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Thank Goodness I Got Ahead for Thanksgiving!

November 28, 2015 by Laura 5 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Thanks to the Getting Ahead for the Holidays series, I was super motivated and had all the food cooked for Thanksgiving by Tuesday night. I did this so I could enjoy the holiday. As it turned out, I appreciated it even more because I came down with a cold on Tuesday night. Booooooo. I was so frustrated!!!

All day Wednesday I sat in my recliner blowing my nose, trying not to talk, watching Netflix, and being thankful I did not have to cook. I prayed that I’d be able to enjoy Thanksgiving. I took a bath with Epsom salt and essential oils. I drank hot tea by the gallon. I rested.

Thank you, Lord, for make-ahead meals – especially a make-ahead Thanksgiving meal.

Come Thursday morning, I was slightly better, though quite stuffy and low on energy. Matt and the boys cleared out the living room and set up tables and chairs. Brittany worked her magic to decorate. I worked on warming up the prepared food.

thanksgiving 20151

My mashed potatoes (which had been prepared and frozen) turned into soup on my crock pot. Now that wasn’t supposed to happen.

I transferred them to a pot on the stove to steam off some of the liquid. It took about 30 minutes, but it worked great! Below, you’ll see that while I was sick, I wasn’t too sick to take an ugly picture of mashed potatoes steaming in a pot for you. Now that is blogger dedication.

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Meanwhile, all the other dishes sat warming in the oven. It took longer than I had planned. The more you load your oven, the longer food takes to heat up. Imagine that.

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I helped myself to another cup of hot tea while the food heated and we waited for our guests to arrive. We had super icy weather that day (still do, actually), so a few of our guests weren’t able to make it. :(

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When it was all said and done the tables were beautiful, the food was delicious, and we had a wonderful time with all our guests. If you look closely, you’ll see that I cheated and used rolls I had bought from Bountiful Baskets.

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What you see there in that 9×13 pan is my friend Maureen’s famous Pumpkin Bars. I need the recipe. We all need the recipe. Maureen? We need the recipe. ;)

Since Thanksgiving day, we’ve eaten more delicious food, watched a couple of movies, and played a 6-hour game of Settlers of Catan. Only the Coppinger family can make Catan last 6-hours. In our defense, we had added several variables, which always adds time – even if you aren’t a Coppinger. But let’s just say that some of the people in this family are verrrry thorrrrrough with their turns. (Don’t look at me. I am a short turn-taker.)

Kleenexes and sore throat aside, this has been an awesome week of Thanksgiving break. Tonight we’re having Lasagna, tomorrow we’re having a new soup recipe Brittany and I came up with, and tomorrow night Asa and Brittany move back to the dorms. School commences, along with all the normal real-life stuff like work and chores. Ooh, but it’s Christmas season, so there is much to look forward to!

Tell me about your Thanksgiving! Was it a good one?!

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Thanksgiving Break Fun ~ and My Butter Famine is Over

November 21, 2015 by Laura 10 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

My butter famine is over! But first:

Now I know how my mom felt when my brother and I came home from college for holiday breaks. Never mind that Asa has only been five minutes down the road in the dorm since August. Looking forward to and preparing for him to be home for a week has made me so excited! Brittany is joining us this week too because she has to work all week. Yay for me! Another girl in the house! (We have made plans to do our nails, make crafts, and watch some girly Christmas movies. Yes!!!)

In preparation for Thanksgiving break week and Thanksgiving day itself, I think I have bought out all the grocery stores from here to Lincoln. I have two full refrigerators, a full pantry, many full freezers – there is food everywhere. After standing on my head to find places for the last of my (many) grocery purchases yesterday and completely filling every space in both refrigerators, I realized we’d be getting our Bountiful Basket order today.

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Thankfully, most of the order didn’t have to be refrigerated. And of course, we’re already doing a great job of beginning to eat our way through all the food, thus creating more refrigerator space. It doesn’t take long for food to disappear around here.

How blessed are we? Plenty to eat, plenty to share.

Do you want to hear about the end of my butter famine now?

Remember how we talked about the high cost of butter and how my supply was running low? Many of you shared the same situation occurring where you live. So have you been able to find some good butter deals now that it’s holiday season? I hadn’t until this week. Wednesday when I was in Lincoln, I made a stop at Aldi and bought 12 pounds for $2.49 each since that’s the best I’d seen it in a very long time. Back home two days later, I found a $2.49 price match for Challenge Butter (a great brand which is normally $5 a pound!). Plus I had a couple of 50¢ off coupons. I bought another dozen pounds, and then I saw that there are 55¢ off coupons inside each box!

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I’m pretty sure I am going to be weird and open every single box, cut out all the coupons, then go back before the sale ends to get another dozen with the coupons. It’s Challenge Butter that I can get for $1.94!! So what if I’ll have 48 loose sticks of butter in my freezer? There’s nothing weird about that. Nothing at all.

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Those pictures don’t do my butter-filled freezers justice. They only show part of my madness. Basically, I’ve just stuffed butter boxes in every nook and cranny of any space in my freezers that I can find. It feels so good to have an abundance of butter again. The holidays can now commence.

We started off our Thanksgiving break with little gifts. I couldn’t help it. Our boys are into crazy socks, and Elias and I found some fun Christmas socks in Lincoln after a follow-up doctor appointment for him Wednesday. (You can guess that those cat socks are for Malachi.) I found a free printable Thanksgiving candy wrapper which I prepped to go with the socks. Here’s the link if you want to make some (candy wrappers, not socks).

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The boys have their first homeschool basketball game tonight. I can’t wait to see them play, but I’m almost more excited to see all the moms I rarely get to see except for during basketball season. I love how God has provided these families and the friendships that come with them. 

The rest of the week, we have plans to watch movies, play Settlers of Catan, eat loads of food, kick back, and unfortunately, do a few math lessons that we’re behind in. With tiny bit of school work and a big bit of fun, hopefully the math won’t seem too bad! I even bought take-and-bake pizzas to make my load easier.

Are you taking a break during Thanksgiving week? Traveling? Staying home? Buying lots of butter?

Have a great weekend!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Our Family’s Favorite Games

December 5, 2013 by Laura 31 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

It happened again tonight when Justus (our 13 year old) was eating his potato soup. I started giggling for no reason. This happens to me occasionally when my family is around the table playing games. Tonight, we had to head out the door after dinner, so we were finishing our game and eating at the same time. Justus took a bite of soup, and it was outrageously funny. Except that it really wasn’t, even a little bit.

I admit it. I was getting loopy. We had been playing Settlers of Catan, the Cities and Knights version for way too long. We started it last night after church, took a turn at breakfast this morning, played a few more rounds after lunch, and by dinner, my brain was fried. The game is awesome, but it takes some thinking skills. And we had been playing in and around our regular day of school and work and life. Thus, the potato soup eating hilarity.

Ah, but this is what memories are made of. As our boys get older and are now able to gather around the table for “big kid games” we take advantage of every spare moment we have to spend time playing together. Their schedules are busy, so we have to be intentional to make it happen. Here are some of our favorite games:

Settlers of Catan, especially the Cities and Knights version

ticket to ride

Ticket to Ride

bohnanza

Bohnanza

Apples to Apples and Apples to Apples Junior

Manhattan

Uno Attack

 

Sequence

Farkle

 

Pass the Pigs

Disney Scene It

blink

Blink

headbandz

Headbandz

Don’t tell, but here’s the new one we’re getting this year for Christmas.

Now tell me about the games you and your family love to play!  (And do you ever get loopy after playing games just a little bit too long?!)

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