Thanksgiving Bake Day!

I have a really hard time feeling like Christmas is coming until the first snowfall. And that really has to happen after Thanksgiving, because I'm pretty much a Nazi about celebrating holidays in their own time. No decorating for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving has had it's day in the sun. It's kind of rude if you think about it. Poor Turkey Day.
Anyway, it's been like 60 degrees lately, and I haven't felt very festive at all. That is until today. Sawyer & I baked and baked & baked today & I LOVED it! We made 2 pumpkin pies, 1 amazing apple pie, a banana cream pie & a huge amount of sweet potato casserole. Oh, and a really yummy punch. She was so funny today. I have decided to cut back on the TV & movies, but we kinda have to do it cold turkey, so I was anxious about having to bake all day & having a little girl underfoot. She helped me really well for an hour or so, then started just wandering around the house playing what looked to be the most wonderful pretend something game. She was talking & dancing & singing, under the table, behind the couch, on her bed, hiding in the laundry room, everywhere & she wouldn't let me play at all. It was so cute. It probably didn't hurt that she was wearing a very sparkly new dress that she loves. Anyway, we turned on FM 100 and rocked out to Christmas music all afternoon. I let her help peel the apples with our magical peeler/corer/slicer (the single greatest kitchen invention ever!)
It's kinda hard to do,
but she loves to help, and did all seven apples without complaint (that's saying a lot, she is, after all, her mother's daughter.)
This pie is awesome because it bakes in a paper bag. Don't ask me how that increases the awesomeness, but it does. "And that is a scientific fact!"Yes, she has Uggs on with her beautiful princessy dress. I thought that would lessen her ability to spin & tip-toe, but it didn't seem to.And yes, she really is this beautiful. Crazy huh?
Oh! and I found the true cause of the blood-splattered walls! It was really bad today & I haven't noticed Charlie's ears bugging her anymore, so I did a very through check and found a big scabby area on her poor little tail. I don't know if one of the dogs at Scott & Kim's took a nip out of it, or if it got caught in a car door or what, but it's not looking too good. So I shaved the hair off and bactine'd the crap out of it and slapped her with some bandaids. Hopefully she'll leave it alone and my house will stop looking like a slaughterhouse. But she's so pretty!Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll! Be sure to do some giving of thanks! And THEN you can decorate for Christmas!