Thanksgiving in Shafferland

Happy DECEMBER FIRST, everyone! Eight years ago today we were rolling into Florida, then not rolling anywhere for three hours during the longest traffic jam my engaged heart had ever seen, and then finally rolling into our resort for our wedding! We were married just over 24 hours after we arrived. (That still boggles my mind when I look back on it.)

Today we are not driving anywhere, though we are enjoying our anniversary celebration and can't wait to tell you all about it. MEANWHILE...may I tell you about our Thanksgiving? I know. It was so last week. ;) So last month. But it was monumental, so I wanted to share!

Someone has to be on duty at WillowBridge at all times, so we sat down and worked out holiday breaks with Tim and Justine. It worked out that this year they would be off for Thanksgiving, so that meant we were on duty throughout that whole week, including Thanksgiving Day! We didn't invite anyone to join us, because we feared as soon as we made plans, something would come up work related, and we would have to abandon our company. So it was just us for Thanksgiving Day, and it was actually a really sweet and meaningful day to us. 

I shared with you a couple of weeks ago the menu I had planned - with all the recipes coming from Dashing Dish. We made them all and liked them! 

The night before Thanksgiving, I made the pumpkin scones, which, by the way, were really soft and delicious. I also made our no bake pumpkin cheesecake with an almond/oat flour crust, and I really enjoyed that, too!

I got up super early on Thanksgiving morning to put the ham and marinade in the slow cooker, and then I went back to bed. Ha! We got up a little later and spent the entire morning rotating between daily work chores and cooking our dishes!

Everything was done right on schedule! (Two of the dishes we baked had to be done at one temperature and two at another, so we used our oven and the community room oven simultaneously and it worked perfectly!

We didn't want the food to get cold, so we didn't mess with a tripod picture that day.

Braeya wanted to make her presence known. ALWAYS when she smells ham, does she make her presence known.

She thinks she's so sneaky.

After lunch, Ryan got to watch some football for a while, and then we went to get our live Christmas tree, which I will tell you about on another day.

Last year we ran from gathering to gathering - four in total, actually. This year was much more restful, even though we did all the work ourselves, and even though we were working. (We did more work throughout the evening and into the night to make up for our holiday meal time.) 

I know a Thanksgiving like this would probably make some sad, and that is okay, but we found it really sweet in its own way! And I was so excited to say we had cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal on our own!