Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time of the year. Despite the hustle and bustle of planning for the meals, schedules getting the kids, and the upcoming holidays (my mom and Kylie's birthdays, and Christmas around the corner), Thanksgiving has a sense of pause to it. Which may not make sense after I just mentioned a lot going on around this time, but I think because all we really are expected to do for Thanksgiving is be thankful and eat, it seems to be a relaxing holiday.
Keane and I hosted my dad's side of Thanksgiving dinner this year. Keane's brother and sister-in-law hosted their dinner on the Sunday before, and I was taking notes on all the last minute things I hadn't thought of for our dinner -- ice, veggie tray, tables, etc.
There were 22 people total at our house on Thanksgiving Day. I'm wishing now I would have taken a few moments to photograph my table decorations and the wreath my sister and I made the evening before. Why oh why don't I take more pictures? Probably because I was busy making corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, oyster dressing, and regular dressing. The "regular" dressing basically went untouched, and I don't blame anyone for not eating it. I had gotten my aunt's recipe and she told me to use bread crumbs...so I used "bread crumbs." Afterwards, I was talking to Keane's mom about a recipe of hers and she said, "For that I use bread crumbs, or you know, croutons..." CROUTONS! That must have been what my aunt meant. Better luck next year.
Keane got up in the middle of the night to put the turkey on the smoker. And let me tell you what -- that smoked turkey was magnificent. I have always chosen ham over turkey (my family has always had both ham and turkey for Thanksgiving) and this year I was just as excited to have the smoked, tender, juicy turkey on my plate as I was for the sweet, delectable ham.
This year I made sure to put a little bit of everything on my plate, since I had technically asked everyone to bring such food items. And we had a lot of different food items to choose from. It was all so good.
Then we had our annual White Elephant Gift exchange. I attempted to switch up the style of the game this year. We used to number the gifts and everyone drew a number, and would get the gift that matched their number. The next person could either steal or get a number of their own. The last two years, we found a poem on the Internet that had a rhyme and directed using numbers and matching words which gift everyone should grab and who to trade with. This year we had fake money and we could "auction" our gifts off. However, there wasn't much buying power with the fake money, and I had sort of, a little bit, forgotten that sometimes our gifts are exactly what they are supposed to be which are "gag" gifts, which in turn are things that people don't usually want to buy...ha.
Next year I think we'll go back to the original way of playing. But it was fun. I ended up with my cousin's leftover wedding things such as bubbles. Keane got a bag of home goodies from my cousin's husband which included an extension cord, superglue, and a lighter. Kaden got water balloons and a pump from my little brother, and Kylie ended up with a frame of mine from RusticCo that she bought with all her fake money and was very proud of -- "Happy Thanksgiving to me!" she exclaimed.
I was very thankful to be surrounded by my family for Thanksgiving, thankful to have a home to share with them, and for the recipes and traditions passed down in my family that everyone looks forward to year after year.
And it's always wonderful when my sister and nephew come home to visit. I hung out with them Friday until they left in the afternoon. McCoy is so easy to love. We wrestled and laughed and covered ourselves in his blanket. He giggles at things that are funny and talks a lot. I am so very blessed with the family that I have.
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