Thanksgiving

Our family loves to eat so there isn't really a better holiday for us than Thanksgiving. We haven't spent Thanksgiving with family since we moved to Texas from California. When we lived in southern California we would spend Thanksgiving with my family, my niece would host at her home for her mother (my sister), father and her siblings. When we lived in the northeast we would usually drive to Maine to spend it with Jeremy's grandmother. With both families Thanksgiving was a pretty traditional holiday with minor differences. Three years ago was the first time I had ever roasted a Turkey on my own for our first Texas Thanksgiving. Last year we spent Thanksgiving with friends at their home. This year those same friends were invited to our home for Thanksgiving, but on Thanksgiving day their son got sick and we had to postpone. What an awful day to get sick, on a day that revolves around the food. Yeah yeah I know Thanksgiving isn't just about the food, but as an aussie living in the U.S. for me it is pretty much just about the food!! Anyway, we went on with Thanksgiving with just the family since the Turkey was already in the oven and getting ready to come out. The kids were disappointed but still enjoyed the holiday. The menu was Turkey (of course), homemade whole cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes and carrots, corn bread stuffing and green bean casserole. We had pumpkin pie and pecan pie for dessert.

Here is the Turkey, all 20lbs of it, yum!



Here is the cornbread stuffing



Roasted sweet potato and carrots



Green bean casserole that I made with caramelised onions and topped with panko crumbs



and the mashed potatoes, gravy, whole and jellied cranberry sauce.




Here is a line of hungry kids!!




The man of the house carving the turkey :)



Finn with his Thanksgiving dinner



Campbell with his dinner



Owen



Madeleine



Crackers aren't a Thanksgiving tradition but for our family they have become one. The kids enjoy them and will wear the silly hats for a little while :) Finn really loved wearing a crown through the meal!



Madeleine took a picture of Jeremy, Soleil and I after dinner. Soleil slept all through dinner, so we actually all sat down as a family to eat, maybe for the first time since she was born. Normally either Jeremy or I are entertaining Soleil while the other eats, that's life with a newborn!!



Now normally we won't decorate for Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. Since our guests had to cancel and Jeremy had to work on Friday we decided to pull out the decorations on Thanksgiving and get started. We bought Soleil a stocking but couldnt' get the one that the rest of us have so she has her own design! We will change out the others eventually but those stockings aren't cheap and we are so we are waiting for the after holiday sales :)



We did discuss what we were thankful for over dinner, the kids were thankful for Taekwondo mostly and both Jeremy and I are extremely thankful that Soleil is here and healthy and that we have been blessed with five wonderful kids and a glorious life.

We had a 'do over' Thanksgiving with the leftovers on Saturday, the kids were so busy playing that they didn't really eat much anyway, maybe it isn't so much about the food for them as it is me :)