Baking Pies

We are having Thanksgiving at my in-laws tomorrow and I am baking the pies.  There will be 7 adults and 2 small children.  In previous years I would provide several pies so everyone could have their favorite.  I would then bring home the leftovers and after a couple of days I would end up throwing out a lot of uneaten pie.  This year I am baking a pumpkin pie, an apple pie and 2 pecan tarts.  My father in law and my DS love pecan pie and instead of baking 1 pie for the two of them I am opting for two tarts.  I will have some leftover pie to bring home and that will come in handy as I am making a turkey dinner on Friday so we can have turkey leftovers.

Over the past couple of years Sara Lee and Mrs. Smith's pies have always been on sale for as low as $2.00 a pie (without a coupon).  This year is no different.  I love to bake and being home I now have the time to bake pies.  It probably costs more for me to bake a homemade pie this year (but not by much) but it is oh so worth it.  As a little girl I watched my mom make pie crusts and roll the dough out.  I have never been afraid to make my own pie crusts and if the edges don't look perfectly pinched, it doesn't matter.

I am approaching this holiday season differently than in years' past.   I have time to enjoy the season.  For the first time in years I will be able to decorate at my leisure, I will be able to bake cookies and make candy before Christmas Eve.  I will be able to get the presents purchased and wrapped way ahead of time.

Years ago in sheer frustration due to the many tasks that were pulling me every which way I told my husband that I was beginning to hate Thanksgiving and Christmas because of all the things I had to do.  His response - "Then quit doing it."  The point he was making to me was that I was missing what it was all about.  He was so right.  I quit baking a lot of cookies and settled on the good ole standby sugar cookie.  I made 1 kind of fudge and I cut back on not making a Christmas ornament, put up minimal decorations and scaled back to what I could handle being a working mom.  This included buying store bought frozen pies.

So this afternoon as I was baking pies my mind raced back to when I was a child with an apron wrapped around me, sitting on a stool next to the table watching my mom rolling out pie crusts.  The one thing I have missed for years was the baking that I had always loved.  Now this year I can return to what I love and that is homemade pies and goodies.

To anyone who reads this may each and everyone of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.