Thanksgiving

First off, some sad news. Sarah's Grandpa passed away this afternoon in Omaha. He had been very ill for quite a while and said he was ready to go, but it is very sad. He was a wonderful, caring man, and we will miss him. We do know that he is in a much better place now. I'm grateful that Asher got to know him before he was gone.

On a lighter note, we have begun our preparations for Thanksgiving. We have a very large fresh turkey (comically huge for a family of 3), and we are planning to do all the sides; sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, and rolls. I am still deciding whether to smoke the turkey or not. I don't want to wreck it! Tonight, I baked a pumpkin pie. It smells great.

We have been very focused on pie this past week (see previous post). Our pies both did fairly well at our church's pie auction. My pecan caramel fudge pie brought in a respectable $50 bid for a Mexico missions trip. Sarah's brownie chunk cheesecake with chocolate ganache brought in $55. So, she won the contest between the two of us. We also bought a pie at the auction. It is an absolutely phenomenal cranberry apple pie. It has a layer of fresh cranberries, and a layer of Braeburn apples, all in a flaky, buttery crust, complete with those little grains of sugar on top. Mmmmmm. I plan to polish off the last piece after writing this entry.

The weather this past week has been amazing. After a cold snap that had us believing that we were in for the worst of winter, it has warmed up a bit. The last few days have been sunny with temperatures getting up into the 40s and no wind. The nights have been calm, clear and cold. It can stay like this for a while as far as I'm concerned.