Thanksgiving prep begins...

I had a lot of cleaning/prepping planned before Thanksgiving, none of which actually happened --- you know how that goes.

But thankfully I was able to finish all my Thanksgiving shopping by Tuesday. We prepped the brine tonight which was interesting... I had never participated in making Thanksgiving dinner before so this being the first year both husband and I are celebrating alone, across the country from our families (or well my first since he celebrated "alone" when he was in basic training years ago). 

I had looked up different ways to brine turkey and eventually went with this mix from World Market since it included everything I wanted anyway and for just $5.99. It smelled heavenly! So we went ahead and prepped this. Then hubby pulled the body pieces of the inner turkey (we went with a fresh one by suggestion of my brother who does make the Thanksgiving dinners back home) *barfs a little in mouth*. Then we stuck the turkey and the brine in a turkey bag in a foil baking container and stuck it in the fridge.

In the morning I will start making the sides, even though I told myself I would do it the night before. But hubby is being picky and wants everything fluffy and fresh so, there's that! Here's a list of what I'll be making ---

• Stuffing Topped Veggie Bake
  http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/stuffing-topped-vegetable-bake-138240.aspx

• Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesean Cheese & Breadcrumbs
  http://www.kitchme.com/recipes/baked-mashed-potatoes-with-parmesan-cheese-and?plid=PROMO_KITCHME&crid=111413_KitchMe_Thanksgiving

• Stuffing with apples 
• Biscuits 

I know it seems a bit wrong to have Thanksgiving without green beans but I just didn't feel like adding that in. I wanted to try some different things instead. So we'll see how that goes.

Also, a whole lot of this has been going on...

I've started decorating the apartment with Christmas stuff, little by little. I want it to be super festive in here (if I could make it snow without making a mess, I would have it done!) but I don't want to go overboard with it since we have zero storage space to begin with. Our tree is also up and themed but not finished. And the first gift should be wrapped and under it by this weekend. 

Hubby also had the grand idea of taking an ornament from Days of Christmas from Downtown Disney with us home as "our" ornament to put on my mom's tree since she sets up on Thanksgiving and we won't be there to help this year. I'm sure she would love that idea! I still have to look for our first ornament together too. Hubby is making the ornaments for the tree this year and the tree topper. I had a nice theme going but since he's never decorated his own tree before, I decided to let him have at it. There's always next year. No big deal! 

But once the tree is done, I'll of course be blogging/vlogging about it!

Also, I'm debating on doing Vlogmas this year... we'll see how that goes!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!