Thanksgiving was fantastic this year! Brian and I hosted his family: his mom, sister, her husband, his parents, and his friend Chris (who was a Thanksgiving orphan). Cooking + Scheduling Chaos + House Full of People = Happy Carrie! It was so much fun!
The day before, we kept the boys home from school. This was a change in the original plan which was to send them off to school. But Jacob was SO into it this year and extremely excited about our "Thanksgiving Feast" that we knew he would love to help. And if we keep Jacob home, we can't send Andrew to school (not in our minds at least). Andrew helped me cook, and you know, he did really well! He gets excited and prefers to do things "the Andrew way," but the threat of getting kicked out of the kitchen was enough to keep him in line for the most part. He helped me with the fruit salad, corn pudding, and green bean casserole. Jacob helped Brian with cleaning the house. Actually, he didn't help that much. He put on all of his tool belt, safety goggles, and John Deere cap and pretended to work. Brian and I were both surprised, but he kept himself busy. And props to Brian! He took off work for the whole week, and he worked his little tail off around the house! It looked amazing! And it kind of worked out for me because I prefer to be in the kitchen, and he prefers to stay out of the kitchen. :)
Wednesday evening the boys went to Allison's house. They helped to crumble up the cornbread for her dressing/stuffing. They loved it! Late that night Emily brought the turkey to the house, and we schemed about how to baste and roast Tom. Jacob stayed up to watch her prep the turkey. He just had to see Tom before he was cooking. When I put Andrew to bed, I asked him if he was excited about our Thanksgiving Feast. He sat up in bed, and he proudly listed everything that he helped to make that day! To me, its another sign that I'm gonna need to keep an eye on this boy....probably for forever. It was amazing to me because we had started cooking about 12 hours earlier.
The big day came very quickly after only about 3 hours of sleep. I put Tom in the oven about 30 minutes later than I had originally planned. Our guests are all very casual, so I was banking on their not being uptighth about my missing my 1:00 lunch time mark. I was going to baste Tom with his own drippings, but he was not very fatty at all! So on a whim, I made a baste from butter, thyme, poultry seasoning, and sage. I only missed my mark by 45 minutes, so I would've been rocking it had I put the turkey in when I originally planned. I'll take it! Everyone was so nice about the meal and our home.
When Emily arrived around 11:00-ish, the wine started flowing, and it flowed very smoothly for this lady right here...I had not had anything to eat before lunch time. Three glasses later, I was ready for a nap! lol! So I snuck upstairs to put the boys down for their naps (which did not go so well). When Brian came upstairs to see what was going on, I was fast asleep, and the boys were playing. I felt much better and stayed away from the wine the rest of the day. I was happy to see that everyone had made himself comfortable at the house. They were veggin' out watching the Cowboys and visiting with each other. My parents brought Matthew over to play for a while, too!
At the end of the day, I told Brian that I thought the whole day was a success. He told me, "I think it's the best we've had in a while." Anyone who knows Brian knows that things like this are not said unless he truly means it. So, of course, I cried. :) It was awesome, and he is already talking about hosting again next year!
Here are some pics. I did not take any, but Allison took a couple. One is of the table, and the other is Emily, Antonio, Brian, and me in the kitchen (or kitchen area).
