Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope everyone had a great day, with good food and great friends and family.  We had a mix of a traditional and non-traditional Thanksgiving this year - Wednesday, we went to Caleb’s old office for their annual turkey dinner over lunch break, and it was great to see everyone from there again.  (We do see them fairly often, we still have a chest freezer in the storage building over there and stop by every few weeks, but it was really good to spend some actual time with everyone together for a change).

Thursday, we had some friends over for the morning, walked around the farm and watched kids throw the few remaining rocks around the pond into it :). Then, with no further plans, Caleb and I brainstormed about what to have for dinner that wasn’t too time-consuming or stressful, yet would be something out-of-the-ordinary for us, and especially the kids.  After several minutes of thought, Caleb suggested a pot pie, since we almost never have that :-/. Seriously, I’m not joking.  I countered with a tuna casserole (facetiously), since I’m not sure the kids have had that either!  Finally, I remembered what I’ve been thinking I should make sometime for a special occasion, and it went over pretty well - homemade doughnuts!  I didn’t tell the boys, just had them cut out biscuit rounds and tray them up to rise.  Then I started to put some home-rendered lard in the pan - Liam blurted “I think that’s plenty!” As I just kept scooping most of the quart jar into the pan, he looked at me like I was crazy - and didn’t buy my explanation of Lard Soup :). I started frying doughnuts, and gave the boys the first round to roll in cinnamon sugar, and then we shared the first one around, still hot - mmmm.  Unbelievably, they still didn’t get it!  Liam casually said “Yeah, I think I’ve had something like this before” - not!  I said “They’re homemade doughnuts - we’re having doughnuts for supper” and the look of pure joy on their faces was totally worth it :). He said “This is definitely the best supper in the history of this household, at least in my lifetime!”  And yes, that’s what we had for supper - an entire heaping plate of warm doughnuts, with a little dulce de leche ice cream on the side :).  

And to finish with something from completely the other side of - well, everything:

This afternoon, Caleb was working on a deer hide the neighbors gave us, and I heard Liam say “Malachi, I don’t think you should hold that like that” and Malachi says “It’s keeping me warm!”  I looked across the front yard - and just lost it. I almost agree with Liam on this one, it just doesn’t seem right somehow - but Malachi was quite happy so what can I say?!