Gathered Together After a Turkey Trot

 

Wow.  It feels like forever since my last post.  I hope every one of you American readers had a marvelous Thanksgiving.  Ours was filled with family time, drizzly weather, and good food and wine.

 

Our cool, rainy Thursday morning began with six members of our family headed off to an annual turkey trot.  Two of our sons ran this 5K, two people volunteered as course marshals, and two were bystanders who cheered the runners on.  This was the first race ever for our ten year old who has boundless energy and can literally run circles around me any day.  Our older son hung near him through the race, and both crossed the finish line within seconds of each other with quite a bit of energy left.  They finished in the top half of the 234 runners, which wasn't bad for two amateurs who really don't train for these things, and the entry fees went to non-profit organizations.

 

When they all returned, cold and damp from the November rain, I had the turkey roasting in the oven and appetizers/light lunch on the table.

 

I cheated this year and picked up most of the appetizers from the deli and bakery sections of the supermarket.  The cherry cordial Hershey's Kisses were the favorite new item of the morning.

 

Our traditional Thanksgiving dinner was scheduled to be held at 3 PM, but as usual, we didn't sit down to eat until a bit later.

 

That was because we were waiting on these two casseroles to finish baking.  I always need to double the recipes, and the vegetable dishes always seem to need more time to set up than I predict.  The sweet potato casserole on the right is the one I make every year, along with millions of other Americans, I'm sure.  This year I made a corn casserole instead of green bean casserole, which pleased my children tremendously.  There were a lot of these recipes on Pinterest, but the one I used can be found here at www.stuckonsweet.com. The only change I made was doubling the recipe, and I had to nearly double the bake time.

 

My little ones were standing close by, salivating and very eager for the dinner bell to ring.

 

Hubby did the traditional turkey carving, with the assistance of his dad, while I performed all those last minute tasks with the help of my mother-in-law and teenage daughter.  

 

But in the end, it all came together seamlessly, and we gave thanks and began eating around 3:30.  It looked like we had enough food to feed us all for a week, but as it turned out, everything was gone within two days.

 

After dinner and kitchen cleanup, there were Christmas movies, games of Phase 10, pumpkin pie and dessert wine, and just more family time in general.

 

My day was complete after getting to hold this sweet baby boy in my arms while he slept peacefully amidst all the ruckus around him.

And for all these things, I am thankful.

A Cold Day at the Corn Maze

 

Holy Cow!  Did we ever have a change in weather.  We went from 82 degrees last week to an extremely windy 48 degrees on Saturday.  Even so, our family met up with some friends at a nearby corn maze and pumpkin patch.  At least the rain stopped, and the sun peeked through once in awhile.  Otherwise, I think I would have sat it out in the small, heated building where children could come decorate cupcakes and drink hot cocoa.

 

This was the way to enter the maze, and we all went through.  It was much higher and longer than it looks in this photo.

 

Once you've made it through the tunnel slide, it's corn stalks for as far as the eye can see.

 

Every year, the owners have a different theme, and you must find your way through the maze to get to the clues.  Once you've found all the clues, you can answer the riddles or questions.  And then you can win a prize.

 

This year's theme was presidents, and there was a crossword puzzle full of silly (but true) questions about past presidents.

 

The clues do not, however, help you find your way out of the corn maze.

 

You're either on your own to do that, or you can follow others and hope they know their way.  

 

Or you can cheat a little bit by climbing up certain platforms and survey the entire maze from above.  The corn here was actually quite short and scrawny this year, so I could see my teenagers' heads from most everywhere.  I usually can't do that.

 

Not to mention that between our younger daughter's neon pink coat and our older daughter's bright pink stocking cap, they were fairly easy to spot.

 

Once we made it out, crossword puzzles were completed by the more studious members of the group.

 

While others had go-cart races (or hitched a ride.)

 

And certain teenage boys played King of the Haybales.

 

We finally got in a hayride, and I managed to get one good picture of my kiddos.

 

Good thing because the rest of the ride just got ridiculous...and cold.  Did I mention the cold already?

 

As usual, we had a great time, but when it was time to go, my kids came running up the hill.  They were either freezing, or they were coming for the hot apple cider and whoopie pies I had just purchased from an Amish woman who had braved the elements and set up a bake sale table (which was blowing away.)  For those of you from other parts of the world, if you haven't ever had a homemade whoopie pie, you are seriously missing out.

