Thanksgiving 2012

This was the first Thanksgiving in years that we've been at home. Last year we went to a Chinese Buffet restaurant in Pigeon Forge with my parents. One recent year we were invited share Thanksgiving with some friends. When my grandfather was still alive, we would spending thanksgiving with him either by going out to dinner or eating a Publix Thanksgiving meal at his place. I'm really not into preparing a whole Thanksgiving dinner, but at the request of the kids, that is what we did this year.

Chris picked up a free range turkey at Whole Foods on his way home from work on Wednesday. Then he went straight to bed with a fever and aches. That's the last we saw of him for about 20 hours.

Since Chris was not able to help, I made the kids assist. The first thing on the menu was breakfast. James made some monkey bread using the recipe on the package of Pillsbury biscuits.

Next, James made our pumpkin pie. It had to set for a few hours, so we wanted to get this out of the way. We used Martha Stewart's recipe for Pumpkin Cream Pie. I didn't get a picture of the pie - but it was delicious! It was a lighter (referring to taste, not calories)  pie than the traditional pumpkin one. The crust was made out of ginger snap crumbs. And there was a layer of home made whipped cream on top. Yummy!

While James & I made the pie, Hannah made these cute place cards.

I attempted to make some home made yeast rolls, but that was an epic fail! I've made yeast rolls before, but that was over 20 years ago. I don't think I will be attempting them again. We did not have any back up rolls in the freezer, so we were without any kind of rolls or bread with our Thanksgiving feast.

Next, I made a brine for the turkey and let it start soaking for several hours. Chris would usually do this, but he was still sleeping.

After the turkey was in the brine, Hannah & I sat down to watch the I Love Lucy marathon. Some of the most famous episodes were on - such as the Chocolate Factory, Stomping Grapes and many more. Hannah enjoyed Lucy.

Finally, around 5pm, Chris made an appearance. He was feeling much better and was able to fry the turkey.

While the turkey was frying, we finished the rest of the dishes. We made Paula Deen's Aunt Peggy's Sweet Potato Souflee". It was incredible! We will definitely be making this again.

Hannah made a green bean casserole.

I also made some homemade mashed potatoes and stuffing. Neither of those warranted a picture.

Presenting the turkey - it was nice & juicy. We had never had fried turkey until we moved down to Georgia. They really are good.

And by 7:00 pm, we sat down for our dinner. Chris & I prefer eating our Thanksgiving dinner at dinner time!!!

So that was our Thanksgiving. It was a lot of work. I'm not someone who enjoys spending all day making one meal. Plus, I ran the dishwasher 3 times before dinner!

I think I am  leaning toward being out of town next year.