Low-key Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving for being a relatively low-key, relaxing holiday. There were many small things that cumulatively made it an enjoyable week.

On Monday, my ward had a pie-baking competition, so I brought my chocolate cherry pie. I love the flavor, but I discovered that I need some kind of thickening agent for the filling, or at least need to remove some of the liquid. I have made this many times, but only now did I realize I should work on the filling. 

As I was preparing to leave that night, one of the laces in my ten-year-old shoes broke. Luckily, I remembered that I once bought some dinosaur shoelaces from the clearance section of Winegars grocery store. So I replaced the lace of one shoe. They're a little short, but they work.

These shoes are great for wet weather.

On Tuesday, I went running with a friend. 

Thursday, we had Thanksgiving at my sister's/grandparents' house, and it was smaller than usual this year. I contributed three small pieces to the meal: homemade cranberry sauce (why do people bother with canned?), green bean casserole (greater than the sum of its parts), and sweet potatoes.

We had many food items with our own homegrown produce: cherry pie with our own cherries, apple and mincemeat pies with our own apples and green tomatoes, and grape juice from our own grapes. I didn't stuff myself as much as I usually do on Thanksgiving. 

After we returned home, I went for a run on the Wild Rose Trail, which will likely be my last one of the season. It was muddier than I expected, but it felt so nice and Thanksgivingy up there.

Then Friday, I spent the entire day taking down Thanksgiving decorations and putting up Christmas. We got it basically entirely done by the end of Saturday. We have never done it that fast before! Now I can just relax the rest of the season (except that I don't have a single idea for presents yet). Every year, we get a new ornament that represents our life that year, so this is my ornament, because this is the year I started working for the state of Utah (and Utah's new flag came out).

Christmas is the only holiday for which my parents help with the decorating. But I take care of all the lights, because my dad hates it, and I do it better.

You know how people have dreams about finding new rooms in their houses? I had a similar (but different) experience in real life. I have had my bedroom off and on since I was five years old. And yesterday, I just happened to notice that someone wrote a phone number on the wall inside my closet! Of course, it doesn't have an area code, and it has the 295 prefix, which we had until I was in third grade, when they gave that prefix to the new neighborhoods. (I never understood that—if the new people had to have new numbers anyway, why not make them have the new number?) This phone number was probably written there before we moved in back in 1991. And whoever wrote it probably put it there because they were too embarrassed to be friends with someone named Musky. 

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And now it's time for the final installment of pumpkinundation roundup for 2023. Remarkably, I think this year I had less stuff than usual. I'm less tolerant of sugar than I used to be, and it often makes me sleep poorly.

The Trader Joe's Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart is a savory tart with squash and cheeses. It was better than I expected, since I'm picky about cheese. I liked it, but I think I could only handle small doses. 7/10.

Big Hazy's Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Ice Cream was disappointing. I don't know if it had pumpkin in it, because to me, it tasted like Torani pumpkin pie syrup. 6/10.

Legers Deli Turkey and Stuffing Sandwich is a regular item, I believe, but only on Tuesdays. I like supporting small businesses, but I honestly don't understand how this little deli is still in business. It's in a weird part of town, it's overpriced, and it's just not that good. The sourdough bread seemed more like Wonder Bread. 6/10.

I like Trader Joe's Thanksgiving Stuffing Seasoned Kettle Chips. But I have had two bags in my cupboard for several weeks and barely have eaten any of them. I guess I haven't been craving salty things as much recently? And I remember that the bottom of the bag is overly seasoned, so maybe I'm afraid of that. 7/10.

The Crumbl Cranberry Crumb Cookie had a nice cranberry flavor that wasn't overpowering—I would have liked a little more. It's nice to get a break from pumpkin and see cranberry get some love. 8/10.

I bought three bags of Trader Joe's Turkey Sausage Stuffing Fried Rice. I love it, though I wouldn't peg its flavor as stuffing. Mostly I love that it exists. 8/10.

See you back here in September!