Let's Focus on Thanksgiving - The Final Wrap Up

Well today we have started our "December School" -- even though December doesn't start until Thursday,  we were too excited!!  It was a very fun day (kids are actually still watching their Christmas movie for the day, singing along having a grand time)!!  But more on that later :-)  (I promise to have at least weekly updates, if not more)...

but not today...

Today I need to finish up telling you about our WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!!  Actually make that TWO WONDERFUL Thanksgivings!!!  This had to be the best Thanksgiving holiday ever!

So on with the details...

Remember the surprise that I said the kids were working on that I couldn't tell you about until afterwards??  Well the kids made Thank You cards for our family members!

I went to the library and got die cuts of leaves and turkeys.  I glued them to rectangle pieces of cardstock and gave each child a tube of glitter glue (each one had a different color - pack of 3 from the dollar store and they worked GREAT).  They sqeezed pretty squiggly lines of glitter all over the leaves or turkeys.

I then printed, using pretty font, the words "We Are Thankful For"  for each card.  We glued those on the middle of the picture.

I had Seth write each family member's name and then I scanned his writings into the computer so that I could decrease the size and make them fit on the card.  I cut out them out using scalloped scissors.

Then I took another rectangle for each card, same size as the first, and had each kid sign their name.  Aaron wrote an A for his name on each one :-), Seth of course wrote his name and Alyssa made pretty scribbles.

I stapled the second rectangle to the back of the first to finish the card!

I displayed them on the buffet around our Thankful Tree.  (it of course was very pretty when they were all up there...but for our Thanksgiving with the Watson's there were only three left...so you will see in a bit that I did something else for the buffet for that Thanksgiving and just put the cards at their place at the table).

 

Of course all of the family loved them!!  :-)

So on with the rest of the Thanksgiving highlights!

As mentioned before, my parents, sister and her two kids came up the weekend before Thanksgiving for an early Thanksgiving celebration!  I decided I would spoil them for the whole weekend :-).  When they got there Friday night I had pinto beans that had been cooking in the crock pot all day, with sausage, rice, fried okra and cornbread for supper - YUMMY!!

For breakfast I made a Blueberry Breakfast Cake and a Sticky Bun ring!  Didn't it turn out pretty?!?!  And it tasted just as good!

Here is the table all decorated and ready!!  You should notice the tablecloth, napkin rings, place cards and the turkey bread basket with the turkey napkin inside it!  Didn't it come together nicely?!?!

Here we are sitting at the table FULL of food!!  I just noticed that no one was smiling though - gees!  Look happy people!!  LOL!!  For food we had a grilled pork loin, sweet potatoes with streusel topping, homemade creamed corn, boiled to death green beans, creamy cranberry salad, and yeast rolls!  YUMMY!!  For dessert we had a spice cake pumpkin trifle (that I forgot to get a picture of!)  We were all so stuffed when we were done!  But it was a good good dinner!

For our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with Daniel's parents and brother we decided to brine our turkey!  Here is a picture of our 18 lb turkey resting in it's brine!  We had to get a 32 quart rubbermaid to fit it in and completely rearrange the fridge - but it fit!!

Here it is off the grill!  YUM!!!  It may look burn but I assure you it was not burned at all!!  (the brown sugar in the brine combined with the olive oil rub on the turkey on the grill made the skin very dark looking - but it was VERY GOOD flavor when you ate it!)  This was the juiciest turkey I have ever had!

Here is a picture of my apple-raisin stuffing (VERY good) and my homemade cranberry relish!!

Remember earlier in the post I mentioned I did something different with the buffet for the 2nd celebration - it was transformed into our dessert table!! YUM!!

Here is a picture of my pumpkin bars and my caramel apple trifle!

Here is a picture of the banana pudding and pecan pie that my brother-in-law made!  YUM!

And here is this family picture (Uncle James made it as well!!  :-) )  At least everyone smiled in this picture!

Here is my plate stuffed full of food - ready to dig in!!  YUM!!    You can also see on my plate my sweet potato casserole (BEST I have ever done!!!) and the bacon wrapped green beans that my brother-in-law did!  We just stuck with easy crescent rolls for this gathering. :-)

Ok I seriously need to go on a major diet now - LOL!!

But this will seriously be a Thanksgiving holiday that will be remembered for years to come!!

Until next time,
Kellie