ThankFULL and Lovin' It

Hopefully everyone had a great Thanksgiving this past week! It certainly was a unique holiday in 2020, not being able to have large family gatherings and all. We only had 6 at our table: Scott and me, plus Amber, Weston, Abby and Gwen.

We opted to do a food swap with Scott's parents instead of a sit-down meal with them. Phil has been worried and anxious about getting coronavirus lately and we certainly didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable.

So Coy and I split up the menu and when the food was ready, Scott and I drove up with our goodies to their home in Rigby to deliver our portion of the feast. 

Our menu consisted of: (with grades, based on tastiness) 

Pork spareribs (A-)

Seared Brussels sprouts with crumbled bacon and Bleu cheese (A+)

Caramelized rainbow carrots (A-)

Pumpkin Soup - made from absolute scratch ((B-)

Cheesy breadsticks (A+)

Best appetizer ever: Brie Bites (A++) - I didn't get a picture, but here is one from the internet - along with the recipe.

https://www.thecountrycook.net/cranberry-brie-bites/

Apple Tart (a repeat from our French Ancestor Night) (A+)

Before & After (there were too many apple slices to fit in my little pan, so I baked them separately)

And a creamy layered dessert that we failed to get a picture of - - Coy made a whole pan and sent most of it with us. It had a nice crust, then layers of cream cheese, pumpkin, cool whip and chopped pecans on top. We ate it ALL as of last night. It was super yummy! (A+)

The reason why I decided weeks ago to forego baking a giant turkey this year is simply because I wasn't feeling it. 

I'm just glad that the inspired idea came as early as it did, so we could plan around that. If I had planned on baking a giant turkey and bought all the fixings, and then we found out we couldn't have group gatherings larger than 10 people, I would have spent a lot of money for nothing. I would have had to do a lot of work for a very small group of family members.

As of this writing, we are down to the last couple of ribs that need to be eaten. Thankfully, there is no shortage of happy volunteers to take care of that issue. :)

Also, partway through our baking adventures, Chelsea texted me from Denver to check on how things were going. She and Garret had some friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving together. I love her beautiful hair in this photo!!

With their friends, Dustin and Bill - 

She wrote: "We are celebrating with Bill and Dustin since we couldn't travel this year, so they made the turkey and stuffing and we made green bean casserole, deviled eggs, and I ordered some tasty cupcakes from a local business!"

Amber and I sent this photo back to Chelsea:

We also visited with Benson and Kylie for a while, which was so nice. They were postponing their festivities until Friday because their friends had to work on Thanksgiving Day. I asked where the friends work, and Kylie said they work on the base in food services. Okay, that makes sense. Military personnel are going to need some food on Thanksgiving Day. :) I get it.

I miss those two. I know I say this every single week. But it's really true!!

As for the rest of the week . . .

Monday: I painted the rest of the walls above the stairs (FINALLY!!), and I painted our bathroom. 

All taped and ready!

As for the bathroom, I only needed to paint down to the 42" mark. Scott helped me measure to where I needed to stop, because he would be installing wainscoting to cover up the lower walls.

Tuesday: I went to Hobby Lobby to purchase the bathroom mirror that I wanted, only to find out that they were all gone!! Amber had taken the girls out to do some reconnaissance for me the day before, taking pictures of various potentials for me. I should have had her grab the one that I liked while she was there, but I didn't see any of the photos until she got home.

This is the one that I want. It's 33" in diameter - so it's quite large, but it's SO PRETTY! And it was 50% off this past week, too! I found someone that could help me to order one, and we got it ordered at the sale price. It is supposed to arrive on Tuesday of this coming week. Crossing fingers . . .

 Hobby Lobby had this sign as I was hunting around the store. I thought of my Dad. :)

I was also surprised at how many turkeys were piled up high at Winco, our local grocery store. The worker guy had boxes and boxes stacked up, and as he opened up one box at a time, he'd dump the frozen turkeys up onto the mountain. I've never seen so many turkeys so close to Thanksgiving before!! I attribute it to the lackluster idea of baking a turkey for just a handful of people this year. But wow. Those poor turkeys - killed for nothing!!

I helped feed the girls lunch, and as usual, they get distracted easily, ha ha. Even though they are hungry, they want to do this and that at the same time, so they're up, they're back down, they're up again, etc. I finally asked them, "Would you girls like a 'seatbelt'?" They excitedly shouted YES!! So I found them a couple of straps to help them stay put and focused on the task at hand, ha ha. It really did help!

And later that afternoon, Gwen and Abby got to decorate their own turkey cupcake while I decorated several for neighbors, friends, and my young women's class. 

I thought I had taken a photo of the whole group of cupcakes that I made, but I didn't! I delivered most of them on Wednesday and these were all that were left. At least I had a few that I could capture a picture of!

Wednesday: Scott figured out how to fix a plumbing issue in our new bathroom. Thanks, YouTube! You're the best! The problem was that the plumbing in the wall (behind the vanity) was just a little too low for the opening in the back of the vanity. 

He could either tear up the wall to move the plumbing up a bit, OR . . . he could reinforce the opening on the back of the vanity and then cut out an area to accommodate the plumbing. He chose the latter.

