Thanksgiving Eve

When I was a junior high teacher, Thanksgiving Eve was one of my most favorite days of the entire year.  We had been working for months without a break and had just finished conferences, which coincidently were my least favorite days of the year.

I would lay on the couch all day in my jammies, order pizza, and watch movies - like the childless, 20-something year old that I was who had no comprehension of just how sacred this luxury was.

Today was the opposite of that day.  The kids were home from school, and I baked all day.  Looks pretty amazing, right?!

What this photo does not show was me running to Kroger twice in my jammies: once to get RumChata for Friday morning and nacho chips for tonight’s dinner.  The other time was to buy two pie plates since they mysteriously went missing.  They did not have any in stock on the day before Thanksgiving. Surprisingly. I was, however, able to scavenge some from my parents.

It also does not show that the pies were all done at different times making us late for a play date.

Nor does it show the failed double batch of cookie dough due to miscalculating the amount of butter.

Regardless, the finished products look pretty impressive (and I can attest that the cookies are delicious).

Tomorrow, I will make the coconut cream pies – my absolute favorite Thanksgiving dessert.

Why coconut cream pie and chocolate chip cookies?  Last year, I wrote a piece for Huffington Post explaining the significance of these special desserts.

So I won’t cooking a turkey this year  (or celebrating my two years of working through my raw poultry fear), and I didn’t have time to do any art therapy.  But I still worked that dessert jam and can’t wait to celebrate tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!