Thanksgiving 2009

This Thanksgiving, I cooked a turkey all by myself! I got some brining bags and brine from William Sonoma. For those of you cooking novices who don't know, brining is soaking your poultry or pork in a salt water concoction for about 24 hours in the refrigerator (that really makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about). It promised my turkey would be moist and succulent. It was both of those things. And it looked really pretty, too! I also made gravy from scratch. I made a homemade caramel apple pecan pie, too, but it tasted better than it looked!

This is the brine in a giant zip lock bag (or brining bag...William Sonoma can charge more for calling it something fancy). I added 2 gallons of water and a 15 pound turkey to this bag.

This is one pretty bird, if I do say so myself!!

It was also Gavin's first Thanksgiving. He was dressed to the 9's in his Thanksgiving outfit, complete with his "Baby's First Thanksgiving" bib. He really enjoyed all of the food we had. I think his favorites were the mashed potatoes that I made and the sweet potatoes that Erica made. She was sweet enough to make half of her sweet potato casserole without nuts so the babies could have some.

We are so thankful this holiday season for our Dallas "family". It's hard not being around our family, and we are so happy to have such great friends to share good times with...including Gavin's future wife, Saylor .
Our sweet friends...

Raising puppies, rearing people!

Having a puppy before having a baby was great practice! But, sometimes I wonder (and worry) that there are too many similarities in raising our boys. For example, we learned that when Jack did something he wasn't supposed to, you make a noise (ah-ah) and then distract him. Now that Gavin is more mobile, he gets into everything! When he reaches for the outlets or the fireplace, I make the same noise!!! I've tried to start saying "no-no" to Gavin and "ah-ah" to Jack, but I get them mixed up and reversed. On the other hand, when Jack is behaving well, we were taught to praise him and really make a fuss over him. So....you guessed it....when Gavin listens, gives kisses or high fives, or anything else, we follow it with an enthusiastic "good boy-you did it!!!"

They respond to similar things, too. They both get excited and run to the door when you say "outside" or "W-A-L-K". We play the same games with Gavin that we played with Jack when we first brought him home. Those include "hide and seek", "peek a boo" and a little game we play called "where's momma/daddy".

And, sometimes they act the same. They will both put anything in their mouths and try to eat it (leaves being a favorite), they both carry socks around in there mouths, and they both like to "fetch" balls, just to name a few things.

Some things are different. Jack is potty trained, Gavin is not. Gavin likes to take a bath. Jack licks his own butt.

I think Jack turned out really well...best dog we EVER had! So, if Gavin turns out like Jack, I think we'll be ok...unless Gavin starts to lick his butt. Then, we have a problem!