My big fat fake Thanksgiving.

Ok so "fake" is a little dramatic. :) But Thanksgiving has come and gone and, honestly, it was kind of nice to not make anything (literally anything) and just relax and eat... and not have a disaster for a kitchen afterward! ("Relax" being subjective -- my dad's having a little bit of a rough time lately, and me being me, while, I just can't keep my mouth shut and several, as Brad likes to say, circular "discussions" ensued.) Here is a mini-glimpse into our day:

Ohnoshediddden!

Heating food up still requires a super-cute apron!

My first vegetarian Thanksgiving.
(Doesn't look that much different!)

Heidi's never too far from the food.

Doggiegiving.

Buschs' pre-cooked Thanksgiving review: Eh+. It was insanely affordable. I was able to order the day before. Reheating was easy and required minimal dishes. The mashed potatoes were super yummy, and while not as good as mine, the green bean casserole was decent. Brad made a yum face over the rolls and proceeded to eat at least 8 of them. The apple almond stuffing was deeeelish. But Brad said the turkey was kind of chewy and he wouldn't want it again, and I would almost say I disliked the pies -- could be because I know I can make MUCH better pie (we got 1/2 an apple pie [clearly using canned goo] and a full pumpkin, which had a weird, weird taste that I couldn't pinpoint). I look forward to making all the fixings next year and getting a Whole Foods turkey for Brad.

Good enough for leftovers!
PS Look at that left hand -- WE HAVE A RING! WOO!

My favorite parts of the day? After my dad went home, Brad and I turned on Elf and snuck out his mom's old photo albums from the basement. Hours of mini Brad? Bob with a '70s mustache? Priceless. Oh, and the Stouffer's mac and cheese, too, of course.

Since I basically had yesterday off, I really wanted to make breakfast this morning. I so love French toast -- I don't know why I don't make it more often.

...perhaps if I did make breakfast more often, I wouldn't have burned the first attempt at hash browns, setting off the fire alarm and nearly giving George a stroke. Notice there are no hash browns in this photo, either. The second attempt ended in an oily, undercooked mess. Straight into the garbage disposal.

Speaking of today -- Black Friday -- while we did make a quick run to Old Navy (no matter how down for the count I am, I can always muster the energy for $15 sweaters), we didn't do any Xmas shopping. I do, however, have a few Xmas updates. While distracted by a "discussion" with my dad yesterday, I dropped a stitch on my mom's cowl and made a big old disaster. I ended up ripping the whole thing and starting over -- new needles, fewer and smaller stitches. The good news is I'm even happier with how it looks, so it worked out after all.

I also put together step 1 of my Xmas surprise for my mom and Larry. While I'm still devastated *I'm* not going, I bought them tickets to see David Gray in Windsor in January -- top secret tickets. I'm 95% certain they don't and won't have plans for the day of the show, but just to be safe, and since the show is just a few days after I'll be giving them the tickets, I decided to send an anonymous "don't you dare" note to them. I'm sure they'll know it's from me, but I do love a good surprise so dammit I'm going to try. I was vague about the date because I didn't want my mom to go and google January 2 and pull up David Gray and blow the surprise. I hope the surprise works and I hope they are so excited.

I contemplated magazine cutout letters for the address, but then I remembered I'm lazy.

*Written whilst watching The Holy Grail, which I am happy to report holds up post-college days. Even Heidi is mesmerized. She's been sitting up watching it -- seriously! I think if she could talk, she would taunt me like the French knights do Arthur. "You tiny-brained wipers of other people's bottoms." Yep, that's definitely what Heidi would say to us.