We had such a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. It was the first time that Bill and I have had all seven of our children, all three grandchildren, two son-in-laws and one daughter-in-law together at the same time..:) We were also fortunate to have Bill's mother and his sister with us. My parents also came for a quick visit. It was such a wonderful, special day for us.
With our children having other families to rotate holiday visits, we only get some of them every other year and Andrea's family only every four years. We originally were thinking we would get take-out and go to Grandma Hammond's house in Logan. We then decided that it would be nice to have it at our house. We have plenty of space, however, we just had to move a few things around. As always.... Bill was absolutely wonderful and totally helped with everything. We cleaned and sorted and cleaned and sorted and moved furniture around. Logan helped also, he even cleaned all the baseboards. I told Bill and Logan that we can host Thanksgiving every year since it was so worth it to have the house cleaned up so well. The house we live in is very old and so even when it is clean, it just doesn't sparkle like a newer home. It definitely has charm and character that I love though.
I managed to put the meal together and had everything super organized. We had each member of the family bring something so everyone could be involved. I purchased and roasted two 19 lb turkeys. I wanted to make sure we had enough food for everyone to eat and for everyone to have leftovers. The turkeys cooked perfectly, one in the oven and one in the roaster pan. I used red potatoes and mashed them with the skins on. I made two crock pots full of stuffing and baked the yams the night before. I was then able to heat them up, one with brown sugar and marshmallows and the other plain. We had vegetables and rolls and all the turkey trimmings. Wow.... I'm getting kind of hungry as I'm writing this!
Andrea brought pumpkin and apple pie. I also bought a white cake with white frosting (my favorite) turkey cake from Costco. Grandma Hammond brought the traditional Hammond family Thanksgiving dessert favorite.... chocolate pie.
I must say the meal was delicious and I really wasn't even stressed because I had so much help from everyone and especially from Bill. Jim and Kristen and Mark and Melanie weren't able to come for the sit down meal, however, they came just as we finished up eating. Even though they had already eaten at their other families houses, they ate here also (that's because I'm such a good cook and it was irresistible!)hahah. They stayed and visited and ate and ate and then we all ate some more.
It was so enjoyable to have the whole family here. Ryan brought his Rock Band over and the kids all ended up having a Rock Band concert in Logan's room. I'll see if I can figure out how to post the link. It was absolutely hilarious. Grandma Hammond was going to take a nap, however, the house and the kids were so noisy we had her go into our room and close the door so she could rest.
Everyone stayed for awhile with our turkey feast hangovers. The kids all played games and the big kids all played rock band. Some watched football and some just slept. My mom and dad came and said hello to the family.
Bill and I enjoyed the day so very much. It was a wonderful holiday and it was so special to have all of our children here together.
Thanks to everyone for all of your love and support. And a very special thank you to my wonderful husband who helps me so much and brings so much joy to my life.
