Happy Thanksgiving!

The holiday season is officially in full swing, and it couldn't have been brought in any better than it was with our thanksgiving celebration. It was truly a wonderful weekend full of family and friends. We have so much to be thankful for! (Unfortunately, not one picture was taken of the festivities all weekend. I should be shunned from the blogging community!)

I have long ago conceded the Thursday of Thanksgiving to other family members. I love to make the food and have lots of people over to enjoy it, but it just doesn't work out that way with the other sections of the family. So what I have started doing is celebrating Thursday with family at someone else's house and then cooking my own meal on Friday for whoever would like to stop by. This has affectionately come to be known in our house as "Thanksgiving Friday".

This year we spent Thanksgiving day with Andrew's family in Avondale. It is always a blast getting together with the family out there. The kids love any chance they get to play with their cousins, so they were in heaven all day, and loved having their own children's table.

Funny story of the day: We had just arrived at my mother-in-law's house, and people were slowly trickling in behind us. We had been told that it would be a full house for dinner, and often times they will invite friends from church that we don't know, so it's not really a rarity that we would be sharing Thanksgiving with complete strangers. So, we were all hanging out together when the doorbell rings. Andrew answers the door and finds 4 people he doesn't recognize, all carrying side dishes and looking very confident about being there, so he lets them in because, as I said, that isn't unusual. So they all come into the kitchen and start introducing themselves to everyone, and everyone is looking around saying "who are these people". Then my father-in-law starts giving them a strange look and realizes they are in the wrong house. Maybe you had to be there, but it was so funny! We joked that if they were going to crash Thanksgiving, at least they brought their own food!

After filling up on dinner and dessert, it was time to go home and crash for the night to begin the next day's fun!

For our Thanksgiving Friday, we invited our small group from church to come and share in our meal, and they all happily accepted. The total head count was 10 adults and 10 kids. It sounds crowded, but it was so much fun! The kids had a blast playing football and other various games in the backyard, and which left the adults some time for good conversation and fellowship. The food all turned out really well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. I so wish I would have taken a picture of the turkey. it was beautiful. I've made quite a few turkeys in my day and while they have all been tasty, none have turned out LOOKING so good.

After dinner the guys took the kids to the park while the ladies hung back and cleaned up. It sounds so 1950's but it really was a good time, and I was so happy to have the help with the mound of dishes! Then of course it was time to dive into the pie! This year I made my very first fruit pie, a caramel apple pie, and it turned out so yummy! I'll definitely be making that again!

So another successful and fun filled Thanksgiviing is in the books. I am so excited for this Christmas season, and I hope we can make the most of every opportunity to create lasting memories for our family! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to you and yours!