Thanksgiving!

We had THE most wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We truly did. It was a bit wild at times, specifically when I was casually peeling beets and chatting with Karen in the middle of Jason's kitchen tornado. If you've ever hosted Thanksgiving, you know those last 15 minutes are a flurry: things are coming out of every direction to converge on the buffet, the oven and fridge open and close a thousand times, serving dishes need utensils, the sink piles up with dishes and pots and scraps, everyone needs more wine...and if you know Jason, he does this for a living, so an innocent beet-peeler such as myself, who doesn't "appreciate" the urgency involved with 15 minutes until service, will get the boot. Literally.

Besides THAT, it all went incredibly smoothly food-wise. Our turkey was gobbling pretty much right up until we got him (her? Oh gosh! We'll never know, will we? Bet you have never thought about that!). It was a 28 pound, free range, organic, all-the-credentials kind of bird. Jason brined it on Tuesday...

Thursday morning, it went into the bag with some champagne (no one likes a thirsty turkey)

 It was perfect!

EQUALLY as important as the turkey was my tablescape in my opinion. As you know we just finished our dining area so this was our first meal around it. We had 9 grownups total: Me, Jason, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Lizzie, Uncle Chris, Aunt Karen*, Uncle Berg* and Uncle Bob*.

(*honorary)

There were also 4 kids so it was definitely busy! I didn't get any group shots but the "before" table looked like this!

I love me some faux decorative gourds with sparkles on them:)

Besides the turkey and gravy, we of course had the best mashed potatoes anyone has ever had (THEY HAD CREAM CHEESE IN THEM), Ina's apple/herb/sausage stuffing (I always make that), Bobby Flay's chipotle sweet potatoes (also unbelievable), Karen brought a green bean casserole and we also made roasted brussels sprouts with pancetta, a butternut squash bread pudding, and I did the beets in our crockpot! I tossed them with an orange zest/juice/thyme sauce after they came out and I have to say, they were awesome. Beets-in-the-slow-cooker FOREVER! See foreground:

They were like shining jewels. I love beets :D

Here are a few random shots from the day. Still waiting for Grandma to upload her pictures so I can steal some. I didn't get that many :-/

Oh, and this is me, about 9:30 pm.

I was tiiiii-ERD! I missed the whole game of Cards Against Humanity. Probably lucky for them I was asleep because I would have won.

If Grandma has a group photo I will update this post with it - we had a wonderful fabulous lovely time. I would not have changed a thing.

So that's a wrap on Thanksgiving. Christmas of course is in full swing and Ashton literally hops around the house with excitement. Pete the Elf! Advent calendars! Gingerbread houses! Toy catalogs! It's only December 2, stick with me, there is a LOT to cover this month!!