Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving at our house is usually filled with LOTS of family.  Usually David's sister Becky and her family and David's Mom come from Utah to be with us.  Getting together with them has become our tradition.  Sometimes we have David's other two sisters too and we have even had all of them and my parents and sisters family at the same time.  That makes for a lively day-- I think two years ago we had over 20 people for dinner.                                                                       

 

Becky is back in school doing a master's program in math, so we knew she would be too busy in November to travel to Texas.  So in the summer we decided to meet in San Francisco instead.  It was wonderful in the summer, but THIS week we were all a little bummed to not have them here with us!!  The kids were sad to not have a packed house and lots of playmates.  But they felt a lot better when David's sister Laura & her roommate Cindy decided to come down from OKC to spend the day with us. 

 

Ahhh the magic of Auntie Laura--the kids were in heaven getting to see her and being spoiled with early Christmas gifts.  They LOVED that Auntie Laura brought her two tiny Yorkie's Paris and London with her--they were almost as good as cousins!!

 

The fun thing for me this year is that I was able to teach Natalie to make pies with me.  Auntie Laura works in retail so she couldn't get there until late Wed night, so we had plenty of time that afternoon to make pies before our guests arrived. 

Stephen even helped!!

Grandma B's Pecan Pie

Our pumpkin turned out super cute too!

 

 

 

 

We made some fun for kids items too!!

 Our Thanksgiving menu included: turkey, homemade gravy and stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, pretzel jello, yams with cinnamon & orange. This year I also made a second type of yams, candied coconut yams.  For appetizers, I made a brie cheese in a puff pastry with crackers.  It was a new item I've never made before and was yummy.  I also made the apple turkey with homemade carmel dipping sauce and the oreo turkeys for the kids.  For dessert I made two pumpkin, two pecan, a blueberry pie.  I also made a new dessert this year; a white chocolate pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap pecan crust topped with homemade whipped cream, candied pecans, and carmel sauce.  Yeah, it was as rich as it sounds!! 

WAY too much food!!  I cooked as much as when we have a house full!!  It was fun doing all the cooking this year and trying a few new recipes too!!  Luckily David was a great help--he always is!!  Makes me feel a little bad that I didn't make his lemon meringue pie!!

Thanks for coming Laura & Cindy!!!