Valeria Out Loud

Just humor me with my post titles, ok? I’m witty, I swear. 😉

Hey hey guys! Hope you are still high from a wonderful Thanksgiving with your loved ones! Or, happy to be away from your crazy family..whichever fits. Hah

I know, I know. I am late posting this week, BUT I am here now to give an update on things. So let’s begin!

Last we chatted, I was getting ready for Thanksgiving…one of my all time favorite days to entertain!

My first step in planning Thanksgiving is creating a menu followed by a timeline. I love to plan for the day by drafting a timeline. Im insane, I know but I’m a planner so. What I do is sit down the Friday before Thanksgiving with a big glass of wine and a pad of paper. Jotting down what I am cooking – making a food shopping list along the way. Then I calculate each dish’s cooking time along with the hour to start each dish. The timeline is my way of finalizing the menu before the day and to get a real-time handle on cooking times. The list is helpful to keep by my side to keep me going along …and remembering what I am doing. 😂

Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving prep is always my favorite day of the year. Just me and my mom getting our gossip on as we prep all of the food that we can to help me out. We start midmorning and work all the way till the kids get home from school. It’s always a fun afternoon. ❤️

Then at night after my husband gets home, we bake pies. Well, my husband and kids bake pies..as I relax and enjoy a cocktail 😂. This year they made a chocolate pudding pie, a pumpkin pie and an apple. It smelled great in the house! And they did a great job.

Day of Thanksgiving …

My husband went off early in the morning to his Turkey Day tradition of getting together with his best friends from HS for a pancake breakfast then a football game. They used to play football in HS (one played all through going to Bentley) so they have been doing this since they graduated HS.

Which means, I have the kitchen to myself. I make coffee, tie on my favorite apron, blare my podcasts, finish making the stuffing then stuff the bird, starting of the day in my cooking zone. Once I get the bird in the oven I get to jump in the shower, get all fancy, re-tie my apron over my cute clothes to finish cooking. I then blare some jazz as my husband returns – and as our kids wake up. With the house all a buzz with preparations for guests, it feels joyous and warm. My favorite part of the day.

All of the cocktails and appetizers were a huge hit (spiced cider mimosas, cranberry prosecco, stuffed mushrooms, garlicky shrimp skewers, bacon pastry puffs, cheese platter). And dinner was too. (Stuffed capone, green bean bundles, roasted spiced butternut squash, roasted potatoes, maple glazed Brussels Sprouts w bacon, mashed potatoes, butter rolls) All of our guests were happily eating and drinking, and it felt good to look at that scene from my seat. I tried so hard to make my view a core memory. 😊

Desserts were a bigger hit -I dont know how anyone had room but they ate a lot of dessert On top of our three pies, my sister brought over three pies and cookies. (Lemon cookies, pumpkin cheese cake, pumpkin pie, and an apple cinnamon roll thing). And our best friend who swung by for coffee also brought a pie!! An apple crumb. Crazy good!

The whole day was amazing and a relief. I always put a lot of my energy in trying to make sure everyone’s experiences are memorable. For my family. For my daughters. I hope I succeeded. ❤️

Between all of the hubbub of Thanksgiving, I got roped into hosted Friendsgiving. Usually we go out for dinner but this year everyone wanted to stay in with takeout. Since my house was still set up from the big dinner I offered to entertain.

Lemme see, what else did I do?? Oh I decorated the house for Christmas. Still have to put up our tree. I’m big into decorating the house for any holiday, but because of my holiday fanatical nature, it takes me two or three days to complete things.

Monday Pottery Class

Can you tell how much I like Mondays? I am having such a great time going to class each week. It has been a completely different experience with the instructor this go around and I am so happy that I stuck with it. And will be sticking with it, on Black Friday I signed up for the 2023 Winter session following this one. A few of my classmates -the girls I sit with- also signed up, which is excellent!

So class. I collected my finished pieces from last week- the mug and tree tea light; and they came out good! Then I spent half the class glazing the rest of my ornaments and drink coasters. The coasters are a project that I am experimenting with; to glue felt to the bottoms. See how it adheres.

Ok where was I? Right. As the other half of class made coil pots I threw on the wheel. Man, throwing is just intimidating. It’s messy. It’s wobbly. I ended up fumbling a piece after working on it for thirty minutes. So deflating! Then I tried again and re-made the same shape. The act if throwing is simple yet complicated; you have to understand the nuances of clay to work with you. You have to put enough pressure to make it work- just like me. 😉

So my tree was a big hit at home, my daughters loved it so much that we had to have it lit up during dinner that night. It actually came out cute and I will have it out all season too. I’m staring at it right now -it’s on my desk at home.

I’m excited for next week, we are learning how to make spoons. Hehe I do want to try my hands at making some, so wish me luck!

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Well I guess it’s already the end of my day here, my girls are harassing me to go out. I promised them a run to Trader Joe’s to grab some holiday themed snacks and stuff. Which I am an absolute sucker for- all the peppermint and red packaging they produce this time of year makes me delirious. Just take my money!

Thank you for stopping by, guys! I always appreciate your support of me …and my blabbering on and on. 😜

Hope you have a fantastic week and we will talk on the other side.

till next time. xo