Monthly Musings

This link up was last week and our Thanksgiving was last month, but I still wanted to do it. 

1. Favourite Thanksgiving dishes?

I just like regular turkey dinner with a goal of having a colourful plate. My family, and I think most Canadians, don't make many of those traditional American Thanksgiving things like green bean casserole, sweet potato with marshmallows, mac and cheese, or deviled eggs. 

2. Stuffing or dressing?

I call it dressing. I made it from scratch for years but found no one was really eating it and it was difficult to actually stuff the turkey, so I've made Stove Top in the microwave for the past couple of turkey dinners. 

3. Are you hosting any of the holidays this year? Please share any tips.

We hosted Dave's parents and cousin for Thanksgiving dinner. And my mom is coming for Christmas.  We also host a Christmas party for our friends and family in a couple of weeks. My tips are to keep it simple, don't reinvent the wheel if things have worked in the past.

4. Turkey trot or football game?

Neither thing is really associated with Canadian Thanksgiving. I would be more inclined to do my own workout and watch a football game from home, not as part of a big crowd for either.

5. If you decorate for Christmas, do you decorate before after Thanksgiving?

Because we celebrate Thanksgiving in October, then we definitely decorate for Christmas after Thanksgiving. 

6. Are your holidays sit down meals or more casual affair?

Sit down meals, and this year we got to use the good china. 

7. Pumpkin or apple pie? Another dessert?

 Both kinds of pie make an appearance on our Thanksgiving table.

8. Are you travelling for Thanksgiving or staying close to home?

We stayed at home for Thanksgiving.  It's easier if people come to us.

9. Do you Black Friday shop?

Black Friday seems to extend to a two week period now, and there are things that I will buy during this time.

10. Thing you are most looking forward to this holiday season.

I can't really rank them, I like all of our traditions equally and for different reasons. 

 

Weekend Recap

We had a long weekend in Canada, celebrating Thanksgiving.  I arrived home from my work trip to Mexico on Friday night and was glad to be home.  Dave's parents were here for the weekend.  

Dave golfed early on Saturday morning and captured the morning mist on the first hole.

I got up early so I could be one of the first people at the produce store to pick up things for Thanksgiving dinner.  I was successful and was home by 8:30.  Then I got to sit down with my coffee, breakfast sandwich, and crossword puzzle. 

Dave's parents and the boys went to the Titanic Exhibit up at Downsview. They said it was very good.

I was very productive - I made two pies and the cranberry sauce. And I got to the grocery store and went for a run (slow but I was out there!). 

Dave took his dad and the boys for 9 holes of golf and then Dave's mom and I met them for dinner.  The evening light is always so pretty. 

Q is doing some off-season baseball training with some kids on his rep team and his coach has them doing some exercises throughout the week.  He was fitting it in after dinner. 

Then we got some cocktails and watched some of the John Candy documentary. 

On Sunday I went to church with Dave's mom and E.  Dave was golfing and his dad took Q to baseball.  

Our church was decorated nicely for Thanksgiving. 

After church I got the turkey into the oven and the rest of the meal prepped.  I had the idea to put out some white paper to decorate. 

I got my grandmother's dishes out for our meal.

My yummy plate. Everything turned out pretty well. 

Along with Dave's parents, we also had his cousin join us.

We were excited to see Game 1 of the ALCS, but it wasn't going that well.  

On Monday Dave's parents left.  Dave and Q went to High Park to play some baseball. E was doing homework and chilling in the basement.  I had plans to get my nails done and do a workout but I was worn out from travelling and preparing food for two days so I instead spent the afternoon resting, and it was the right choice! I watched the rest of the Victoria Beckham doc and the Leafs game. 

We had an easy dinner of meat, burrata, crackers, hummus, olives, and vegetable and watched Game 2 of the ALCS (also not great).

We switched over to the Bills game, and did some tidying up.  

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving Canadians!!

I wanted to take this opportunity to mention the things I am thankful for as we go into this long weekend, in no particular order:

My lovely husband and sons

Our extended family and the time we get to spend to them

Our safe home

Our relatively levelheaded and harmonious country and government

Our good health

Freedom to move about our city, country, and desired holiday destinations

Our jobs

Fresh air

Good food

Friends and neighbours

Yes, these are obvious but it is always good to stop and appreciate those things, and Thanksgiving weekend is the perfect time.

Weekend Recap

Thanksgiving weekend is one of my favourite weekends of the year.  The fall weather combined with delicious food can’t be beat. 

I was out first thing on Friday morning to make sure I could get a turkey, which I did, and decided to buy some flowers as well. 

After a somewhat busy day at work, it was cocktail time that evening. 

It was homemade pizza night which we had not done for awhile. 

Q was first up to make his pizza.

Opened up a nice bottle of red wine to enjoy with our pizza. 

E was up next.

A little dance party broke out (ignore the shop vac!)

Silliness on Saturday morning. 

I made our two pies for Thanksgiving dinner. 

After lunch we loaded our bikes onto the bike rack and drove downtown with plans to bike around the Toronto Islands.  We took the Hanlan’s Point ferry over. 

What a beautiful day!

Loving the view of our city.

We biked from Hanlan’s Point to Ward’s Island, stopping along the way to check stuff out. 

Stopped for an ice cream.

And then back on Ward’s Island ferry to the mainland.  We grabbed an early dinner at The Great Lakes Brewhouse before loading the bikes back up for home.

On Sunday morning E decided to sit in the balcony for the service instead of going to Sunday school. I went up to see him between choir practice an and the start of the service. 

I made this wrap for Q for lunch, where fold it into quarters.

I prepared our Thanksgiving dinner all afternoon and watched the football.  The boys played some Monopoly and video games. 

Ready to eat!

I was going for a colourful plate but unfortunately the green Brussels sprouts and the red beets were a bit darker than expected, oops. Everything was good though.

We watched The Village and had our pie.  

On Monday morning I finally tackled the boys’ dressers and cleaned out their clothes.  Here is the pile of things that were removed from Q’s dresser.

Dave was golfing the afternoon so the boys and I went out.  First stop was the McDonalds at Dundas West Station. 

Then we went back to High Park and ate our food there and walked around.  I said E looked like he was doing a photo shoot.

This is Q reenacting a scene from The Village.

Just a few trees have changed colours.

We looked for some geocaches and that took us all over the park.  We spend a lot of time there but I think there are still parts of the park I saw for the first time. 

This was a steep hill we had to go down.

Q and I made cookies when we got back. 

Then I did a small workout and we had leftovers for dinner. I hope you had a fun weekend too!