He installed a metal bracing along the top edge of the vanity wood for reinforcement. Then he could successfully make a circle cut below it without wrecking the entire piece. Genius!!

Problem solved. Next up - installing a new toilet.

Next, Scott helped me hang up my new cubby system - to replace the old medicine cabinet. 

**I taped up a 33 inch diameter circle to represent where the mirror will go. The only piece of cardboard that we had in the garage that was also large enough was this one, ha ha. Weston had used the cardboard as a backdrop while he spray-painted one of his car fenders recently. 

Visually, it helped me a lot because Scott wanted me to choose some bathroom lighting and I didn't know how much room I would have unless I hung this giant cardboard circle up. :)

We also got some snow on Wednesday. It went from fall and green grass, to everything covered in white in a matter of a few minutes! The snowflakes were huge! 

Thankfully, Weston made it up to Idaho Falls again safely in spite of the wintery roads.

I also tried out my new huge cleaver knife to cut up a pumpkin. We roasted the pumpkin flesh to make the homemade pumpkin soup for Thanksgiving. A rubber mallet is amazingly helpful to tap the cleaver a few times and then you can slice right through the pumpkin! I loved the whole thing! 

Interestingly, I found a tiny little seed that had sprouted INSIDE the pumpkin!! Where do you think you're going, little pumpkin seed???

Jacob sent us pictures from his kitchen on Wednesday, too. He baked two GORGEOUS pies. One was apple and the other lattice pie was a mixed berry. 

I, too, baked with apples. But, instead of making an apple pie with two crusts, I opted to bake another Apple Tart using the same recipe from our French Ancestor Night. (as already seen above)

Thursday: One other note about Jacob - he is just so gifted with any category of cooking. This year, Hannah's family let him take charge of the turkey. He brined it first, then put it on the smoker down in Scipio, Utah at Hannah's parents' place. 

Here are the cute parents-to-be down on the family farm in Scipio. 

I think Jake made crescent rolls, too, because he texted me asking for the recipe. :)

Here it is. A "Top 3" family favorite recipe from our good friends, the Garners.

Friday: LOTS of work was done in the master bathroom. Scott added plumbing for the shower and cleverly mounted the faucet handle on the half-wall. That way, you can reach in easily to start getting the hot water going, without having to stand right where the ice cold water shoots out! ha ha

And we got new lighting!!

You may notice that the cubby shelf unit isn't perfectly centered over the toilet, like I would have liked. Well, Scott had to attach it to the studs and unfortunately, there wasn't a whole lot that I could do. Overall, sometimes you just need to make little concessions here and there and not be too fussy.

This is the main big attraction that will still take a little while: The shower.

Dad - I know you are scratching your head about the white PVC pipe going down into the drain. Scott said he was using it as a tester as he would send water down the pipes. It's not a permanent fixture. :)

The view from the shower is pretty nice though!! I am very happy with how it's coming together.

Let's talk about leftover Thanksgiving ribs for a minute. Gwen has found a new favorite thing to do. She will sit for HOURS picking little bits of meat off the bones and happily devouring them. She is one happy little girl.

This was her on Thanksgiving Day, trying a rib for the first time. :)

Saturday: The Whitworths left early in the morning to go up into the mountains with Weston's family in search of a Christmas tree. Amber shared these beautiful photos with me of their adventures.

Here's Weston, packing Gwen over his shoulder.

Gwen, happily trouncing through the snowy path.

Abby making a beautiful snow angel.

More hauling of Gwen over Dad's shoulder.

More snow angels.

Abby, sliding down the hill.

And a gorgeous view through the trees. They went up to the Pine Creek area, between Swan Valley (east of Idaho Falls) and Victor, Idaho. Victor is near Driggs - which is on the west side of the Tetons.

They had a really fun day out in nature, and afterwards they hung out at the Whitworth home in Rigby for a while to recover and rest.

Meanwhile, Scott and I tackled our own home projects. I worked on my secret Christmas project - which is almost done!! I am so close I can almost smell it!!

Scott poured in the first of many layers of cement in the bathroom shower. He got a disposable mixing tub ($5) to mix up everything in the garage.

Concrete is in the bucket, ready to go.

Pat, pat, pat. Trowel a glob onto the floor, then spread it around, and pat, pat, pat. 

Sloped, spread out, and ready to dry. Layer one is complete.

Poor guy. He was all tuckered out after that. Also due, I'm sure, to his waking up at 5:00 a.m. worrying about random things that are out of his control. He told me he was worrying about what if there is another random water leak somewhere in this house that we cannot see. Among other things. And once he has a question like that in his head, he just can't go back to sleep. He thinks he gets this from his mom. :) 

But who wouldn't want to take a little snooze by that warm winter fire?? So cozy. :)

When Amber and the family arrived back home, they settled downstairs to watch a movie and rest some more. Amber is knitting a Christmas stocking - for next year. It won't be done in time for this Christmas.

And all their snow clothes and gear are hanging up to dry in front of the fireplace. 

A great end to a great week. Be Thankful. Be Merry. And Be a Light.