Only a week late but Thankful none the less

Celebrating what is truly an American Holiday overseas is very different but I managed.  There was no turkey to be had and I have since learned it's because turkey is a Christmas tradition in Germany.  Also I would need to go to a farm to pick my turkey out and then they would slaughter it for me.  WTF?  I'm sorry I know people nowadays like to "know" what they are eating and do all organic but I ain't one of them. All my meats come on a foam tray with plastic wrap over them and that's just how it is.  So long story short, I roasted a whole chicken not quite the same but we did ok.  I also made dressing and candied sweet potatoes plus Mark's favorite chess pie! I cooked all day long because don't know I have mentioned it yet, the oven can only hold one pan at a time.  It's actually quite funny because the dishwasher can't even do that.  Now the only thing I hate worse than ironing is washing dishes.  My family knows that you never, ever give me anything that must be hand washed because I'll throw that sucker away and never blink an eye.  So said Thanksgiving feast required lots of hand washing pans but I mustered thru it.  Everything smelled heavenly and I was thinking that I should have invited the young couple from upstairs to experience an American Thanksgiving; that is until I tasted the food!  The chicken was fine because you really can't mess that up but the dressing tasted like I dumped a whole lot of salt in it and by a lot I mean A LOT!!!!  And I might have also burned the sweet potatoes because I forgot I slid them in the oven while we were admiring the chicken.  Good news is the pie was delicious and I made my very first, from scratch pie crust. I mean why learn to make a pie crust when you can get good ones at the store, am I right?  Mark's a Pie Man from way back and I can't believe that he ate those crusts without one complaint.  Not any more!  I'm a firm believer in homemade pie crust now. Of course, I'm not a huge pie lover but put a cake in front of me and all bets are off.  See we just balance each other out so well after 25 years.  LOL!

I wanted to show you what I found at the store and you tell me if you've ever seen these in our stores?  They're made in America and I've never seen this brand before! The back even explains how to roast a marshmallow which I found very funny.

 

I finished the guestroom and I'm pretty happy with it.  And more importantly we balanced my decorating budget and turned in all the receipts.  I not only furnished the entire apartment from kitchen cabinets to lighting to linens to everything but I also still had $23 Euros left over!  I rocked that budget and made every dime (euro) count.  So here's shots of the finished place:

Guestroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I did a little holiday decorating because I just couldn't stand it!  We're going home for 3 weeks so not much need for holiday decor at either home but I needed it!

 

Entry Hall

 

Living Room

 

Coffee Table

 

Living Room Doorstop/Stool

 

And finally the tree on the bedside table in the Master Bedroom.  I don't think the keys show up but this one is done in hearts and keys

 

Thanks for stopping in to see me and I promise more funny stories later this week.  Now I'm off to walk the cat and get cash from the bank.  My dang card quit working because I did the stupid customer trick of putting it in the same pocket as my cell phone which of course, wiped out the encoding on the back of the card.  I knew that would happen and still did it....silly girl.