I wanted to wait until it was official to blog about it – but today, my step-son Joe and his fiancé Lizz got married!!
They got married at a Justice of the Peace and will be heading up to Chicago next week for a few days to celebrate. I am very happy for them – they settled in Austin, Texas, bought a house over the summer and have a dog Cinnamon and a cat Jasmine.
We wish you nothing more than happiness and joy! Can’t wait to see you guys!
I think yesterday was the most laid back Thanksgiving I’ve ever hosted. Some years I start baking a week ahead, make everything from scratch. This year I decided to just keep it simple and enjoy the family time more than the food!
And I hardly took any pictures! My Mom got here around 1:00 – she brought yams (which I am going to make ravioli for her with the leftovers) and delicious hummus.
My SIL brought green beans almandine which were delicious, and my nephews girl friend brought an apple crisp that was so good – I need to ask her what kind of apples she used because it wasn’t overly sweet.
We did our turkey on the grill – it took about 2 1/2 hours to cook this 18 pound turkey.
It was really good – we brined it overnight and I have leftovers for sammies and I think I’ll make this twist on a cuban – with turkey!
I made two loaves of bread – one with chopped black olives and one with cheddar cheese. I am pretty sure if I had nothing but the bread on the table, my nephew would have been completely fine with it – he loves my bread a lot!
And it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving to Tony if I didn’t have my pecan pie. But I really liked Nicole’s crustless pumpkin pie – it was not too sweet, even though I didn’t read the recipe all the way through and didn’t add the crushed graham crackers to the pie – it was still delicious!
We played a few games of banana grams, while the boys watched football. It was just a nice, relaxing, stress free holiday! Although I am looking forward to going to my Mom’s tomorrow night – I’ll be spending the afternoon and evening with Hannah and my twin sister and her kids. We’ll probably be laughing a lot!!
I am thankful. To have a roof over our heads, food on the table, and wonderful family. And I am thankful for my husband, who still makes my heart skip a beat when he comes into the room. 
That’s his serious pose – ha! And to have temperatures in the 60’s yesterday was amazing.
I ended up not working out, so I have three 5ks left to do before Sunday – I am so close to hitting my 35:00 minute goal! Fingers crossed I can get it done.
While my 21 day challenge ends on Sunday, a new challenge starts that day! My friend Brooke (she’s up to 156 pounds lost!!) is hosting a challenge:
You can find all the information here, but basically you reward yourself with points for eating fruits and veggies, tracking food, etc. It’s just the kind of structure I’ll need to get me through the holidays. Thanks Brooke!
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and have today off – I slept in until 10:30 this morning – love it!
Have a great day and
Congrats to Joe and Lizz!!
Such exciting news! Congrats to the newlyweds! What an adorable couple
Congratulations to Joe and Lizz, they are a lovely couple.
And I love the way you spent your Thanksgiving with your family and good food.
What a great Thanksgiving! And congrats to Joe and Lizz! Exciting!
Congratulations to Joe and Lizz!
Oh that turkey looks amazing 🙂 I’m so glad you had a good Thanksgiving
Congrats to your step son and new daughter-in-law! So glad you will get to see them next week. Hope you have a fun time at Jenn’s! Hi Jenn!! We went to my bro’s and Ma and Dad came up from SML. A very nice day for us too. I will be in Chicago and I believe I have Wed evening off on Dec. 5th. I have no idea where I am staying but if I find that out soon, maybe I can meet you somewhere for dinner or a cuppa. Good luck on meeting your goal- you can do it Biz!!
Oh and congrats to your step son and his new wife, we did the justice of the peace thing, so much easier and WAY cheaper 🙂
I would love to try a grilled turkey some day, yours looks awesome. Our Thanksgiving was very laid back as well, of course Tom and his brother would prefer we just get pizza but that is a different story 😉
Congrats to the happy couple! Your Thanksgiving sounds like it was wonderful as well.
Did you change your blog layout?
Congrats to Joe and Lizz…..sometimes simple and cheap is better then a big extravegant wedding….it just might last longer. JP and I got married by the Justice of Peace in Chicago married at 11am and signing the papers to our house at 3pm and moving into our house that evening. Here we are going on 40 years!!! Sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and laid back, good to have those kinds of Thanksgivings. We visited friends Food was Great…I brought the pumpkin pies, coleslaw and cranberries. Came home with left overs and made today made turkey samis and dressing casserole. Just plain thankful for everything 🙂
Congratulations to Joe and Lizz – best wishes for a happy life together!
There’s nothing like a low-key Thanksgiving – glad you all had a good one!
You are so nice. If Joe was my son I’d be spitting mad I wasn’t at the wedding. LOL! But still happy for him of course. 🙂 They sound like a great couple. I love how low key your holiday sounds, too many times we stress out over them and that’s not the point. Your pecan pie is making me drool! I did get a piece yesterday from my sister’s bf (he made a huge dinner and sent some food home with Dennis–I was at home working on a wedding cake) and man I want another but I will just wait until next year (it’s so fat & sugar laden I usually only eat one piece a year). Or I might make an exception if you decide to airmail me your leftovers. 😉
Congrats to the couple! How exciting. I”m all about the more relaxed holidays. All of the stress never seems worth it. I made a crustless pumpkin pie a while back and loved it. I will have to make another
Congrats to Joe & Lizz! Love that they went simple with it! As perfect as our wedding day was it was A LOT of work. Lol.
Thanks for mentioning my challenge! Glad to have you part of it! 🙂
Mazal Tov!!
Dr. Howard Rutman
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Congrats to Joe and Lizz! I wish the many, many happy years together! Your Thanksgiving dinner looks amazing Biz, that turkey is calling my name. I had a stress-free dinner too, I just took a dip to my MIL’s and the rest was done. More time to visit 🙂 I just came in to warm up and then it’s back out hunting for me, no shopping here…lol!
Congratulations to the new couple! Your Thanksgiving dinner sounds (and looks) delicious! We had a nice time with friends. Good thing it wasn’t today. Our electricity went out at 9 a.m. and, three and a half hours later, just came back on! Brrrr! It’s 32 degrees today.
Best,
Bonnie