Thanksgiving bread baking 2011 . . . the tradition continues

If it's Thanksgiving, it means bread's being baked in our house. (And this year, it also means it's Ella's birthday, yay!)

So here we go, Thanksgiving bread liveblogging starts now.

Here's the recipe, full of splatters, which is proof that the bread does not, as my family suspects, come out of a tube with a little white dough boy on it.



The soundtrack is the same every year, "The Nutcracker." The girls take a ballet break to turn flour into dough.



Last year, Marina's teacher had also studied pastry-making. So that automatically makes her the most qualified baker in the family.



The birthday girl helps pat the dough into a nice, smooth ball.



DOUGH HANDS AND APRONS!!



Here's what we do in the hour it takes for the bread to rise:

Make an art gallery!



And have a bit of protein before the carb-loading begins. Thanks, Trader Joe's Chicken Mango sausage!



After the bread rises, you have to cut it into triangles. But the girls have their own ideas about how to keep busy.

Today they decided to switch personalities. Marina, the child who hates dirt, is the "messiest girl in the world."



And Ella sits nicely at the table with a neat pile of flour.



Annnnd . . . .fresh, warm, yummy bread. They came out amazing this year, which I think has something to do with the salty, sea air.




The girls had so many of these while watching "Olivia," that they didn't eat an ounce of their Thanksgiving dinner. I wish that was a joke.



Happy Thanksgiving 2011!