Thanksgiving 2013

Note: I am over a year behind on posting blog posts. I plan to eventually make books about our life using my blog so I need to get caught up while I have the time (ha!) and I'm off work. So bear with me as I do a little reminiscing. ;)

For Thanksgiving 2013 we went to my parents' house to celebrate. Preslie was almost eight months old and was at such a fun age!

^ Mom and me

This would be the second year we had fried turkey and it was delicious as per usual. My dad is in charge of that. It's actually nice because then it frees up the oven for casseroles and pies.

^ My dad all prepped to start frying the turkey. He put up old wood boards for 

safety measures with the hot oil and open flame and all.

My parents bought a walker for Preslie and it was the first time she had been in one and she loved it. It was nice that she could be outside and we didn't have to worry about her putting something from the ground in her mouth.

We were able to relax and not have to host on this particular year. We hosted the year prior when I was about 20 weeks pregnant with Preslie and that was exhausting!

Preslie got to enjoy her first taste of Thanksgiving goodness! I stripped her down to just her diaper and let her have at it! She was in heaven!

^ Preslie had her first little tooth poking through on the bottom here.

My Grandma Ruth and my brother were also there for Thanksgiving 2013 but I didn't get pictures of them. It was a nice, relaxing visit and one we all enjoyed!

Thanksgiving 2012

Since Christmas is fast-approaching, I thought it only fitting to document our Thanksgiving. ;)

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year and it was great! It was so nice to be able to fit everyone into our home, comfortably. We had a total of six family members celebrate with us: my dad and mom, brother, my aunt and uncle and Kevin's dad.

The men: Brother and Kev, Kev and his dad, Dad and Brother and Brother with the turkey.

 

 

I can't leave out the pups! We had FIVE dogs here. Ugh! Cleo with her plastic chicken, Mac and Stella enjoying the fire (Hattie and Kahlua were being shy).

My dad wanted to try and fry the turkey this year. He brined it for 24 hours before he fried it. It turned out amazing! Here is the process in photos.

My uncle Martin, Kev and FIL carving the cooked turkey.

Mom and I cooked all the side dishes and I focused a lot on decorating the formal dining room. I have never had a formal dining room so I was really looking forward to using all of our stuff we got as wedding gifts and doing it up right!

I set up a little coffee-dessert station on the bar.

I love my milk glass cake stands!

We set up all the food on the window ledge (which is quite large) that you see in the background.

 Usually, during all the hustle and bustle of hosting, I forget to stop and just appreciate the moment. This time I did. While everyone was eating, I just breathed a sigh of contentment and and gratefulness to have everyone there, in our home.

It was a great meal and everyone left Happy, Thankful and Full!

Day of Thanks

November 29, 2011

I’m thankful that nail salons exist. There is nothing better than a good pedicure and manicure!

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We had a great Thanksgiving. Like I’ve said, my family came to town to celebrate the holiday with us. The dogs got so much attention from everyone!

I somehow managed to take six days off of work! It was much needed and so hard to go back to work on Monday.

We had a lot of family time last week. I think my family was ready to go home come Saturday morning, and we were ready to have our house back that morning too.

As little welcome gifts, I got Dad and Brother a beanie, body wash and some chapstick. For Mom and Grandma Ruth I got each a book, body wash and some chapstick. Nothing crazy, but just something thanking them for coming. I put each gift in a brown lunch bag and tied it with some festive ribbon and put it in their rooms.

Dad brined the turkey a few days before T-day. So when it was all cooked and done it was pretty much the best turkey we’ve ever had.

Mom and I made mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and stuffing. We were able to get it all done early on in the day so all we had to do was pop everything into the oven for about 30 minutes once the turkey was out.

Oh, and I attempted to make two pies the night before T-day and they both turned out not-so-good.  I was so frustrated because I used the same recipes I did last year (and they both turned out amazing last year). I ended up not slicing the apples thin enough for the apple pie so they were a little crunchy, and then for the pumpkin pie I put twice as much cream cheese in the recipe than it called for! I was super disappointed and therefore refused to eat either pie come time for dessert. Ha!

However, the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies were a hit so at least something I made turned out well.

Dad and Kevin managed get a little tipsy before the meal. But it made for some good laughs.

This would be my husband - post shots of Maker’s Mark and Thanksgiving dinner. Haha!

Since we don’t have a dining room (or an area for a table for that matter) we rented a table and chairs and set up shop in the living room. Not ideal, but I enjoyed being able to set a table in our house for once.

It was an all around good holiday. One with memories that we for sure won’t forget.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well.

Much love,

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving with my family this year. I'm quite behind on my blogging because I took a nice little break the past few days, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Last Wednesday I was able to get off work early and Kevin and I headed to Salinas to spend time with my family for the Thanksgiving holiday. To sum it up, our visit consisted of puzzles, cornhole, eating, drinking, visiting, eating, watching movies, drinking and more eating. Ha! Here are some pictures from our visit.

Brother and Dad wrapping and dressing the turkey.

The puzzle that took us four days to finish!

Kevin and Kahlua watching football ;)

Hattie hoping and praying that I'll drop an apple peel that she can snatch up!

The makings for a Dutch Apple Pie.

The turkey cooking away.

Cleo and Hattie keeping watch.

Cornhole. The guys played this a lot.

Still cooking.

My pies: Dutch Apple Pie and Paula Deen's Pumpkin Pie. They were so good!!!

All done!

Mom and me!

Grandma Ruth and me :)

Table setting.

*love*

Grandma Ruth and Mom working on the never ending puzzle.

The amazing stuffing in pumpkins that my dad made. It was so good! (This picture isn't posted right side up for some reason.)

We finally finished this puzzle on Saturday morning. The one missing piece that you see on the right was eaten by Hattie.

Kahlua sporting her new sweater. I'm not a big fan of dressing her up, let alone in pink. But it's been really cold and her trusty black fleece is slowly falling apart. She sure does look cute though!

I helped mom decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.

So we took a family photo in front of the tree for my mom to send out their Christmas cards. It took A LOT of takes, but we finally got a decent one. Here's one of the out-takes...

Oy!

And here's the final photo...

Good enough!

Snuggling with a sleeping Hattie. She's a great cuddler!

What I was most thankful about this year was that Grandma Ruth was able to spend Thanksgiving with us, and that she's slowly, but surely, getting better. We also saw my Grandpa Telfer (which was really hard and emotional) and my Grandma Hank. I'm very thankful for family.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!