Food, Family and Fun!

We had a great thanksgiving yesterday! bowen was so excited about thanksgiving this year. he could hardly wait for his cousins and uncles to come to play with him. and i guess all the build up and excitement got the best of him..he spent the holiday with the runs {both ends} and james spent most the holiday cleaning up the messes every couple minutes so i could try pullin off a good thanksgiving dinner! mike, jack and ty, and brian were all here and mom and dad skyped! we all missed them so much but had a great dinner and a lot of fun playing football and making gingerbread trains!

i have now officially made a thanksgiving dinner. and i'll be honest...it wasn't to bad. but all the prep, and the clean up (oh boy!) makes me think a nice resturant meal would sufice just the same. we'll see if given a year, i feel up to it again. but so far, i'm leaning on the resturant idea!

it started with the shopping. i only had to go to the grocery store twice, which i thought was quite the record. the bill was also a record. Next, i pressed all the linens and set the table!

then started the cooking, and all the stress and anxiety really paid off...we had the yummiest turkey and great yams, mashed potatoes, even homemade gravy and homemade cranberry sauce. and last but not least homemade rolls. the stuffing (stove top!...you have to cheat somewhere.) was great too! ty did all most the side dishes. we is so awesome! everyone loved the food and it made the effort seem worth it! even Krew loved grandma's famous garlic mashed potatoes!

the turkey was a perfect golden brown and oh so moist all the way through! i was a little shocked to be honest!

the dishes weren't as nice. this was about the fourth round of dishes that i did yesterday. and there were more after this....and still some more today....

the desserts though, we're b.e.a.utiful! and worth the extra dirty dishes! (pictures don't do it any justice but there are plenty of leftovers if you want a taste!)

by this time, i stopped taking picture to care for my little one and make sure i was being a proper host! but i found these cuties afterwards...

(excuse bowen's paleness)

bowen stopped puking for an hour or two and wanted to help havyn with the gingerbread train! he had been looking forward to this ALL week..i didn't want him to miss it either.

so now, the day after....

the family is gone, the laundry is full of bowen's twelve outfits that got dirty. the dishes are piled back up and christmas is now on it's way! all i can think about is that my mom sure used to do a lot for us. i appreciate it all so much now and wish so badly that she was here for me to thank with a giant hug! besides all the hussle and bussle i had a lot of time to think about what i'm grateful for and that's the real reason i love the holiday! hope you all had a great thanksgiving!