Thanksgiving Weekend Recap

My favorite holiday of the year has come and gone! Here's how I spent my 4-day weekend!

On Thursday we gathered at my brother's to celebrate Thanksgiving. My parents and both my brothers and their families were there. So it was a 'smallish' group (13 total - when my whole family is together there's 19 of us!).

My nephews Matthew (9) and Kolin (10)

We waited until after the Vikings/Lions game to eat (the Vikings won but they made it a nail-biter, as they are wont to do). We had quite the spread! My mom made some GF stuffing for me. Stuffing is probably my favorite Thanksgiving dish so I appreciate that she always makes me own little crockpot of stuffing. I brought the vegetable tray and dips and this brussel sprout salad (which is so good!).

After dinner we lazed around. My dad made a blanket out of newspapers because he was a bit chilly. What can I say - he's a quirky guy. He claims that he felt warmer covered in newspapers. My dad and I are both always cold but I opted for a blanket!

On Thursday night I came down with a flare in my knee. I've never had a flare in that joint before. It was very painful and made it difficult to sleep on Thursday night. So I was very glad that my mom had planned to come over on Friday afternoon to help me prep for the dinner I hosted for my family that evening. I was hobbling around since I couldn't put my full weight on my left leg, so I was very happy to have her help! I had made and froze a meat lasagna the previous weekend so she helped me make the veggie lasagna. Both turned out great!

Our house is really small - about 1300 square feet, so it was a little bit crowded with 12 guests, but we made it work!

The kids table!

My knee felt much better by Saturday morning so it was a short-lived flare. Since I was feeling better I spent the day turning 18 pounds of roasted tomatillos, which I harvested from my garden this summer, into salsa verde! It was kind of a putzy job since I had to chop a lot of onions and cilantro and I had to roast the garlic and jalapenos. But it was fun to spend some time in the kitchen.

With my mom's encouragement, I used the pressure cooker to can the salsa instead of using the hot water bath method. I have an Instant Pot and am not intimidated by that at all, but I was intimidated by the stove-top pressure cooker! After reading the instructions it didn't seem so bad. The Instant Pot had introduced me to how pressure cooking worked, so it was less intimidating. And I knew my mom was only a phone call away if I needed help!

The first batch of process jars

By 3:30 pm I was done and had canned 12 1.5 pint jars of salsa. We are looking forward to enjoying these over the winter and will share some with my family at Christmas. I was really proud of myself for figuring out how to use the pressure cooker. I know my mom's mom, Grandma Val, would be so proud of me for carrying on the canning tradition. My mom grew up canning with her mom, and then I canned with my mom. Hopefully baby Segner will pick up this tradition and carry it on when he or she is an adult!

I was pretty wiped out after being on my feet for so long so I laid down on the couch and Oscar promptly jumped up for some snuggles. I think she knows something is going on in my belly as she kind of avoid sitting on my belly. When she does sit on my belly, the baby will kick!

I had leftovers for dinner and watched another Hallmark Holiday movie. Phil came home (he had spent the day at his mom's) when there was about 20 minutes left and figured out the plot line in about 5 minutes .  ;)  I know that Hallmark movies are predictable and cheesy but I just love them.

We settled in and watched Allied on Amazon Prime which was really good! It's set during WWII and is about a Canadian intelligence officer that begins to suspect that his wife is a German spy.

My loves

I'll talk about how I spent my Sunday in another post as it was a "shouldless day" for me. How was your weekend?