October 10, 2011

Turkey, Pumpkins & The Captain's Lounge

Thanksgiving is our favourite holiday. We love it so much that we host dinner for our family every year and will not give it up to anyone else. It's a holiday without expectation (other than the turkey of course!). There are no gifts, no necessary decorations, and no long-winded stories of mystical creatures waiting until everyone falls asleep to come creeping around the house. 


Thanksgiving tradition in our house starts with the bird. Hubby is responsible for all things meat. He cracks a beer and begins to get the bird ready around 9AM. To clarify, by get it ready I mean that he takes it out of the packaging, covers it in bacon and put it in the oven (we buy the Butterball pre-stuffed cook from frozen, I mean, who really wants to stick their hand up the turkey's rear?). Hubby takes care of that bird all day - checking it, basting it with beer and replacing the bacon once it starts to dry out. I can tell you that his TLC is well worth it - that turkey is delicious! I think that overall, this has been our best Thanksgiving dinner ever. The food was scrumptious, the weather was perfect, and the company was fabulous, as always.


Could you add a little more bacon please?


On Sunday, we spent the day taking apart our basement. We have been in our house for almost 5 years now and we have not done anything with it. When we moved in, hubby nicknamed it "The Captain's Lounge". It's dark and dingy with wood panelling all over and plush forest green carpet. Nothing about it says "Hey kids, come downstairs and play!". My brother kindly offered to help with the dismantling (despite fighting off an illness) in exchange for accommodations and beer for the weekend. They got a great start, but there is still a lot of work to be done. We're going to take it one step at a time since we don't have a budget put aside for this project, but I'm optimistic we'll have it done by the Spring.


Welcome to The Captain's Lounge


Today, we joined our friends at Saunders Farm to give the kids some fun time outdoors. We were a little unprepared for the heat and the poor kids were all in long pants and long sleeve shirts! We took lots of water and shade breaks to make up for it. The girls had a blast playing together and I'm happy to say that Cate loved the jumping pillows (just like Mom & Dad). Maddie was pretty happy to see everything and I'm sure can't wait to explore everything when she's a little bigger. I think we'll be buying the season pass next year!




Overall, I think we found a great balance this weekend. One day for family, one day for renovation, and one day for fun. I decided late last week that this weekend's calories didn't matter. Hubby and I will both be starting a 9 day cleanse this week and so we let ourselves off the hook and it felt pretty good. Obviously we can't do this every weekend, but once in a while isn't terrible. 


Tomorrow is another day.

1 comment:

Kataroo said...

this cracked me up "no long-winded stories of mystical creatures waiting until everyone falls asleep to come creeping around the house" LOVE THAT!