Heather was not able to get much time off from work for Thanksgiving so we decided to stay in Nashville and cook our own meal for the first time. We, Heather especially, were a bit nervous about cooking a turkey unsupervised. In true Tim and Heather fashion, we sought the advice of professionals weeks in advance. Translation, called both moms and took notes on Thanksgiving specials on the Food Network. Fortunately our planning paid off and we ended up with a simple to cook, delicious turkey! We also spread out the cooking over a couple days which decreased our stress levels at any given time. Thursday morning was surprisingly calm. We spent half the morning sitting on the couch and watching the parade while the turkey was in the oven. Our menu also included: dressings with homemade bread, Heather's garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli casserole, deviled eggs,cranberry relish, and a pumpkin pie!. We ended up with enough food to feed 6-8 people! After stuffing ourselves, we felt like we had just as much food as we started with! A week or so later we had finally finished off the leftovers. A definitely successful first Thanksgiving!
Leftovers!
With Christmas rapidly approaching, we (Heather) have been thinking more and more about decorating the apartment. Last year we had a tiny, pathetic, fiber-optic tree. Needless to say that it didn't make the trip with us to Nashville. So, a few days ago we went out and got our first real tree! Tim ended up setting up quite the learning experience when it came to securing the tree to the roof of our car. He rolled down the windows and ran rope over the tree and through the windows (one rope through the front windows, and one through the back). As soon as he finished tightening the last knot, he realized "oh great. I tied the doors shut!" We decided instead of doing the ropes all over again, we would just crawl in through the windows NASCAR style. It was pretty comical to see us both laughing hysterically while crawling into the car through the windows in the busy Walmart parking lot. I'm sure we got a few looks from passersby. One thing is for sure, we'll never do that again! Tim blamed the situation on always having a pickup to throw the tree into. We resolved to have our next vehicle be a pickup of some kind.
With Christmas just 19 days away, we are eagerly looking forward to having Tim's parents join us in Nashville for the holiday. We have a long list of things to do with them in the few short days they will be here, and we couldn't be more excited to show them around!
