Family Chili Night

Set my alarm this morning just to get up and take the overnight breakfast casserole out of the fridge (that I put together last night), to come up to room temp for an hour before baking… Then threw it in the oven for almost an hour, and it came out so great and delicious.

The tomatoes were only on my little end, since no one else would eat them, but I loved the extra flavor and texture the baked tomatoes added to the dish. I wished there were more, actually. And I’ve still got green onions growing from planting them in a pot in the backyard during the summer, still going strong.

After breakfast, we actually just lazed around for a while, and watched the newest Netflix movie, “Leo.” It was cute, but won’t be one of our new faves or anything. Then Emmie and I got busy baking a festive funfetti cake for tonight’s family dinner.

Then when I told Emmie I needed to do the dishes while the cake baked, and asked if she wanted to help, she literally cheered with excitement that I let her help. And honestly, she really was very helpful! We had a little system going, and we washed everything up faster than I would have by myself.

I made the girls a lunch plate with last nights’ leftover nuggets, and some other snacky things to go with it, and they ate at the coffee table together. Then I made myself a BLT with my roasted garlic mayo, and dang that was delicious.

After lunch, we got Addison down for her nap, and then Jeff had to go run out and do some computer work for one of his side jobs. While he was gone, Emmie told me she wanted to stay awake and help mommy more while baby sister napped. So first, we did the frosting and sprinkles on our cake.

Then we finally cleaned up all the camping stuff we had just dumped on the dining room floor when we got home last weekend. I got the broom out to sweep, and she was like, “Ugghh, I wanted to sweep!” So of course you know I let her get in on that.

And today was Water Wednesday for all our indoor plants, which you know my girl wanted to do that too.

Meanwhile, this little cutie had herself a nice long nap, and woke up in such a silly goofy mood, hopping around like a little jumping bean.

My cousin Aaron (who now lives in Missouri), drove in to town with his son Asher, for the week. (His wife Mandy had to stay home for work at her new job for Black Friday.) And since tomorrow’s Thanksgiving schedules don’t all align tomorrow, we did a family chili night tonight instead. One pot of my Mama’s chili, and one pot of Uncle Keith’s white chicken chili.

We had a slow morning with breakfast & a movie, and then a productive afternoon washing dishes and cleaning, followed by a nice evening with dinner & family.