A Grown Up Thanksgiving

This year we had what I've been jokingly calling a "real, grown-up, Thanksgiving." Thanks because we hosted Robert's sister, Liz, and her husband Mike from Kentucky and had to prepare the Thanksgiving feast sans our talented mothers and grandmothers. This was my first time to host and cook and celebrate at our home. It really turned out to be such a fun time with family, and the cooking wasn't near as stressful as I expected it to be - most likely because Liz is a whiz in the kitchen and helped me with all the prep adn because the boys handled the turkey, which we fried this year. I had to take several pics of our food display because I'm not sure when you'll see the likes of that on my buffet again! Everything turned out great and really was delicious. We pretty much spent hte whole morning cooking, ate around 1 p.m., and then promptly napped for something like three hours. It was glorious.





We had a gazillion leftsovers since we cooked for 20 but only had four adults, but we certainly enjoyed those later. Tried some new recipies - fun twists on old classics - that turned out great. The real treat was the fried turkey. And for a better shot of the glory of the fried Turkey before Robert sliced it ...

It did not, however, start out that way.

I didn't get any pics of the boys actually frying the bird on the back patio, but I did of my dad's hilarious "How to Fry a Turkey" pictorial instructions. It's got all you need to know!

While the boys handled the turkey prep, Liz and I tackeled the rest of the meal.

I finally learned how to make my mother-in-law's famous yeast rolls, of which one individual can eat approximately 10 because of their delicious goodness.

And I also attempted my dad's famous dressing for the first time. It would have been spot on if I hadn't baked it a little too long.

And just because I was really proud of my table setting and the fact that we actully ate there, here are some pics of the table. It's always fund to use my formal china.

Funny side note: See those cute plates hanging on the wall in the background? They actually came crashing down in the middle of the night this week. Definitely woke us up with a start. My first thought was the Christmas tree had fallen over. Robert went to check things out and realized my plates had caused all the commotion. Now I have a spot on my wall to hang my Christmas card holder, but come January I need some ideas for better plate hangers. These were suggested by Southern Living (and ordered from England) but obviously aren't doing the job.