Slacker Mama Thanksgiving 2012

Hey friends!

I hope you all had a wonderful, calm Thanksgiving holiday!

After the insane rush to get the house company ready, things really went fantastic!

For several years, my family gets together for Thanksgiving brunch instead of lunch or supper.  It is wonderful because everyone usually has to go somewhere else for a traditional meal later in the day.  Since we have breakfast-related foods, nobody has to eat two turkey and dressing meals in a row.  I also love just spending time with my family, eating, talking, laughing, and looking through all the sales papers.  It's literally my favorite tradition of the year!

This year, we were sad that my sister (Diane) and brother-in-law (Jerry) weren't able to come because they had the FLU!  Also, my nephew Adam and his family (Jennifer, Lucas, and Patrick) were visiting Jennifer's family in Florida for the holidays. Things just weren't the same without them!

Well, enough rambling, on to pictures!  (I want to apologize to my FB friends, you've already seen them. Sorry)

My tiny bit of Thanksgiving decor in the foyer.

And a tiny bit more on the mantle.

A clean kitchen! (With my heat press showing on my kitchen table. LOL)

Dining room table FILLED with delicious food!

 Now tons of food pictures!  Feel free to skip this part.

Mrs. Evelyn's delicious cheese and cinnamon rolls!

Sausage cheese biscuits.

Apple dumplings

My niece, Laura, made these fabulous peanut butter/brownies.

My mom's breakfast casserole.

"Bacon and eggs"

Ham and cheese mini-sandwiches

Ham biscuits

Fabulous pumpkin spice cake my niece, Selena, made.

Ranch oyster crackers.

Turtles

Strawberry muffins

Pumpkin pie!

"Christmas crack"....recipe from Kim Wheeler.

Everyone filling up their plates.

My handsome son.

Selena, Laura, Beau and Kacie looking at the sales papers.

My adorable niece, Selena.

Chelsea and my great-niece, Kacie.

My beautiful mama.

My niece's husband (my new nephew) Beau.

My nephew, Derek. He's smiling because he's watching all the Bama games on replay.

Chelsea

Sales papers everywhere.

Sweets first Thanksgiving with a family! She liked the baked beans.  LOL

After my family left, we headed to my mother-in-law's house.  I didn't get any pictures of the food because they had already started eating before we got there.  We did get a few pictures outside.  I'm saving the best for my Christmas cards!

Chelsea and my niece, Shelby.

My great-nephew, Reed, taking a wagon ride around the neighborhood.

Jameson in his hunting garb.

Jameson and Marty being uncooperative while trying to take family pictures.  HAHA!

While it wasn't a perfect day (missing my sister, brother-in-law, and my nephew and his family), it was a great, calm, and beautiful day!

A perfect way to start the Holiday Season!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

A 48 hour dining room transformation.

No, this isn't a new remodeling or design post.  This is a dramatic transformation from craft room craziness, to Thanksgiving brunch central, to plain dining room, all in 48 hours.

This is what my dining room looked like Wednesday morning.  Embarrassing as this is, this photo was taken after we had already moved and organized all my frames, packing materials, and t-shirts/blanks.  Yeah, I'm a hot mess (literally) when it comes to crafting.

This is a few hours into the great clean/purge.

And this is what the dining room looked like around 9:30 am Thursday morning.  The table is just as covered, but with delicious food!

ALMOST the best picture ever....most of my loved ones (missing my sister and brother-in-law NO thanks to the flu!) all around the dining room table!

And finally, my dining room table this morning.

**sigh**

I'm going to try to enjoy it for this moment, because I know all too soon, it will look like this again:

I hope you all had the most wonderful Thanksgiving ever!

We are just relaxing at home today, but excited to read about all of everyone's Black Friday finds! Did any of you find anything good?

Slacker Mama's 2011 Thanksgiving

Many years ago, Thanksgiving was often rushed and stressful, with everyone trying to make it to two (or more) Thanksgiving dinners.  We would scarf down a traditional meal at one place, and then rush to another place for a second traditional meal.  I don't know about everyone else, but when I got to the second meal, I wasn't hungry at all.  So somebody (my mom, I think?) came up with the idea of having a Thanksgiving brunch instead.  Instead of turkey and dressing, we have ham biscuits, breakfast casserole, sausage cheese muffins, and whatever assorted snacks that anyone wants to bring.  We LOVE it!

We eat, talk, eat, laugh, eat, and look through all of the hundreds of sales papers.  We always have plenty of time, and by the time we get to our respective traditional dinners, we are hungry again!

This year was the second year we hosted my family for the brunch.  Wednesday, the house was a mess, but I worked all day long and got the house clean AND organized!  Everything (well almost everything) is out of sight, but I know where it is.  What a great feeling!

Now, for the pictures!

At the last minute, I decided to make a pound cake.  I'm glad I did because it was SO good!

Don't you just love these cute "bacon and eggs"?  I saw the idea on Pinterest and just had to try it!  They were a hit! Under the "bacon and eggs" is Kim Wheeler's "Christmas crack". It is SO good and addicting!

Look at that spread. Makes me hungry just looking at it!

Chelsea, Marty, Langdon (in the back), Jerry and Bryson.

My precious Mama

 

Diane, Jameson (doesn't he look excited?), and Derek.

Drooling over all the sales!  Selena, Laura, and Bo (at his first Jones family brunch!)

After brunch, Marty and I went to his Mom's house to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.  We got there a little late, so I don't have any pictures of the food, but there was a TON (as always).

Sierra

Natalie

Jameson

Now, for a little show....The many faces of Shelby:

This is actually a picture of my mother-in-law....but if you look to the left, you will see Shelby.

I can't take this girl anywhere.  HAHA!

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and I hope you have a wonderful week!