Earlier this week – well, Monday to be specific – we celebrated my dad’s birthday out at my older brother’s house.
My youngest nephew. Colin, made ribs — and, oddly enough I didn’t take many/any pictures of the deliciousness!! However, I did manage to get a shot of my Phred enjoying a bit of smokey BBQ goodness!!
Phred does not often have such meaty goodness in his face!
And, of course there was cake. If you don’t know yet, I have to say that I. LOVE. CAKE. Preferably (pay attention if you want to stalk/woo me with cakey goodness!!) white cake with buttercream frosting. I’m really not a huge fan of chocolate cake. And if you REALLY want to impress me, find a place that makes those old very sugar-y not quite hard but a little crunchy frosting flowers.
But I digress.
We had birthday cake.
Cake with candle holes 🙂
And we also had candles.
Miscellaneous candles
And at one point the candles were on the cake AND lit! But of course, no picture again!
My sister also brought my dad a Birthday Dutch Apple Pie – which is still in the refrigerator at his house!!
After dinner we watched a little TV and then my brother’s deer feeder went off and the dogs were brought in! And the deer showed up.
Lots of them!
And one of them was non-too pleased about having me taking pictures of his family!!
All in all it was a pretty great day! It’s always nice to spend time with family!
Hope your enjoying your week — and we’re on the downhill slope to the weekend!!!
Lots of catching up to do…but first, because I love the random YouTube embed that gets a song stuck in your head 😉
So, we had Thanksgiving and I’ve started a new job –
Travel Day went okay – slight glitch when my flight out of Cleveland was canceled but United Airlines got me re-booked before I was even able to get to the gate to complain!! I had great baking and working plans for when I got to Dad’s house.
So I did get a decent day’s work in (I’m still waiting to be fully set up to work remotely so not a WHOLE lot I can do!) and me and pop’s went out for dinner.
The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is always a day I go to my brother’s and do the baking for Thursday. Once upon a time my nephews helped out. Now they’re teenagers. Just kidding, my oldest boy was a great help to me this year!!
And then this happened — Yummmmmm!!!
Apple Pie – possibly the best I’ve ever made!
Pumpkin Pie — YUM!!
Chocolate ganache topping for the chocolate cheesecake…Super Yummy!!
Chocolate cheesecake – a first time recipe that turned out quite nice!
Tasty orange jello dessert – of course in the south we call it a Salad 😉
And then, unfortunately, THIS happened……
“What is the dog got to the apple pie, Alex?”
Which caused this to happen……
He looks kind of remorseful, doesn’t he?
Turkey day went off without a hitch as usual. My brother makes a mean turkey – this year the brine was a new spicier version than usual and the stuffing was rice. I made home made rolls for the first time in MANY years..
It would probably have been good to take a picture of the BAKED rolls!!
All in all, it seemed like a much lighter meal than usual which left plenty of room for pie!!
It has recently become a tradition to go to the Texas Renaissance Faire on the Friday after Thanksgiving but this year I had to bow out – I was planning to go to a rosary for my oldest friend’s mom who passed away that week but ended up feeling kind of sick so slept instead.
Saturday I *did* feel better and went to Freddie’s funeral – it was the first one I’d been to since my own mom’s a few years ago and I handled it much better than I thought.
Afterwards, we were meeting at her house which is in the neighborhood where I grew up. So before heading over, I took a tour.
It’s hard to see behind the big tree, but this is the house I grew up in.
These are pictures of the parking lot where I first learned to avoid running in PE class 🙂
4 laps was a mile — and it would take me the whole class to get through it!!
Funny how things seem closer and smaller when we get bigger.
Eydie and I spent a few hours talking about a lot of stuff. Just a little bit of history here – we met in first grade and I can’t remember a time when we weren’t friends. And as hard as it is, I am so glad I was able to be there for her.
Thanksgiving this year really reminded me how much I have to be thankful for. I got to spend some great time with my dad and family and some really quality time with one of my dearest friends. Even when I get cranky, I’m still happy to be there!
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and got to spend time with those who are most important to you!!
My dad took this picture of my mom back in the olden days! He was testing out a new camera
My mom loved flowers…so maybe that’s why I like to have flowers in my house so much… My lilac tree is blooming so I’m going to cut some and bring it in. Mom liked lilac.
I miss her so much every single day and always will.
Never miss a chance to tell the people you love that you love them. This is definitely something I’m still working on and find it much easier to do in writing than face to face 🙂
Happy Mother’s Day to all my friends who are Moms — even if your kids have four legs and fur. xoxo
outrunningthefork 