Family, Food, Festivities, & Fun!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday - it was perfect and maybe our best ever! It's not often that we all get together at the same time, and I enjoy it so much when it happens.

Jamie, Elise, and I woke up early yesterday and started putting the final touches on the cooking. Jamie prepared the chocolate pie filling the night before and I had boiled the eggs for the deviled eggs on Wednesday night as well. Jamie does the pie filling completely from scratch, and it is to die for!!! He has it perfected.


Last year we had some issues with the meringue, so this year we bought extra eggs just in case things didn't go well the first time. We also bought some meringue mix as a back-up in case we couldn't get it right from scratch. I am very pleased to say that I was able to get the meringue just right! I told Jamie now that we have the filling and meringue down from scratch, next year I am going to attempt to do the crust from scratch as well. I think they turned out beautifully!


We had so much fun spending quality time together in the kitchen. We turned on our Christmas music and had some great talks while we cooked. Jamie took care of the mashed potatoes and I picked up champagne and orange juice to make mimosas.

Mom had a beautiful spread at her house. We had turkey, honey baked ham, broccoli rice casserole, macaroni & cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, rolls, and corn! Then there were the mimosas, tea, coffee (with chocolate mint truffle creamer), pecan pie, chocolate pie, and key lime pie. Darlene made brownies and brought them, and her Aunt Elizabeth made a really yummy jello/marshmallow dessert. We had so much food it was ridiculous! I am already thinking about the leftovers today. YUM!



We were joined by my in-laws, Wes & Darlene and Darlene's Aunt Elizabeth. We had never met Elizabeth before, and it was a pleasure to share our holiday with her. She is such a great lady. I enjoyed her company a lot. After we ate, there was a lot of visiting. This mainly consisted of Wes and my dad talking about multiple subjects from the military to sports! My mom had a nice conversation with Elizabeth, and Jamie and I kind of just sat back and listened to everyone else.




Mom also managed to get in a game of Candyland with Elise, which is always a bit hit.


The boys couldn't go along to mom's house for dinner, but we made sure to spend plenty of quality time with them during the day before we left the house.




All in all it was a wonderful day! One of the highlights for me was having Elise lead our Thanksgiving Day blessing. She instructed all of us to hold hands and said her blessing. It was absolutely precious!

Today is a big football day, so we are hanging out at home and relaxing. As much as I'd love to shop the sales, I have no desire to get out in the mad crowds today! I was able to find some great Black Friday deals online and get Elise some more jeans. She really needed those and I got them on sale. I've gotten out some Christmas decorations, and I'm beginning to work on putting away the fall things. Wes kindly offered to come over on Sunday to help Jamie hang lights on the house. I think by the end of the weekend we will have the house fully converted over to Christmas. We are planning to decorate our tree tonight and let Elise write a letter to Santa.

It's a great, fun-filled time of year!