Thankful Thursday

 This certainly was a Thanksgiving unlike any other. 

It is annoying that I always have homework looming over me. My Tuesday class proceeded as normal, though we ended a little early. My Wednesday class was cancelled, at the request of my classmates. 

On Wednesday afternoon, I decided to go up North Canyon again. Earlier this month, I read that they were creating a single-track trail next to the dirt road in North Canyon. (I read about it in the Davis County Clipper, which sadly is ending its publication this week.) I was surprised to see that it was already finished! So I ran on it. It was bumpier than I expected. At one point, a truck called out to me, "There's some bikers coming down! Just so you're prepared!" That's weird, because I'm used to getting out of the way for bikers. As I got to the end of this new trail (which ends where the main trail begins), a man informed me that it was a downhill bike trail. He did it nicely, so I didn't feel bad. They didn't have the signs up yet; he told me he was part of the team creating the trail. He also told me they are working on another single-track trail for everyone. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't like sharing the road with cars, but I think it might be unsightly to have a road and two trails. Even worse, I love North Canyon because it's not very busy, and these changes might bring more traffic. I don't want it to become like Mueller Park. And I can't help but wonder why they built the downhill bike trail first.

As I got up to the bridges that cross small streams, there was lots of snow. I thought about turning around, since ice is my mortal enemy.

But instead, I kept going up, because the trail wasn't really icy, just packed snow. And parts of it were clear. But the snow kept getting deeper, and I knew it would just get worse. So instead of going to Rudy's Flat, the usual destination, I took the side ridge trail I took last month. 

When I was back on the dirt road, I saw the second counselor from my old YSA bishopric biking up with his family. It's been almost a year since I've seen him.

Thanksgiving Day itself was low key. My sister and niece came over, which I suppose is breaking the rules, since they don't live in our house. But there were just five of us for Thanksgiving dinner. Nevertheless, we still prepared a full meal. My mom cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, onions, apple pie (using apples from our neighbor's tree), pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and mincemeat pie (using our own green tomatoes and our neighbor apples again). On Thanksgiving morning, I made candied sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, spiced apple cider, and cranberry sauce. I seriously don't get why canned cranberry sauce is a thing, when homemade cranberry sauce is so much better, and it is literally the easiest part of Thanksgiving dinner. I did all of this while playing my Thanksgiving playlist, which I have become quite satisfied with. I don't think I have ever heard a curated playlist on Spotify, Amazon, or Pandora that is as good as my own holiday playlists.

My final project for one of my classes is about Thanksgiving, so I did some of that on the holiday. But I wish I had had more time this Thanksgiving season to make more progress on it.

While my family was putting up Christmas decorations on Black Friday, I was doing homework. But I did put up most of the lights on Saturday. I still buy music, and I have five new Christmas albums I've been listening to: Carrie Underwood's My Gift, Ben Rector's A Ben Rector Christmas, Matt Nathanson's Farewell December, Tori Kelly's A Tori Kelly Christmas, and the Bird and the Bee's Put Up the Lights. That last one is my favorite of 2020's offerings. 

 

My final classes are this week, and I have two weeks to finish the projects. I must admit I'm feeling nervous about them. But I'm really looking forward to two weeks from now, when I won't have homework nagging me all the time, and I'll have all the free time that I had during the summer.

***

Now that the fall holidays are over, it's the final installment of pumpkinundation roundup!

Last year, I complained on Crumbl's Facebook page that they didn't have any Thanksgiving flavors. So this year, they introduced this Crumbl Pumpkin Pie Cookie. Isn't it adorable? This is a fascinating cookie. The base is like a combination of pie crust and sugar cookie. The topping is like a combination of pumpkin pie filling and frosting. Unfortunately, the taste isn't as good as the look, but it was still good. 7/10.

I think 7-Select Pecan Pie Crème Sandwich Cookies are meant for Christmas, but I consider pecan pie a Thanksgiving flavor. All of these cookies have those cheap vanilla cookies with flavored crème. If you hadn't told me, I would have thought these were maple. 5/10.

The 7-Select Candy Corn Sandwich Cookies are just generically sweet. After all, what does candy corn even taste like? 5/10.

In years past, Nabisco made Pumpkin Spice Oreos, which were one of their best flavors. Unfortunately, the 7-Select Pumpkin Spice Sandwich Cookies are nothing like the Oreos. They have a super weird flavor. Not only does it not taste like pumpkin spice, it's actually gross! 3/10.

The Kneaders Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cheesecake is lazy. It's just plain cheesecake with a thin layer of pumpkin chocolate chip cake on top and then a layer of frosting. Who puts frosting on cheesecake?! In years past, they actually had pumpkin cheesecake that had pumpkin in the cheesecake itself. I don't know why they changed it to this. 6/10.

The Kneaders Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake has a nice, rich flavor—but again, it's inferior to what they had in the past. They used to have large cake slices that were easier to eat. This cake is just hard to eat without it falling over. 8/10.

I bought this R.W. Knudsen Pumpkin Spice Sparkling Cider for Thanksgiving, and it has apple juice and pumpkin juice with other flavorings. I don't know that it tastes like pumpkin, but I really enjoyed drinking it, even more than I liked my own home-spiced cider. 7/10.

See you next year, pumpkin!