Any holiday that involves nothing more than food and family sounds like the perfect day to me. Our fam doesn't do anything fancy for Thanksgiving - just the Harlow/Kelleher/Coriaty clan enjoying our traditional favorites, drinking Sangria (I made a killer virgin version for me!) and making lots of noise.
I feel so lucky to have a house that is perfect for having family over. We've hosted the holiday since we moved here about six years ago, and it is definitely worth every minute of prep and clean-up. This year was special knowing it was the last Thanksgiving with just me, Brian and Penny. Hard to believe that next year we will have a 9 month old son at the table with us!
This year, Brian tried something new and cooked the turkey on his new BBQ. Since our frozen turkey from Costco that had been "defrosting" in our fridge for 5 days was still frozen on Thanksgiving morning, we had to run to the store and buy a fresh turkey. I was envisioning the Up All Night episode we had just watched, where Reagan and Chris had to choose between a 5 lb. or a 55 lb. turkey on Thanksgiving morning, but luckily Pavilion's had several 20-pounders to choose from. This was our first time cooking a fresh turkey and B didn't love the way it turned out (even though everyone else thought it was great) - but it was really nice to have the oven open all day to make the rest of the goodies.
I tried a new sweet potato casserole recipe this year that everyone loved, so I've added this to our annual recipe line up:
(That frozen turkey didn't go to waste - we put that sucker on the BBQ on Saturday and enjoyed it with some friends.)
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| Harlow loves her cousin already! 27 weeks pregnant. |
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| Turkey carving is hard work! Thanks Leroy for keeping Brian in shape with beer sips and brow wipes. |
A fun night, followed by the best tradition ever: Black Friday massages. My mom, sister and I have been doing this for years now - something we really look forward to! And prenatal massages are amazing, one full hour to snuggle with a body pillow while someone rubs every muscle in your body. Aaaaaah.
Please disregard the drool puddles on my pillow.
