Thanksgiving 2011

Well, I had a whole bunch of cool pictures to share of Thanksgiving...until the camera decided to get rid of them all. I have a sneaking suspicion that Joelle played a part in the camera acting up. She had climbed up onto the piano, retrieved the camera, and pushed some buttons. One of the older kids discovered her with it and brought it to me. The camera was set to some strange setting and after looking at it Chase was able to put it back to normal. However, when I put the camera into the computer to charge it and transfer pictures, the computer said there was an error and then poof all the pictures were gone, Chase couldn't save them.

So, take a minute and close your eyes and now imagine a beautiful spread of yummy food :) Imagine my beautiful table centerpieces that I made for the first time ever. I will try to describe them to you later.

I brined the turkey the night before, then buttered and salt and peppered it before throwing it into the oven. I had made 3 pies the day before...french silk, pear, and apple. Our good friends brought a pecan and pumpkin pie and also some really delicious mashed potatoes. I made creamy peach jello, rolls, veggie tray with dip, and a lime slush punch. I utilized my crock pots for the first time for Thanksgiving this year, it turned out perfect. I had one big crock pot with my stuffing. I had gone to Jimmy John's and purchased 4 loaves of their day old bread, it made the best stuffing. My mom gave me a triple pot crock pot, if that's a name for it. I put corn in one, green bean casserole and gravy in the others. I followed Ken Black's (Chase's uncle who makes the best gravy ever) gravy recipe, and to my utter delight this year it turned out :) . I also made cranberry sauce, but had a store bought can on the side for Chase just in case the homemade kind didn't do it for him. I don't think I left anything out, it turned out pretty awesome. I had 4 new recipes that I tried this year so I was nervous they wouldn't turn out, but everything was great.

For my centerpieces, I took 2 small clear vases, and alternated layers of acorns and cranberries. Then I tied some raffia around the vase. I put one vase on my fall table runner with 2 small pumpkins (leftover from Halloween bowling). On the other table I found some leftover fall material scraps and layered them and put the other vase there with 2 more pumpkins. It was pretty, I'm sure it wasn't that impressive, but I was excited about it. The kids weren't too happy though because I made them go out and collect acorns for me. I had leftover cranberries from the cranberry sauce.

We had a fun dinner with just our family and friends and we hope everyone else had a Happy Thanksgiving as well!