Turkey Day 2012

Well, we hosted Thanksgiving for the in-town members of Richard's Family... which would be the reason for so few pictures!  Boo.   I was busy cooking, serving, hosting and dealing with kids and then just forgot picture taking.  I'll give you the recap. 

We started the day with the Thanksgiving Day Parade, after the kids slept until 8 - wahoo!   I say parade, but really it is half parade, and half musical production.  I personally like the floats, seeing that it's a parade and all. 

 During the parade, I started on the stuffing.

Grady loved watching the floats (while I cooked) and Cole liked running inside and outside all morning.  The weather was beautiful and Daddy kept the kids entertained all morning (LOVE you honey!), while I started prepping for our dinner. 

 Dancing to ... Not sure what?

Yep, those are Christmas decorations in the background.  I figure it takes so much work to put them out, you might as well enjoy them from Thanksgiving until Christmas!~

Random funny -  Cole enjoys filling my ice dispenser with animal magnets.  Thanks buddy!

 My fav dish of the day -- Green Bean bundles - Pinterest idea!

Green beans, wrapped with bacon, sprinkled with brown sugar, pepper, soy sauce and garlic... and butter.

Did I mention butter?!?  Delicious... I'm gonna try with asparagus next! 

 Daddy dumping the stuffing out - that bird was heavy!

I actually used carrots, celery, rosemary, lemon, onion and garlic, salt and pepper, and then also injected it with Cajun injector seasoning.  I was a little nervous about all the seasonings, but it worked out well.  

 The finished product - YUMMO!

I also made deviled eggs, stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy.  Lana brought salad and fruit and Elaine brought her rolls and a cake.  We had lots of food, yummy food. 

 By dinner time we were all hungry and it was all so good!

 Wii playing going on...

I had never personally made my own turkey, and this year was a huge success.  I have to say, it's way easier than I thought.  If you have any fear of the turkey - don't - it's a piece of cake!  I had also watched Thanksgiving Live on the Food Network the night before, and talked to my mom about 14 times as well.

This was the only picture I snagged from Richard's phone of our guests.  Sweet Aunt Lana entertained Cole the whole evening!

Well, Thanksgiving was such a great day!  We are so blessed to have such wonderful families, near and far!