It's a tad bit warmer here today, but that wind has remained and broken off several trees up here.  In fact, as we were driving up our lane after the corn maze and a grocery run, we slammed on the brakes because a dead tree had just come down across the lane right in front of us.  We walked our groceries the rest of the way to our house and were fortunate enough to have an Amish neighbor with a chainsaw at home who walked down and cut it into movable pieces.  We're thankful that it missed any of us who were out that afternoon and that no trees fell on any of our goats or sheep who were yards away eating peacefully in the pasture.  

With the colorful leaves blown to the ground, dark skies by 6:00, and weather cool enough to pull out our winter coats, it definitely feels like fall here in the Alleghenies now.  But I'm not complaining.

October Family Traditions

October is such a fun month.  Nights are cooler, but it still gets warm enough to enjoy the outdoors during the day.  All of nature turns the most brilliant warm, fall colors, and there seems to be a plethora of activities and events to participate in.  Just as we have our summer traditions on and around our farm, we also have our annual fall traditions, and most of them occur in the month of October.

We visit farms and orchards, sometimes as a family and sometimes on school field trips.  At this orchard, first graders got a tour and were able to fill a bag with their pick of apples to take home.

We usually get to go on at least one chilly hayride in October.  I grew up going on hayrides in the fall, bundling up and often sipping hot cocoa on the way.  Our children still love these and never seem to grow tired of them.

Sometimes our hayrides occur at a local corn maze.  This particular farm has a different theme each year, and this fall it was set up as The Hundred Acre Woods from Winnie the Pooh.  As we walked---or should I say, ran---through the maze, the children had to stop at various spots to find a clue that would lead them to the end and tell them whose birthday it was.

Sometimes the clue simply informed you that you hadn't solved the mystery and must continue on.

This farm also has games, play areas, face painting, food and hot cider, a dark maze, pedal carts, and a pumpkin patch.

It even had these creative little tractor pull rides that our teenage son and other adolescent friends squeezed themselves into.  My kids never seem to outgrow this place.

Our family loves all things pumpkin, so it is our tradition in October to try as many new pumpkin products as we can find.  I think there are more this year than I've ever seen.  Last week we found Kellogg's Pumpkin Spice Frosted Mini-Wheats, Trader Joe's Pumpkin Pie Spice Cookie Butter, and the adults enjoyed the Pennsylvania Brewing Company's Pumpkin Roll Ale.

We couldn't get through the month of October without my baking at least one batch of pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.  Now that my oven is repaired and working again, I have no excuse, so I'd better get to making some more this week before the month is over.

I don't know if other areas of the country have "turkey shoots," but here in the Allegheny Mountains they're kind of a big deal.  They don't actually shoot at turkeys, but they use shotguns to shoot at targets, and the top three participants win eggs (third place), potatoes (second place), or a big frozen turkey (the grand prize.)

My husband and our eldest two sons went down to the nearby Sportsman's Club to give this a try.  Last year was the first fall that we did this, but I think it is now a part of our fall traditions because...

...our 22 year-old son made the best shot and won us a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner!  I have to admit that during all the years I lived in suburbia I never heard of a turkey shoot.  There were foxhunts in the local public woods every year, but you needed the proper gear---namely, a horse---for that.  For the turkey shoots, you simply come with your shotgun, ammunition, and $20 to participate, and you might go home with free food.  Mostly, it gives the locals an excuse to hang out, shoot guns, and eat.

Although the younger children can't participate in the turkey shoot, everyone gathers on and around our king-size bed to watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

I remember eagerly anticipating the airing of this movie, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Wizard of Oz when I was a girl.  Now that we own them on DVD and video, it's not quite as exciting, but we try to wait until October each year to watch them.  I still love to snuggle up with my kiddos to watch all the classic Peanuts Gang movies.

Our teenagers are starting their own October traditions as they are now attending costume parties and dances with their classmates and friends.

Naturally, carving jack-o-lanterns is one of our traditions this month.  We still need to carve our pumpkins this year.  The above photo is actually from last October when we were fighting off our loose goats who kept sticking their heads in our hollowed out pumpkins to eat the seeds and pulp.

Our October traditions will be completed on Halloween night when we go trick-or-treating.  We live so far out in the middle of nowhere that no one comes to our house to trick-or-treat.  We either have to go with friends who live in neighborhoods or walk through the streets of the nearest little town.  Personally, I wouldn't mind giving up this tradition since I'm not in favor of all the candy the children get and want to devour immediately, but they still love it too much.  I just do my best to ration the candy, which means it's still on top of the refrigerator where they can't reach it until Christmas or my husband and I pick out the best chocolate and eat it when they aren't looking.  Unfortunately, that latter option works against my attempts to keep my waistline from expanding.  

What annual October traditions do you and your family share?