On Our Way To Crazy

What did you do tonight? A little laundry? Clean the house? Go out for a drink? Watch George and Izzy be lame together while Dr. Bailey rocks the house?

Watch the Cowboys smoke the Panthers*?

I bet what you did wasn’t as awesome as what I did. Because what I did, was pretty awesome.

I was at the last show of the last tour (for now) of Nickel Creek at the Ryman. And y’all, it was amazing. See if you can glean some of the awesome from this really bad picture of the second encore that turned out too dark and then was poorly photoshopped to brighten and contrast so you could at least kind of see who they are.

I have anxiety. Today was a crazy day. I want to give y’all more details, but things might turn out well and then I will have felt bad about writing mean things about people.

I would like to let everyone know that even though I am 27 and not 47, I have a brain in my head. One that works. I understand basic concepts and ideas and am capable of both dialing a phone and climbing a ladder.

It’s hard to unconditionally love a bunch of teenagers when they do things like stand two inches behind you all night and repeat everything you say or intentionally separate themselves from the group and then make loud obnoxious comments about how they are separated from the group.

Sibling relationships are hard. Especially when your siblings are also your coworkers.

I need to find a super fabulous top to wear with a black wool skirt and either tall boots or patent leather flats and sweater tights.

I hate Crate and Barrel for taunting me with ads during Project Runway on Bravo when there’s not a store anywhere around here.

I am excited for tomorrow to get here, both because I am going to Nickel Creek’s last! show! at the Ryman, but because the Cowboys finally play the Packers and Aaron will stop counting down the hours.

I think this is the best baby gift for new parents ever. We have sent it to several people and it always gets rave reviews.

Things That Are Awesome – The Christmas Stuff In My House Edition

1. The star garland I bought on clearance at Crate and Barrel. I’ve never been a big tinsel or garland person, but I love these little silver stars.

2. My collection of random but awesome jewel-toned ornaments, that I unwrap and spread out on the floor before hanging them up in groups according to color to make sure I don’t have too many of one color in the same area of the tree.

3. Aaron putting the star on top.

4. These swirly ornament hooks. Have you seen these before? My mom brought them to me a couple of years ago. They blow regular hooks out of the water.

5. The flipping sweet blue tree I paid a dollar for at Target and the awesome silver sequined tree skirt my mom made to go with it.

I finally found my camera cord! Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving food.

The fabulous turkey, brined overnight in the Williams-Sonoma turkey blend and roasted all day long.

My mom’s stuffing.

The Pioneer Woman’s sweet potatoes. (Mine turned out a little different because I made the topping in advance and chilled it… it set and was hard to spread out. But it still tasted great.)

Broccoli rice casserole. I don’t know where this recipe came from, and it’s pretty ghetto (sorry mom!) – it involves cream of mushroom soup and some Cheez Whiz. But it tastes fabulous.

Green bean bundles. This is the best way to eat green beans, y’all.

The desserts: pumpkin pie, bourbon pecan tart, CHOCOLATE PIE.

A close-up of the tart.

My fantastic plate.

It was a GREAT day.

I just finished the last piece of chocolate pie. The second chocolate pie the five of us consumed in the last three days. The most delicious chocolate pie in all the land.

It’s my MawMaw’s recipe, the one we’ve had for Thanksgiving and Christmas for as long as I can remember. It is absolutely my favorite dessert. When MawMaw made it, it came with homemade meringue, but, as I’ve never been a big fan of the stuff, I top mine with French Vanilla Cool Whip. It’s crazy simple, and even includes a storebought pie crust. I tried it with a homemade crust once, but it just wasn’t the same. It’s gotta be the Pillsbury kind.

MAWMAW’S CHOCOLATE PIE

3 tbsp cocoa
1-1/2 cup sugar
5 tbsp flour
1-1/2 cups milk
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla
pie crust – bake for 10 minutes at 400

In a 2 quart saucepan, mix cocoa, sugar and flour. Add milk, egg yolks, butter and vanilla. Cook over medium to high heat until thick. Pour into pie crust. Let cool, then top with meringue or cool whip. Try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting.

Today I played a song on “hard” on Guitar Hero and I didn’t get booed off the stage.

I? Am awesome.

Things I learned today:

- Broccoli casserole is better on the second day
- Aaron’s dad used to shop at a place called Ken’s Man Shop
- Miles hates everyone, always, forever and ever amen
- Everyone should set their DVR to record Ninja Warrior marathons
- Guitar Hero battle royales never get old
- Best Buy is insane on Black Friday, even if you don’t get there until the afternoon
- Your parents remember the most random stuff that happened to you
- Everyone in Mesquite knows that Melanie’s dad did a drug bust at Inn on the Creek
- Northanger Abbey might be my favorite Jane Austen novel
- There’s no shame in making a second chocolate pie for five people

My parents are here, my turkey was fantastic and my belly is full of chocolate pie and sweet potatoes.

I am a happy girl.

It’s 8:00 on the night before Thanksgiving. In a perfect world, my parents would be here in a couple of hours. Instead, thanks to car troubles and rental car deficiencies and the unwillingness to pay $1000 (I can’t believe that was even an option!) for to plane tickets, they will not be here in two hours. It will be more like seventeen hours.

But! In seventeen hours! It will be time for Thanksgiving Awesomeness!

The turkey is soaking up it’s brine in a cooler on the porch. The sweet potatoes are waiting to be roasted and sugared up. The tart pan is waiting to be filled with bourbony pecany chocolatey goodness. The green beans are waiting to be wrapped up in bacon.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have pictures of my beautifully roasted turkey to show you. I just hope it turns out better than this one did.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year we decorate for Christmas on the day after Thanksgiving. Last year, I decided that I needed to buy us new stockings before this Christmas. The ones we have now are made of pink and gold crushed velvet and are pretty much awesome, but they hang funny and are kind of falling apart and with no mantle to hold them up this year they just aren’t going to cut it. So I am having to let got of my ghetto fabulous stockings and find some that will work with the new place.

So! Because the day after Thanksgiving is only three days away, I need to get to work finding some new stockings. That’s where you come in.

WHICH STOCKINGS DO YOU DEEM ‘MOST AWESOME’?

A.