Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Well, it's all over, and I am feeling very happy. Yesterday was a long, but very good day. We spent most of the day cleaning up the house, then cooking, and finally enjoying an enormous bounty. It was really great. I love playing hostess. I love seeing people having a good time. And I LOVE hearing the oohs and aaahs about my food! Hee hee! It's great! So, here is a picture run down of the day:

DS and KB came over pretty early in the day to start cooking. Primary concern for the lot of them was getting the bird in the oven. I concerned myself with other things. In the following series of pictures we see DS taking a break from food prep to knit (yup, she's the one that got me started, and we are both obsessed now!), while I work on mushrooms for my mushroom gravy and our "foreman" Joel plays cards.
So, here are the three of us:

And here is a closer shot of me and DS. Notice that DS is mostly shaking her head or rolling her eyes at Joel the foreman.

KB was very impressed with the massive amounts of mushies I cut up so he kept taking pictures!

And here is the whole lot of em. They were joined by oil, herbs, milk, flour and sour cream in the pan to create what was, if I don't say so myself, the best gravy I have ever made. :)

Meanwhile, Joel was feeling inferior at his lack of doing anything useful, and tried to act like a thug. Upon seeing the picture he exclaimed, "I'm not looking very thug." I answered, "That's because you are NOT very thug." Ah, but that is why I love him.

KB took a break to take all those pictures, but before that, he was elbow deep in a bird. I didn't try any, but from what I hear the combined forces of KB and DS created a masterpiece bird that was juicy and delicious.

Eventually the rest of the Smedes joined us and as you can see were VERY EXCITED for dinner to be served. (Notice that Matiss does not look at all like Matiss in this picture.)

Now began the mad dashing involved in trying to get all the food onto the table hot when you only have one small oven with only one rack in it (meaning, it could not be used for warming.)

Quick, take the corn!

And the gravy! Take the gravy!

Very important! Jem gets the wine.

Helping out in the end, Joel gets food on the table. His other very serious contribution to the meal was opening the tins of Oceanspray cranberry jelly. You know, the kind that slurps out of the can, and then stays in exactly the same form until you cut it? Yummy!!!

As is pretty normal, dinner took longer than expected to get on the table, and the little ones just couldn't wait any longer. Since they only ate bread and mashed potatoes anyway, Joel served em up while the rest of us got the rest of the food done and warmed up.

And finally, KB carves the bird while the rest of us chomp at the bit to eat. (DS and three more guests who arrived minutes later are unfortunately not in this photo.) Unfortunately because we were all SO hungry, we ate in about 5 minutes flat and then all complained of painfully full bellies. But, the food was great!

After the formal eating in the dining room we had pumpkin pie, carrot cake and brownies all top with whipped cream or ice cream in the living room. By 10:30, or 11 (or what time did you guys leave anyway?) the kids were running wild, desepratly in need of sleep. The adults were all near comatose on the couches or floor. We sent everyone off with leftovers and kept a bunch for ourselves too. Joel and I stepped up the challenge and had the whole house cleaned up, all dishes washed and put away by midnight. It felt great to go to bed with a clean kitchen.

Today, as per my plan I have been on the couch watching bad tv and knitting. My hands kind of hurt (probably a combined effort from knitting and mushroom chopping), but otherwise I have no complaints. Pretty soon it might be dinner time, and all I'll do it warm up some leftovers. Ah...the joys. :)

I hope that wherever you were, and whenever you got to celebrate that you enjoyed your Thanksgiving as much as I did. See you next year! :)