And our Thanksgiving

We have a Thanksgiving tradition at our house: I get out this decoration and crack up.  Every year.

Then Ray rolls his eyes at me.  Every year. 
It's a turkey eating a potato.  With a knife and fork.  Come on, that's funny.

We also have a tradition of pizza on Thanksgiving Eve.  This tradition began the first year that we were married when I spent the entire day cooking and then Ray came home from work and asked what I was making for dinner.  I gave him the look.  He was smart enough to respond "I'll call Papa Johns" and Hayes family tradition was born.

We've hosted every year since we've been married so I've slowly tweaked the menu that I grew up with.  In addition to turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes (which you cannot fool with, although Ray keeps threatening to deep fry the turkey) we have butternut squash casserole, rosemary cornbread stuffing (never actually stuffed), and asparagus.  And despite the fact that it's just my parents and us, pumpkin pie and pumpkin roll and fruit salad.  It's tradition.

Ray will also argue that it's tradition for me to squeal when I inevitable have difficulty removing the neck from the never-quite-completely-thawed cavity.  I HATE that part.

This year I'm trying to teach B about the holiday too and not just rush past it to Christmas.  We've been reading One is a Feast for Mouse which he seems to enjoy. (http://www.amazon.com/One-Is-Feast-Mouse-Thanksgiving/dp/0823422313).  We've also been singing some turkey songs and coloring some turkey pictures (Did I mention I like turkeys?)

We made these cute keep sakes based on the idea found here http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Hands-and-Feet-Turkey.html.

N was NOT a fan.  It was one of those crafts that was really more work for us (yes it took two of us) than them.  B did cut out the beaks and glue them on.  The first time I put the hand prints too close to the bottom of the page so I had to cut them out and glue them on a new sheet rather than mess with paint again. 

B also enjoyed making turkeys (maybe we'll use them as centerpieces?) from toilet paper rolls (http://www.messforless.net/2011/11/paper-roll-turkey.html).

Yes, these turkeys have blue feathers.  And they are done in his trademark minimalist style. 

I'm looking forward to the Macy's parade, a delicious meal and even better leftovers.

How do you celebrate Thanksgiving?

And a simple fall dinner

I enjoy cooking and someday I hope to do it again. :)  Okay, so I do cook, but the days of elaborate meals are over for awhile.  You know, meals with multiple components: main dish, 2 side dishes, salad, bread, dessert. 2 components are about my max these days, 3 if you're allowed to count bread from a bag (and I seriously often forget to even put that on the table).

That's why one-dish meals are so fabulous.

It's hard to go wrong with the ease and delicious-ness of roasted veggies.  Dress them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a fresh herb and you're good to go. To make it a meal I add some sliced sausage and perhaps a salad if I'm feeling ambitious.

Any vegetable that will stand up to roasting will work.  Green beans made a frequent appearance when they were so plentiful this summer.   I made a beautiful version with multi-colored carrots and potatoes. My absolute favorite has to be the fall combination, however.

I like to use a butternut squash or sweet potatoes, cauliflower, and apples.  A chicken apple sausage compliments these flavors beautifully.  Simply peel and cube the squash or 2-3 potatoes, about 2/3 head cauliflower, and slice 2-3 apples and a pack of sausage.  Toss them all together with enough oil to lightly coat (2-3 T) and kosher salt and pepper to taste.

 Spread the mixture out on a jelly roll pan (or 2, depending on how much you make) and pop them in a 425 oven for 35 minutes, stirring (and rotating if you're using 2 pans) halfway through.

And dinner is done.

and a fall sensory box

B may not be much of a crafter, but he loves sensory boxes.  Give a boy something he can dig in and you have got a winner.

One of the things that I'm really trying to do with the crafts and other activities is recognize the seasons. I want to create family traditions and rhythm to our year. I love seasonal things and especially love fall, so a fall sensory bin seemed like a good idea.

When I searched Pinterest the ideas I got were oatmeal (messy), coffee grounds (messy and wasteful!), and popcorn (expensive!) I decided that dried corn would be a good idea, however it would appear that "deer" corn only comes in 50 lb bags.  Our sensory bin is an under-bed box.  That's a bit too much. Next obstacle.  A friend was willing to split the bag, and then we discovered that it was coated in molasses.  Toddlers manage to be sticky even when you don't let them play in molasses. In the end we got dried corn on the cob and the hubby stripped it.  This option was still fairly expensive, but worth it.

 I added some small pine cones and artificial leaves and then the best part, some tractors and diggers (I am terrible mother of boys-I call every construction vehicle a digger).  

I'm lucky I got the picture above, because B couldn't wait to get in it and he played with it for hours over the course of the next few days. He took out the leaves pretty quickly because they didn't work that well with the tractors.  Then I said that we needed to make a silo, and he went and got his Duplo blocks, so they got added to the mix too. 

I guess I had better start thinking about a Christmas sensory box, in case it proves as difficult as this one!