Friday, December 04, 2020

Thanksgiving 2020 -- The Greatest Hits

(That face, though.  Amiright?  😆)

For 2020's record-keeping purposes, I'm going to knock out a quick recap of The Greatest Hits of Thanksgiving:

First up?  The planning.  Thanks to Walmart grocery delivery -- and outsourcing the shopping list to the kids (but mostly Ethan) to make sure we had everything we needed for our must-have items on the menu  -- I hardly had to do anything this year!  Hahahahaha.  Well, that might not technically be true, but it sure felt like it.  With all that freed up time on my hands, I created a Thanksgiving Prep Timeline for the first time ever, and it really paid off -- I just might have to do this every year!  Haha. 



The next big hit, would have to be the Thanksgiving themed coloring tablecloth that I found at Target once again this year.  There's just something so satisfying about sitting around the table, coloring turkeys and pies, while chillaxing the week away.  Hahahahaha.  Seriously, though.  I love how much everyone enjoys these tablecloths whenever I've been able to find them during the holidays.  




(I love these turkey headbands and placemats, too.)


While Wednesday was my designated day for making the rolls and pies for our feast, the BIGGEST hit of our Thanksgiving menu this year was a last minute, Thursday morning add-on in the form of a French Silk Pie (recipe courtesy of the Pioneer Woman).  It was delicious.  Everyone -- other than Sophie who is still allergic to eggs and Isaac who is super picky about trying new things -- thought it was the bomb.  I mean, Grace doesn't even love chocolate all that much, but the heavy layer of whipped cream on top was enough to counter-balance the rich, chocolate-y-ness, and she declared this French Silk a winner.  (Also a winner?  The French Apple Pie, which is our other favorite Thanksgiving menu item.)

(Like, I kind of want to go make another one right now it was so good!  As a side note, I used a graham cracker crust rather than a traditional pie crust and since I didn't have any bars of baking chocolate lying around the house, I used a cocoa powder/oil conversion substitution instead.)

An underrated (at least in my book) yet delicious side that I particularly loved this year was the Yogurt Jell-o I made.  Or should it be called Jell-o Yogurt?  I can't decide, but I love it so much.  I decided to make a raspberry flavor in addition to our customary orange this time around and I think I'm going to have to put it on auto-repeat for the rest of forever because they were both so good.  And don't even get me started on the gorgeousness of the COLORS!  The raspberry in particular was just beautiful.  I tried taking a picture to really represent here on the blog, but pictures don't do it justice at all.  Boo!  I guess you'll all just have to make some yourself so you can see the color firsthand!  Hahaha.

(I didn't have plain yogurt, so I used vanilla.  And I didn't bother with garnish or berries or mint leaves.  Hahaha.  Other than that, I followed this "recipe" to a T and it did not disappoint!  You can Google it to get the full instructions, but making it is fairly intuitive.)


And finally, perhaps the greatest hit of all (at least for me) was not having to go anywhere or do anything.  Especially for Black Friday.  And I am totally here for never going out shopping on Black Friday ever again. If 2020 has taught us anything, it's that just about everything can be bought online.  Hahaha.  

Ethan is thankful for:  Family, the Holiday Season, Utah, Piano, Sports, School, and Stanlee (their car)

Grace is thankful for:  MOVIES/SHOWS, FAMILY, FRIENDS, THE SELECTION SERIES, CELEBRITIES, MY ROKU/TV, BOX FAN

Sophie is thankful for: FICTIONAL CHARACTERS...and FAMILY

Jane is thankful for:  Family, Friends, Food, Drinks, Movies/Shows, Christmas, and Books

Alex is thankful for: family and friends, legos, tv/video games, maxwell, pokemon, books, and himself 

Isaac is thankful for:  THANKSGIVING FEAST, BULL'S EYE DART BALL GAME, COUSINS, YOSHI, THE SWITCH, SUPER MARIO ODYSSEY, SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE, MOM & DAD


And that's all folks!  Two more weeks until we can Break once again.  Three cheers for Christmas vacation!  Hahahaha.

3 comments:

Emily C said...

How awesome is that you have real-life adult-ish helpers in your family! I didn't know what French silk pie is, so I clicked on PW's recipe, it looks really gooooood!!!! however, I don like really dark chocolate, so Iwould you say this is more creamy milky chocolate?

Angie Nunez said...

Jessica you are such and amazing cook! I am going to try both of these recipes! You know that right?! Your Thanksgiving looked amazing ♡♡♡

Melissa said...

I gotta try the jello yogurt. I love me jello things more than I should!