Thankful for...

Dan and I are hosting Thanksgiving for seven for the first time this year.   Luckily, my mother-in-law will be bringing the fully cooked turkey she's picking up from the local grocery store. A gem, that one!  Honestly, when Emily, Dan's sister, first asked me to host I almost said no because I had shuddered at the thought of scraping out innards and touching raw, goose-pimply turkey skin.  I can bake pies.  I can whip up mashed potatoes.  But turkey?  That seems better left to the domestic goddesses in vintage Norman Rockwell paintings. I could just hear hear the curses of my brother-in-law trying to carve hack into still-half frozen bird because I haven't cooked it correctly. And Dan having to phone Papa John's. 

In short, I took her up on her offer!

Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, I thought I'd share that I'm thankful for...

1) My mantle:

2)  My husband's comments about said mantle:   Dan was teasing me about how I have been getting into mantlescapes.  When I said I was only going to create them for the big three:  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, he responded with a speech that went like, "Don't start slacking now!  I expect a full Groundhog's Day themed mantle in February complete with stuffed vermin looking for their shadow!" 

Shut-up, Danimal and enjoy the theme:

Sometimes I roll my eyes when people give budget breakdown of everything they've created, all "look how thrify I am!"  And now I'm here doing it-ha ha!  The grass was free from the scary vacant lot behind my gym.  I checked it twenty times to make sure nothing icky was crawling through the stalks.  The books are all ours, just turned backwards to look more literary and cute.  The pumpkin candle was from Target.

The only two things I bought were the dried puffy things (technical name) for $6 and $2 in scrapbook paper to use for the "Thankful jar". 

Speaking of the thankful jar, here it was three weeks ago.  It's almost full now!

3)  Continuing to let my Martha Flag Fly with this wreath: 

I just grabbed a dried wreath from Michaels and added some ribbon and dried puffy things to that as well.  I think we're officially ready to host Thanksgiving.

4) This cake one of my husband's government students brought in on Election Day:

(I blurred out our last name, but you get the idea!)

He came home absolutely beaming.  I'd vote for him.

5)  Our visit to the fertility doctor

You're welcome for the lack of pictures of this one!

The doc was smug and confident as hell, but I don't mind that in someone who is helping us.  He listened to us talk about everything for forty minutes and asked a million questions.   It was like therapy, I tell ya', to talk about everything. I'm dreading the tests to come, but for now, I'm thankful. More on it later.

6) Our Annual Mountain Getaway:

Makes me feel so small to be around so much beauty.  It's nice because I feel like I've been too caught up in my own struggles lately, so I definitely needed a different perspective.

7)  Banoffee Pie

Have you heard about this English treat?  It's banana + toffee sauce + a whipped type of topping

It is a million calories and it is amazing.  I'll share the recipe tomorrow.

Even the title of this pie is innovative!  I've always been a fan of combined words, like Brangelina and Tomcat.  When we were about to marry, I tried to persuade my husband to legally change our last name to a combination of the two of ours.  It was going to a powerful example of the two of us merging families!  It was so symbolic! 

He declined.

Oh well, at least I can appreciate a good word combination.  And let me tell you, banoffee pie is so good it needed to cap off this Thankful List (or should I say "Thist"??)

What are you thankful for?