Turkey Day

For some insane reason I thought it would be a fun experience to host Thanksgiving Dinner at our house this year!  After telling friends & co-workers about this change in plans, horror stories started flooding in & come Thanksgiving Day I was just waiting for fires, explosive family drama & burnt food...  But to my happy surprise everything turned out pretty great! 

I had never cooked a turkey before this but it always looked so easy watching my family over the years so I figured how hard could this be... famous last words.

Seeing as I am completely grossed out by raw meat I had my trusty (former) butcher do the turkey scooping for me!  Unfortunately this was Jeramey's first experience with a turkey too.  About an hour after the turkey was in the oven Jer was over to his parents getting a foldaway table & some chairs when I get this frantic call from him saying that I need to get the turkey out of the oven right away...  he didn't get the giblet bag out!  I tell him I'll get the turkey out but if he needs me to stick my hand in there then he needs to hurry home & do it himself!  After 2 holes in the turkey bag & 5 min of searching the giblets were located & removed!  I should have taken a picture of the turkey bag, it looked simply laughable but back in the oven the turkey went!
All the family showed up around 10:30 & we got to watch some football (Go Packers!), eat snacks, finish cooking, & color some coloring pages that have been a tradition since I was a little girl!  Thank you Grandma Susan, they were so much fun!

My cute little Mama cutting up potatoes!

 Johnny refilling his soda.

 Brooklynn loves to be a little helper, especially when you're cooking!

 Aunt Hayli & Brynlee sharing secrets across the table!

 Johnathan, my dad & Grandma Kitty enjoying the football game!

 Jer & his snuggle buddy Tobi!

 Me & Mama cooking dinner!

 The girl loves whipped cream, what can I say!?

All in all it was a successful, disaster free day filled with lots of "fat dogging it" on the couch & some awesome football games.  It wasn't quite the same without Bampi & Grandma Susan here with us but we are glad that Bampi was able to have his surgery & hopefully will be here next year!!  Happy Holidays!