Crafts just aren’t my thing. Hand me a hot glue gun, some glitter, and ribbon…and I will make a mess. Not a little “oh, we’ll get this cleaned up right away” kind of mess. More like “sell the house…we can’t recover from this” kind of mess. I want to be good at crafts, but I don’t think I paid sufficient attention in school during art class. For the past couple of years, … [Read more...]
🎄Thanksgiving Revisited
Unlike the Hectic Clan, with our 8 kids and nearly 300 people relatives on my wife's side just two generations removed…as I was growing up, my was pretty small. I have one sister and a small handful of cousins. As such, we used to all gather for the big holidays to celebrate together. So unlike Hectic Mom, I know my cousins really well. Unfortunately, I was born in a lull … [Read more...]
📖Holiday Gifts – Cookbooks
It’s busy every day of the year…but the holiday season puts a special strain on everybody. Getting meals on the table takes on a whole new level of complexity. You’re ready to bite the kids heads off and grind them up into hamburger before every meal. Am I right? Don’t worry, it’s not just you. It’s all of us. Don’t let the guilt eat at you…as long as you haven’t served … [Read more...]
🛒My Black Friday Game Plan
Ho, Ho, Ho. Merry… Wait a minute! We’re not quite there yet (despite the Christmas music playing in the background as I write). When I think about it, Thanksgiving and Christmas are probably my two favorite holidays. Sure, I love the fireworks of the 4th of July and Halloween is a blast…but the end of the year has four big holidays over a five-six week span (well, you … [Read more...]
👨🏻🍳Thanksgiving Recipes
It’s been five years since I started this blog. Five years! And it’s been five years since I shared my story from Thanksgiving 2013 that recounted one of the more challenging episodes in my kitchen career. We don’t call our house Hectic Mansion without a really good reason. As I reread that blog post, I discovered all sorts of typos and poor writing…but rather than edit away … [Read more...]