 This year we were very excited for Thanksgiving to come. Gail, Grant’s mom, was coming into town to spend Thanksgiving with us. This was my first time hosting, and I can’t lie and say I wasn’t nervose about all that it could entail. When you marry into a family there are always core differences, but differences aren’t always a bad thing! It is so much fun so always learn about how Grant grew up and what the similar and what was different.
 During the first weekend in December, Grant and I went to Dime Box to my parents property. My sister Kira was visiting from Nashville and so everyone who was close by and had the time came to dime box to hang out. Kira and Andrew couldn’t come for Thanksgiving this year or Christmas, so it was nice to see Kira again; Andrew was on a business trip. It was a pretty chill time,but the girls always make it fun.
I decided to enter a contest at www.prudentbaby.com. In this contest, you make a stocking that has knit fabric somehow incorporated, and the winner gets a serger. I figured I might as well try even though I figure I won’t win. Grant and I need stockings, but I wanted at least three; an uneven number cause I like how that looks on a fire place. I used the stocking tutorial from Fabric Worm,and I show below how I made the stocking.
This year I have been trying to make as many gifts as I can without purchasing any. For some of the males in my family,I decided to make pies in a jar; if you are married to a male in my family, please don’t share so it is a surprise. Since guys are always hard to shop for unless you have a lot of money for nicer toys making them happy through their stomach seemed a good idea.
One of my greatest weaknesses are molten cakes! A lot of restaurants carry them; I like them so much that my mother in law will give me Applebee’s gift cards so that I can go lots of times just for the dessert!  I don’t get them a lot,but I have always been on a search for a good recipe. The internet is littered with recipes,but I just never liked them. They always tasted to eggy, and just not sweet enough for my taste. I found this recipe, and I gave it my best effort. They turned out wonderful!
Grant and I eat pizza at least once a week. Grant loves pizza and would ask for it every night for dinner if  I would let him. My Aunt Irene gave me a teflon sheet the last time she visited America for my Cousin’s wedding. The teflon can be used as a liner in the oven to catch drips or to bake on, and I am sure many other uses. This teflon sheet made making a crispy pizza heaven! We use a stone to cook our pizza on because we think it makes it taste better than a cookie sheet. The issue with a stone though is if you put the pizza on it while the stone is cold it takes a long time for it to get hot and the middle of the pizza can still be doughy,but the top could be burning. So you need to heat the stone in the oven, then place your pizza on top.  This is hard though, you need a pizza peel,but then you add either a ton of flour or cornmeal, and I don’t like the bottom of the pizzas to have either on them. They still can stick or fold in half. So, this is the method that we came up with!