Thanksgiving Already?

So much for updating "daily" or "weekly". Haha. Actually, I still hope to do that; I've just been distracted with Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping. We had a great Thanksgiving. This was the first year I cooked multiple items - 3 pies, a pumpkin roll, and 2 side items, and WOW, I didn't know Thanksgiving cooking was that tiring. I mean, I didn't even cook an entire Thanksgiving meal and my feet were killing me when I was done. I decided I wanted to Christmas decorate at the same time as cooking - that was a mistake. Charlie did almost all of the decorating, which was a complete turnaround from past years. Usually I do all the decorating and he will literally put one ornament on the tree. Haha. This time he did it all himself and he didn't seem to mind it. He actually seemed to like it; it was cute. Haha.

So, I cooked the three pies and pumpkin roll all in the one night. That took a lot longer than I expected, haha. I used the *amazing* pumpkin pie receipe I found last year on AllRecipes.com. (I'll post the pie recipe at the bottom of the blog). That website has been a lifesaver for me multiple times. You can submit your own recipes and read others', and they are all on there by rating and category. It's nice because you're reading others' homemade recipes, and not some recipe on the back of a box that tells you how you should do it. I've tried a few on there I didn't like, but many are awesome. The pumpkin pie recipe I have is one of them. I think the main thing is the fact it's made with sweetened condensed milk rather than evaporated and has more spices than the traditional.

I had never made a pumpkin roll before, and to be honest, I was scared to try! I made it mainly because my mom brought it up at one point, and I wanted to bring it for her on Thanksgiving. It really pissed me off, haha. What  the recipe told you to do was just completely ridiculous. Next time I make it I'm going to do it how I want to. Needless to say, you don't need to lift it out of the pan, roll it, and unroll it multiple times. That's just asking for rips, and it sure enough did rip! I rolled it up as fast as I could and it turned out looking more like a hoagie than a pumpkin roll, but the inside looked perfect at least, haha. It tasted good, so I guess that's all that matters.

The next morning I got up and made green bean casserole and my roasted veggies I make. I read about the idea of roasting veggies with potatos, so I decided to try it myself one night, but added my own spices. I sprinkle cinnamon on top and it adds a sweet taste to it that's so good. After all the cooking, we finished up the Christmas decorating, got ready to go, took a while to figure out what car to take, loaded up, and got out of the house! We headed to my parents' for just a few minutes, dropped off the food, and headed to my in-laws. We were a little late (like always, due to me) so didn't know what to expect, but luckily everyone was there and eating, so we were able to come right in. We were starving because we had barely eaten breakfast, so it was great to eat such a big meal for lunch haha. Thanksgiving food is amazing.

After saying good-bye, we went back to my family's house where I helped decorate their house for the holidays and Charlie went to his grandma's house for more food. Last year there was a little bit of drama at my family's house on Thanksgiving, so it was nice having a great Thanksgiving there where everyone was in a good mood and got along. My dad said a nice grace before dinner and we all helped clean-up after. Charlie and I got home safe. It was the ideal Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for! God knows what he's doing and I trust Him with everything, and I have hope for what's in store for us. After all, that is what the holidays are really for.

I've been spending most of my time Christmas shopping with money we DO NOT have, and wishing this warm weather would go away. The deep South is having abnormal cold temperatures and snow whereas we are getting warm temperatures. On the way home today, we passed a sign that said 75 degrees! Yea, on November 28th! It felt wrong listening to Christmas music while sweating and trying to shade your eyes from the sunbeams, haha. I love warm weather, but the holidays are only once a year and I want that typical "white Christmas" feel. Luckily, I think we are finally getting some cold temps this week.

Speaking of the money we don't have, we are running so low on money this year, Charlie and I decided to only get each other a couple items for Christmas. We originally said five things, but it's actually coming down to like 3-4 things! We really don't need anything anyways. We have everything we need. We're working on saving and getting our credit cards down, but of course that can't even happen until after Christmas. I feel so bad with the thought of a possibility of someone getting us many things and not being able to repay them with the same thing, so every year I end up overspending on Christmas. I'm happy to say we aren't doing that at all this year, and it's actually been SO much less stressful than past years. Knowing you only have to buy a couple things for someone and can really enjoy the holiday and what it really means feels good. It's been nice just walking around and "window shopping", looking at the stores' decorations. Can't wait for that profit sharing check at work in February. Charlie and I both get one and it will be going completely to credit cards this year unlike past years. We really need to have a real savings account! We've always lacked in having any savings! This is the very first year I've really gotten into couponing and trying to save as much money as I can. Sometimes there's always a coupon if you really look hard enough. Maybe one day we'll win the lottery...but until then... :)

(Below, the pumpkin pie recipe I use...yummy!)

Ingredients

• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 1 9 in. pie shell
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 egg YOLKS
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 egg WHITES

• For topping:
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 tablespoons of butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees
2. In large bowl mix together pumpkin, condensed milk, and egg yolks. Stir in cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whip egg whites until peaks form. Fold that into pumpkin mixture
4. Pour filling into the pie shell
5. Bake for 15 minutes in oven.
6. While pie is baking, prepare stresul
7. In small bowl, combine flour, brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Blend the butter in with a fork or blender until the mix is crumbly.
8. Sprinkle the streusul topping on top of the pie
9. Reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 40 minutes or until pie sets

Question of the Day: What are some of the things you do to save money?