Thanksgiving Tour de Alabama

I'll spare you the explanation for the long blog hiatus...hopefully the title and pictures are explanation enough. I'll take you on a photo Thanksgiving Tour de Alabama.

We began our holiday after we FINALLY got out of the car in Decatur. We had a wonderful time with Nick's brother,sisters, Debbie, and Pops & Gigi, and Carter really enjoyed spending time with Banks and Mary Reese. It was fun for me to watch him interacting with them. He loves "big kids," and they were so great with him--loving on him and playing with him.


Amidst visiting with family, we were able to have dinner one night with three of Nick's high school friends and their families. Here are the kiddos...all 3 or under! Thanks to the Fites for hosting a fun night filled with friendship and, of course, great grilled food!

Then, we enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch at Debbie's, where, in an effort to avoid a nap which we finally achieved by putting the pack-n-play in Debbie's closet, Carter pulled pumpkins around in the wagon Uncle Christopher gave him .

After nap time, it was time for yummy Thanksgiving food. Carter LOVED the cranberry orange relish. It was essentially all he ate, UNTIL the yummy coconut cake that Uncle Christopher and Aunt E made! He loved it! Here is Debbie giving Carter some bites.

Then, on to Thanksgiving dinner at Pops & Gigi's house. While we waited on dinner to be ready, Carter and Popsy pretended they were roosters and made the Cock-a-doodle-doo noise!

After dinner, we headed south to Birmingham to visit with my family. We were able to visit with my family and enjoy some yummy food. Awaiting another yummy dinner on Friday night {this one Italian rather than Thanksgiving themed}, Carter and Emily read a book. (sorry folks...somehow, I managed not to get many pictures with anyone other than Carter in them while we were in Bham. I'll do better, I promise!)

On Saturday, Nick and I were able to go down to Tuscaloosa putting our season tickets to good use for the first time all season! so sad! to experience a fun game and a great victory!

This is what Carter was doing at Aunt B & Ken's while Mom and Dad were at the game! He looks like he was having as much fun as we were. He must have known the Tide was playing well! Thanks to Button & Ken for keeping him {and to Debbie for offering to keep him!} so we could go to the game.We loved being in Alabama, visiting with family and friends, and cheering the Tide to victory. We are so glad that we got to spend our Thanksgiving with our families, and we are so thankful for the health, laughter, and love that we share with them. And, while we are glad to be back at our house, we sure do miss our family and friends in Alabama! Thanks for a fun week!

Brrrrrr, Cute!

With the temperature turning chilly, Carter is proving that cute is cute...even in bulky outerwear.

How cute am I?

Posing with MomGiving my tough lookTrying to show off my cute frog hat, but showing off my cute grin instead.

Thursday's Random Round-up

So I got this idea from a blog that my brother introduced me to. I thought it might be fun to try, so unfortunately y'all are my guinea pigs.


This says all that I can say about Yankee... though it seems there is even one for this area.


Let's hope that Tubby didn't follow Saban's lead with his own call to action.


Why is that some people just think it is ok to get naked anywhere?




And, as always, I'll leave you with a picture you of this little guy:

Dad's Little Helper

We are giving {or, more precisely, having someone else give} our basement a face-lift. We are changing the paint color, replacing the carpet and hope to make Carter a nice play area down there. This past week, we had someone come and paint the walls. Subsequently, Nick decided that the baseboards needed to be painted, so he was taping them off to paint. Carter wanted to help play too!

A tasty alternative...

...to the sweet potato casserole that graces so many tables this time of year are Sweet Potato Balls. My MIL and SILs tried {and shared} this recipe a few years ago, and it is truly delicious and delightful! We made them last year to complement our Thanksgiving dinner, and if we were cooking this year, I would definitely make them again. For those of you who might not like coconut how unfortunate for you, you could probably eliminate it and just roll in the cinnamon and sugar. However, I cannot endorse this method because I have never tried it.

Sweet Potato Balls

Ingredients
4 large sweet potatoes
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 teaspoon orange zest
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2 cups shredded coconut, sweetened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 large marshmallow per potato ball
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake the potatoes until tender, then peel and mash them. Stir in the brown sugar, orange juice, zest and nutmeg. In a separate bowl, toss the coconut with the sugar and cinnamon. Press mashed potatoes around each marshmallow, creating a 2 to 3-inch diameter ball. Roll the balls in the coconut mixture. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Watch carefully for the last few minutes of cooking; the expanding marshmallows can cause the potato balls to burst open.

(recipe and photo courtesy of Paul Deen, The Food Network)