Thanksgiving Festivities

I love the word "festivities". It just sounds fun. :)

We always have busy Thanksgivings. While we were dating, Brad and I would make a good 4 or 5 stops. It was disgusting. We decided to tone it down this year, mostly for Noah's sake. We just did the grandparents' (or in his case, great grandparents') house. My younger cousin Nathan recently got engaged, so we got to congratulate him in person. They have a "5 year plan". Get married, graduate, and go out on the missions field for 2 years together. I'm excited for them.

My other cousin, Elizabeth (his sister), had some news. She just closed on her first house.

And finally, my brother showed up in his US Army uniform. He's so proud of himself, so he wanted to show it off. He looks handsome in it.



(My granddaddy showing Bud how to fold his hat to put in his pocket)


Later on that night, Brad's family came over for dinner. Originally, it was just going to be us and his parents. Somehow, by 3pm, it was going to be his parents, his two sisters, and their kids... this resulted in an addition of 7 people. Fortunately, I cooked plenty of food. This was my very first try at cooking a big meal for family. And yes, everything was from scratch. I wanted to go all out. I didn't even attempt a turkey. Instead, we had frozen a half of a honey glazed ham from Target. Oh my goodness, if they have any left, go get you one. So good and about $40 cheaper than Honey Baked Ham.

Anyway, here was the menu:
- ham
- roasted garlic mashed potatoes
- green bean casserole
- sweet potato casserole
- dressing
- rolls (ok, those weren't from scratch)
- pumpkin pie
- chocolate pecan pie

I don't normally like to toot my own horn, but I really impressed myself! Honestly, I think I was more shocked than proud, especially since I got it all accomplished with a 3 month old in tow. I think this is going to become a new tradition for us (heaven help me...).

We had a good time, and it was surprisingly stress free.