Thanksgiving Goodness

Philip worked nights during Thanksgiving so we stayed home this year rather than traveling to one of our parents houses. I was kind of excited that it would just be the 6 of us together and that I would be preparing the whole meal by myself. It seems that we've always either gone somewhere for Thanksgiving or had my parents come and visit us (in which case my mom fixes the majority of the meal).

About 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, I asked Philip, Eli and Emma Kate what they'd like to have for Thanksgiving dinner. Eli LOVES Thanksgiving dinner so his list was looooong. I had to finally cut him off. Other than whether to have turkey or ham, the menu making was pretty simple. Here is what we decided on:

• ham
• corn
• mashed potatoes
• dutch green beans
• deviled eggs
• rolls
• milk cake
• banana pudding

Thursday morning I started off by making the desserts. I had the banana pudding all ready to start layering in a glass bowl when I realized I hadn't seen my trifle since we moved here. Philip was home from work by this time, but he was asleep, so going to the attic to look for it wasn't really an option (couldn't leave Zane and Zander in the house without adult supervision...cause who knows how long I could've stayed in the attic looking for that bowl). So I started looking in the kitchen cabinets to see what I could find. Nothing. Next I looked in the living room. Do you see anything that I could've used?

Look at the top center of the above picture. A hurricane glass. After a good ole washing out with hot water and soap, it was ready. I think it turned out very well if I do say so myself....

Of course not a single member of my family commented on its beautiful presentation. Should've just kept it in the white plastic bowl that I used to mix it.

One of my kids favorite things to do is scrape up the leftovers in the bowl of whatever dessert I'm making. Zane and Zander got to get in on the action for the first time....

They liked it.

Until it was all gone.

While I was cooking, the kids played so well. Eli and Emma Kate got out a weaving loom kit she has and made a creation.

Zane and Zander played peek-a-boo by standing on either side of this door and looking through the glass at each other....

Philip woke up in the early afternoon and finally around 4:30, all the food was ready....

As is tradtion, we each said one thing that we are most thankful for this year. Those things are:

• Emma Kate "money to buy clothes to wear and food to eat"
• Eli "parents that take care of me"
• Philip "having a job"
• Me "that all 6 of us are so healthy"

The food all turned out to be so yummy but we had way too much! An 8lb. half-ham is about 7lbs too much for our family of 6!!

Overall, it was a great day enjoyed by everyone.... including one little boy who LOVED the deviled eggs. (he ate three!)