Well hello there! Happy Cyber Monday! I hope you shopped until you dropped today! I personally love online shopping for Black Friday/Cyber Monday; the crowds can just be too much and too crazy! And let's be real: I value my sleep much more than I value a good deal. Yes, even me, freebie & bargain-obsessed Sara, values sleep over a good deal. So, that should tell you a little bit about me! ;) And speaking of a good deal, let's talk about this dress that I wore to Thanksgiving! I found this dress at one of my local Goodwill's for only $5! I LOVE the color of this dress; it was just too perfect for Thanksgiving to pass up! I couldn't find the same exact color, but you can get this dress in blue on Amazon for $30 here! I'm wearing an XL here and I'm usually a 2x-3x in dresses depending on the brand, so definitely make sure you read the sizing chart before ordering!
The hat was also purchased from Goodwill for $5 from my sister and she let me borrow it for this outfit! I thought it just fit so perfectly and gave me all the boho vibes! The shoes I got in the clearance section of Rue 21 for $5! I love the gingham print on the shoes, it's one of my favorite prints, especially in black & white! I was tossing up between wearing these cross band slides or my booties, but since it's Arizona, I thought it'd be better to wear the slides! The pair I have is unfortunately unavailable, but you can browse their slides here!
Now, on to the rest of our Thanksgiving day! My family always goes hiking the morning of Thanksgiving to make everyone "earn their turkey" (as my dad would say), so that's what happened! Although, I woke up feeling not so great, so Hayden and my family went hiking without me and I came back to the house to meet up with them for breakfast burritos & apple cider mimosas after! I didn't even get a picture of the breakfast burritos, I was so hungry! But they were so delicious! We ordered them from a local Mexican restaurant, Papa Chevo's, the night before and heated them up in the oven the following morning!
I saw the idea of apple cider mimosas while scrolling through Facebook, and I knew we just had to make some! So my mom picked up some Prosecco, I picked up some apple cider juice and we had the most delicious Thanksgiving Day brunch and mimosas! I honestly couldn't have thought of a better way to spend Thanksgiving morning! If only I could have gone hiking with everyone else! Oh well, there's always next year! After breakfast, we decided to play games while beginning to prepare and cook for dinner!
My family and I are HUGE fans of games. Board games, card games, console games, computer games, you name it, one of us plays it! Every Sunday night we always get together for family dinner and games and it's one of my favorite bonding moments with my family! I love when we play games because it's always a ruckus! You can count on lots of shouting, lots of laughter, and lots of competition! But that's what I love most about games with our family, it never fails to entertain!
We decided to play the card game, Wizard! This was my first time playing, and I had a blast!! Their description of the game reads as follows: "You've played other trump games, but none quite like this. Wizard is exciting, easy to learn and fun for the entire family. This award-winning game is great for parties or a night of family fun.
Wizard is Hearts and Whist with a twist: Wizards beat all the cards! It's the "ultimate trump game", and a great deal of fun for the whole family. Deck is comprised of 60 cards." And I've got to admit, it's a ton of fun and perfect for family game night!
The objective of the game is to get the highest score. In the beginning of each round you get the number of cards for what round it is (i.e. one card for round one, two cards for round two, three cards for round three, etc until all cards are distributed). The flipped over card from the un-dealt deck is the suit you play off of; if the card flipped over does not have a suit, the first player of that round can choose any suit to start the round off. You then place a bet on yourself based off of the suit laid down and say "I think I will win one round of this hand, or I think I will win zero hands." It doesn't matter how many rounds in each hand you actually win or lose, but how close to your original bet you are.
You begin by playing off of the suit that the first player lays down from their hand, the trump suit over that would be the undealt revealed card from the draw pile, and the ultimate trump card to win the round without question would be the Wizard card! This game was so much fun, we went for 10 rounds and has an absolute blast! My brother, Michael, won with pretty much flying colors (I will come for you!!!). If you want the game for yourself, you can get it from Walmart for under $9 here!
While we were playing games, my mom started to get the turkey ready to put in the oven! I was able to get a quick shot of it before she threw it in, but to be honest I didn't quite get the recipe! But I can tell you it was so moist, flavorful, and delicious! I am so thankful to have a mom who loves us and cooks and cleans for us and does anything she can to provide a positive family for us. Thank you so much mom for all you do for us! I couldn't imagine my life without you!
And the final product!! Holy everything that is good, doesn't that look delicious!? I just had to snap a picture as my dad was carving the turkey! They purchased an electric knife years ago, which makes carving a turkey such a breeze! I would seriously recommend this! Here is one of Amazon's Best Selling Electric Carving Knife! Or you can just search Electric Carving Knife for meat and turkey on Amazon and browse for your favorite!
As my dad continued to cut and plate the turkey, we all set the table and gathered our drink of choice! We set up a separate table right outside of our dining table to display all the food and make more room for all of us on the table! The seven of us grabbed our plates, formed a line, and stuffed our plates and our bellies with our favorite dishes. I picked up some turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, a roll, cranberry sauce, and then threw gravy over the whole entire plate. I'm a gravy lover, what can I say? Also, I need to know this for my soul, but who else is a dark meat over white meat person?! I always, always go for dark meat! It's just so juicy and tender and delicious, is that you, too?! Let me know in the comments if you're a white meat, dark meat, or no meat person!
A few people in the family are gluten-free, as my sister has Celiac Disease and my mom has a gluten intolerance! ...And I'm TECHNICALLY not suppose to eat gluten because it can spike your blood sugar as a type 1 diabetic, BUT come on, it's Thanksgiving and I wanted a roll and pie!!! The stuffing and the gravy were gluten free and absolutely delicious! This stuffing is my absolute favorite dish that I look forward to every Thanksgiving, and that I will continue to make for the rest of my life!
Let's talk about this stuffing, because it's my absolute FAVORITE. My dad discovered this recipe years ago, tweaked it slightly to fit our tastes and has been in our tradition ever since! For the normal version of this recipe, it's very simple, just saute up some chopped white/yellow onions over medium/high heat in a pan, throw in some pork sage sausage from Jimmy Dean, make a Stove Top boxed stuffing in a separate pot (we used a gluten free box), mix it all together, add some dried cranberries, and then you have my favorite stuffing! Easy and SO delicious!
And then of course we had to have rolls! I also look forward to these every year, as I only eat them on Thanksgiving! They are always so fluffy and buttery and delicious! I also love to tear up the dough and roll them out. I've loved doing this job since I was a small kiddo! We usually get the Original Pillsbury Dough Roll, but this year we sprung for Pillsbury Butter Flake Dinner Roll and the New Pillsbury Sweet Hawaiian Crescent Roll! They were both SO delicious! I love these rolls!
And of course I didn't get a picture of the pie, but that just means I was busy being in the moment with my family and that's way better! Thank you so much for hanging out with me and reading all about my Thanksgiving day! I hope you had an amazing holiday full of love and laughter, as well!
Much love to you! xx
Sara