time to embrace the holidays

thanksgiving at the house of wan was super low key this year.  with the ILs not scheduled to return until christmas and the teen at her dad's for the holiday, it was pretty quiet around here.  doesn't mean we didn't jam in as much fun as possible, though.  duh.

for me, the day started off with a special holiday edition of barre bootcamp, AKA 75 minutes of pliés, passés, and relevés to get a head start on burning the mounds of calories i planned to take in later.

nectar of the gods right here.  it's my usual post-workout treat.

as soon as i got home, i pulled out the very last-minute turkey i'd found just the day before.  our original plan was to grab one of those crack-laced rotisserie chickens from costco, but i came across this little gem and snatched it right up.  it was the last one in the store, and when i read the instructions that basically said "keep frozen, open bag, place turkey in oven, bake" i was like, SOLD.

i enlisted the help of the bean to work on our side dishes - my beloved sweet potato casserole and the green bean casserole.  this was pretty much the extent of the "cooking" we did for thanksgiving 2014.

while i took a much-needed shower, the hub got to work pulling out all of our best diningware and setting the table.

i always feel kind of bad that i'm not much of a drinker when he pulls out a good bottle of wine to enjoy with a special meal.  i mean, i'll take a sip or two, but that's about it.  even he agreed...it looked like pee.

he macgyvered a tripod using our pie stand and some other tabletop items, and with the timer on my phone he managed to capture this:

dinner is served!

i dished out servings of everything, and while the hub and i were busy taking photos of our plates (it still amuses me when he does this, after years of pooh-poohing my constant picture-taking) the bean was like psssh, i'm gonna eat.

mollydog got to partake a little too, with a slice of turkey i chopped into tiny pieces and served on a makeshift plate.  i can't put stuff in her food bowl with her regular food, because she'll get so excited she gets some of it mixed in and then spits the dog food onto the floor.  then i'm stuck cleaning up soggy kibble, and that's just gross.

oh yeah, those are my flip-flopped feet down there.  it was 90 degrees in soCA for thanksgiving.  ugh.

this nice, neat tower of plastic containers was all that was left of our delicious meal.  it was a perfect amount of leftovers.

a little later, it was time for dessert.  along with the truffles i'd made, we had pie.  and this:

somehow, while the bean was relaxing with a movie, someone quietly made her grand entrance for the holidays.  and she came bearing gifts.

she practically came out of her skin with excitement when she spotted her.  this right here is why we continue to welcome pixie into our home - it's our third year running!  i mean, look at this face.

it was easy to get her to do the bedtime routine that night.  she went to brush her teeth without a single quibble, and put those soft, comfy pajamas and slippers on happily.  then she went back to talk to the elfette a little more, and when she sat down she said "look mom, i look just like pixie!"

the last thing she did before going to bed was draw a picture and write a little note that pixie could present to santa when she went up to the north pole that night.

'tis the season, folks.