Turkey Day Update

So we ended up sitting down to our Thanksgiving dinner around 5:30 p.m., and somehow all of the sides did end up staying warm. At least we had something to be thankful for. Everything turned out quite well in the end, despite quite a few mishaps (not worth getting into, really -- I would like to continue to deceive some of you into thinking I am actually a good cook). The menu? As follows:

Turkey, of course
My mom's delicious stuffing
Cranberry sauce (a recipe my friend, Erin, posted to her blog... but we forgot to put it on the table... one of the day's mishaps... we did enjoy some with the leftovers today, though)
Mashed red potatoes with sour cream and green onion
Mashed sweet potatoes
Maple-glazed carrots
Limas and corn (a Southern tradition, but I'm not a true Southern and, thus, this is not perfected)
Cheddar-sage biscuits
Pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon whipped cream (ever since I made this a few years ago, pumpkin pie has disappeared from my family's menu)

Despite my freakouts and stressed-out episodes, the dinner ended up being okay, and it was nice to be able to spend it with those of our family members who could make it down.

And, yes, I did subject my nearly 12-week-old to the After-Thanksgiving Shopping Extravaganza. I couldn't help it. It's a womanly tradition in our family. I was inducted as a wee little one, and so it shall be for Elsa. Back in the day when we lived in Oregon, four generations of us girls would go out and literally shop til' we dropped. My mom, mother-in-law, Elsa, and I actually got a much later start than my mom and I usually do -- I think we ended up leaving the house around 7:45 a.m., and we were back before 2:00 p.m. So -- don't worry -- we were easy on her.