Come in and know me better man

Today was very dramatic to say the least. Literally we started at 7 this morning and have been going till 2 hours ago when we all sat down to watch The Muppet's Christmas Carol. Anyone who actually enjoys hosting ginormous parties needs to have their head checked. Well ok let me step back for a second and say anyone who enjoys hosting ginormous parties probably has a bit of crazy in their system.

It is no secret that I have a lot of crazy in me and well I get it from my mom, so yeah that's a lot of crazy in one little family.

Back to this morning. My mom was going a little bit insane moving every piece of furniture and plant in our house, BECAUSE WE'RE HAVING A TON OF PEOPLE OVER AND WE NEED SPACE. I put that in caps because she totally said it in caps. I yelled back in caps CALM DOWN YOU'VE DONE THIS BEFORE. Yeah it was so much fun you're all just wishing you were there.

Then mom gets a call from my Titi Margie. "We're bringing desserts and more desserts." She might as well have said she was bringing dog poo, because mom might have been more pleased with her if she had. See we had a lot of desserts. Everyone seemed to be bringing desserts. The thing we were lacking was vegetables. "WHY DO PEOPLE CALL WHEN THEY WANT AND BRING WHAT THEY WANT? DO THEY REALLY THINK THAT THESE SORTS OF HOLIDAYS JUST HAPPEN AND THEY CAN JUST SHOW UP?" Of course none of those questions were to be answered and we heard them all morning long. Mom would get all excited and then she'd calm down. It was quite the progression.

I made up some cauliflower and corn and no one touched either of them, because there was so much food they were both really unnecessary. Everyone ate, was happily full, and then everyone left. It pretty much felt like it happened that fast.

If you still have a Thanksgiving feast to attend, here are some lessons by mom to live by. Please live by them, because I'm really sick of listening to people talk in caps.

1. Ask the hostess what she needs you to bring. She knows what's being brought, and broccoli is so much easier than 2 pumpkin pies and a cheesecake.

2. Come early to help with the setup. If you feel like you aren't going to be much help, sometimes just the company is nice.

3. Don't leave after the rush, before there is time for the hostess to sit down and relax. There is nothing worse than a rush of people who come and eat and leave.

Helping to clean up is a really nice plus. Honestly if you're mother hasn't taught you these things already, I feel bad for you.

There were a few lovely highlights of our Thanksgiving feast. One of them was my first attempt at homemade cranberry sauce. Everyone was in love.

My mom made a cranberry bread, so we had half a bag of cranberries left. I poured them into a saucepan with a rather juicy orange deseeded and cut into 6 sections. I left the peel and everything on since I was going to take them out before I was done. I put a cup and half of sugar and enough water to make it wet in the pot. I boiled this mixture till the cranberries popped and everything was looking very happy. I added a little bit of cinnamon, some ginger, and some nutmeg. I then took out the oranges. I made a slurry out of corn starch and water and added it to the sauce, bringing it to a boil to thicken it. Bowl it up and eat amazingness. If I do say so myself it was amazing, and it wasn't a pumpkin pie, so my mom was happy with me.

Happy Eating!!!

Emily

p.s. Isn't Bella adorable? And, in case you thought I was joking about our overabundance of desserts, here are the desserts without the 24 cupcakes and cut walnut brownies.