Holidays are pretty quiet for me now-a-days, sometimes that is a good thing other times I miss the big family get-togethers.
Since my son has his moms side of the family in state I don't usually make him stay with me and do nothing for the holidays. So he was with his moms family for a couple days and I had some quiet time off. I took advantage of the freedom to run a race on Thanksgiving morning, TJ put the post up on the homepage so I'll skip that detail. Its one I ran several years ago, but hadn't got a chance to since. Was nice to revisit this course and all the great swag! I was pretty exhausted after, just took it easy around the house, relaxed and watched a few movies, something I rarely get to do. I was going to do a more traditional dinner when my son came back over for the weekend, so I cooked myself something a bit different on Thanksgiving day. Mandy you may want to divert your attention now. I made a venison roast in the crock pot. I did a simple roast with some carrots and onions and potatoes. Red wine and worcestershire marinade along with some garlic and some other seasonings. Also whipped up a sweet potato pie. Turned out excellent.
I saved the more traditional Thanksgiving dinner for Sunday when my son was back. Roasted a 12 lb bird that had been left in the freezer for a couple years. Glad I finally got around to using it lol and it was still fine. I made some nice whole grain stuffing with lots of veggies and fresh herbs, a simple green bean casserole, a batch of dinner rolls, and cinnamon buns for the first time ever - and they came out excellent. Took me most of the day cooking - I'm not very fast and often have to look up recipes online and all that, but I love doing it. Almost everything was from scratch, even grinding my own wheat for some of the breads. Afterwards I put the left over carcass into a large crock and the roasting juices and a bit more stock and water along with some veggies and seasoning and simmer all night on the woodstove. Next morning I added some more veggies and barley to it and it was quite fantastic turkey soup. I probably have two weeks worth of leftovers now I mostly put in the freezer.
Did pretty much all my Christmas and birthday shopping, no not in that ridiculous black friday mess but I shopped online and got some good deals that were completely stress and gasoline free and took very little time too. Lems shoes were 30% off so I got my son a pair of Primals and myself a pair too, and also got myself a pair of their NineToFive for the office.