finally- I get my holiday :)

 One of the best parts of Thanksgiving is eating turkey/cranberry/stuffing/potato and gravy topped  sandwiches and random pie slices for days after the actual feast- don't you agree?  And I wasn't going to miss out on that part of the festivities just because we didn't do Thursday Thanksgiving!  So we did Friday Thanksgiving.  After my morning of shopping madness- I plopped the kids in front of the tv and got to work on our own thanksgiving dinner.  Homemade rolls- turkey- the works.  I even made Kent's favorite green bean casserole that always seems to taste better when I'm pregnant.

Kent got home to the fabulous smells of Thanksgiving and we dug in.  Can you see my turkey?  it's slightly hidden by some delicious slices of cranberry sauce. I love the canned stuff. I love that it sits on a plate in the shape of a can- with the ridge lines and everything. I love that you can slice pieces off.  I may love it even more than the turkey itself.

I also made the world's most incredible and easy Key Lime Pie topped with fresh blackberries.  Prep time- 3 minutes.  I LOVED it.   I'll include the recipe at the bottom of my post :)

 Once Kent got off Friday- he had the whole weekend off!  I was determined to take advantage of the break and make up for my last two days.
Friday night we headed downtown for Dayton's downtown tree lighting and children's glow in the dark parade.  It was wonderful.

The rugrats were funny all night.

We took our picture with a few strange people and the kids didn't want in on ANY of them.  Zeb HATED this moose.

 And this is as close as he would get to Santa and Mrs. Claus

 Ike wouldn't get much closer.  They weren't really afraid- they just didn't want to be a part of it.

 Then there was the saxophone man who insisted we get a picture with him after we gave him some change.  Zeb was pretty bugged that he kept playing so loud while we stood next to him.

 Although Kent caved and bought them these crazy glow in the dark flashing swords. Zeb insists they are 'light savers' (we've tried to convince him the word is 'lightsaber'- but he is unbending).   After they got their swords they were happy little boys.  I love this picture.  Zeb and I are making 'lightsaber battle faces'. I'm not sure what Ike was doing.

 The actual parade was really really fun! and not too cold.  Plus- we got fabulous holiday glasses that make every light a snowflake!!  it even worked through my camera lense. Zeb insists on wearing them whenever we drive at night now.

 The floats were really fun- and the night was perfect :)  Hopefully we can make it a tradition!

Key Lime Pie! the actual link is here

2 cans sweetened condensed milk (the recipe calls for three cups- but two cans is PLENTY sweet!)
1/2 c sour cream
3/4 c lime juice (20 key limes or I just used the stuff from the bottle!

mix together and place in graham cracker crust (I put mine in a pre-made shortbread crust)
bake 9 minutes at 350.  chill completely in fridge.
Top with cool whip and fresh berries!!!

I couldn't believe how amazing it was. way too simple and fast!!