Over the River

and through the woods, you know the rest...

This Thanksgiving dad learned a few new things. First is that you can over cook potatoes for mashed potatoes. I never really thought you could over boil a potato but you can. Then to make matters worse you can over "whip" the over cooked potatoes, making a shiny thick potato paste that no amount of milk or cream or even putting in the oven to cook in hopes it will turn magically into normal mashed potatoes will fix. I can say if my potatoes were hair they would win the hearts of everyone because of the beautiful sheen.

The second thing dad learned is that sometimes the thermostat on the oven doesn't work properly...and that the meat thermometer needs to be properly inserted into the turkey. Go too deep and you go through the turkey and touch the pan giving you a false reading that the turkey is done. Not a great thing. Also all mathematic equations of cooking time per pound of turkey goes out the window when you are trying to get the turkey done for a 2pm meal. Nothing more scrumptious then cutting into a turkey that appears to be done and finding pink juices and meat. Thank GOD for microwaves. Luckily Charlotte was fast asleep taking a nap and was able to miss dads wonderful cooking.

The frozen peas came out perfect. And of course so did moms stuffing. Good thing we didn't put it in the raw turkey.

Nanny and Beepa came to visit for Thanksgiving. They of course were happy just to see Charlotte so they didn't really care about the turkey and potatoes (at least thats what they said). We all dozed on and off while sitting around after stuffing ourselves with turkey dinner. Dad's bright idea of waking up at 4am to hit the 5am Christmas Sale at Best Buy was quickly dimming with every full belly breath he took. By 7pm the bright idea was a dark figment of his dumb imagination. Instead we would all wake up and head to Portsmouth by 9am to stroll around town shopping. Much better idea than waiting in line outside of a Best Buy in the freezing cold at 4am.

Portsmouth was great. For black Friday it was extremely quiet. We walked. We shopped. We had lunch, then headed home in time for Charlotte's nap. We also took advantage of having Beepa around by making him take us to get our Christmas tree. Since dad is still not supposed to lift anything greater than 10 pounds and is still recovering from surgery, Beepa had the fun job of laying on the cold ground to saw down the tree. Luckily the saw was sharp and the tree trunk was small. Oh then he had to lift it up onto the car. And off of the car. And set it up in our house. And put the lights on it. Well most of the lights until we ran out of lights half way through. Nanny and mom were sent out to the store to get some more lights. Charlotte LOVES her Christmas tree. She still hasn't mastered saying Christmas Tree. It sounds a lot like Trick or Treat. When she woke up from her nap she walked into the living room and said, "Wooooww!!! Trissmiss treeet!!" Yes Charlotte, it is a Christmas tree.

Keeping with the Christmas Tree festivities, Mom, Dad, and Charlotte decided to enjoy the town tree lighting at the town square on Sunday night. Carolers sung in the gazebo. Free hot chocolate to warm us up. Charlotte got to see her friends. And of course we were able to count down from 10 to the actual lighting of the tree. So nice to live in a quaint new england town.



Charlotte refused to wear her mittens. Her hands were ice cold. Her fingers bright red. However she did love her first Hot Chocolate and she loved being held in moms arms. And yes she looked adorable wearing that hat.

What a great Thanksgiving weekend.