Thanksgiving 2015

This Thanksgiving was an especially meaningful one because it was the first time for us to host a big family holiday at our house! We had about 30 people over, including Steven's parents and all but one of his siblings and only 3 missing nieces/nephews. It was a great way to get our house cleaned up and to finish some other little projects! We love having company over and are so glad to have a bigger home in which to do that!

It was also fun and challenging, and a tad stressful, to figure out how much food we needed to feed that many people! We handled the turkeys, stuffing, cranberries, rolls, some desserts, and drinks. His parents and siblings brought lots of other side dishes and goodies too.

A good friend gave me some great recipes for Cranberry Sauce (the Williams Sonoma one) and Stuffing (from her friend, using both herbed and cornbread stuffings and sausage). I also enjoyed making my Apple Pie (Better Homes cookbook, but with refrigerated rolled crusts) using the cheese grater for thin slices, and Ellie made Oreo balls. We did the Alton Brown turkey technique, including an overnight brine and using the double ovens in our vacant old house to roast them. They were good, but not good enough to feel like the extra effort of brining was worth it. Also, we got two turkeys that were each about 14 pounds and we didn't have much leftover!

Playroom cleaned by the girls! Woohoo!

The B family Thanksgivings always start with a flag football game at the park led by Uncle Thomas!

And with our new TV, the older cousins figured out how to stream the football games! That was a new thing for us!

All the cousins except three!

Like father, like son. 

This was when the family was still over. He fell asleep right under the TV!

Hope your Thanksgiving was filled with love, laughter, family, fun, and a good nap!