A Thankful Feast

This was the first year Dan and I volunteered to host Thanksgiving dinner at our place. My parents and Dwayne, Angela and their three kids planned to share in the festivities with us. I was very excited and a bit nervous to be in charge of such an important dinner, but I knew I would have the help of my Mum and sis-in-law, Angela. They are both seasoned professionals in the area of great feasts, so I was confident the dinner would be a success.

However, the weather decided to throw a wrench in my plans. We got snow. Lots and lots of snow.

It makes for a fun picture and it's fun to play in for a while, but it can completely ruin travel plans.

My parents ended up not able to drive up and with them stayed the shrimp salad, pumpkin pie, coconut cream pie and cornbread stuffing. I made up a quick stuffing and read up on turkey preparation. Angela and the kids made a pumpkin pie, because really, is it Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie?

Sadie and Allison made a creative contribution to the meal by making us all adorable Pilgrim hats for place cards.

After dinner Angela had the clever idea of having all of us write out what we were thankful for. According to the mess on Lana's face (and hands and hair) she was thankful for delicious sweet potatoes.

And of course, no Thanksgiving meal would be complete without pie. Lots and lots of pie. Here we have peanut butter pie, chocolate orange buttermilk pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and sour cream pear pie. We named this the "tour of pies" and a few of us hopped on the train, trying to have a small slice of each. I don't think anyone was able to accomplish that feat.

It was a really great meal and I think our first hosting gig was a success. The turkey turned out great, the stuffing wasn't too dry, the mashed potatoes were creamy and the gravy didn't have too many lumps. Now our fridge is full of leftovers and we've been eating pie for breakfast. Hungry? You're welcome to join us for turkey leftovers, if you can bust through the snow drifts on the way to our house.