Thanksgiving 2011!

We had a full house for Thanksgiving and it was a crazy blast!  I missed posting last week because life was really busy in a boring way.  Lots of cleaning, washing sheets, sorting piles of junk and whatnot.

Monday late in the evening family arrived!  So we went from three people and one feline hardly filling the house to being overrun.  Grandad and Didi drove out from North Carolina with Jake and Josie, their border collies, and they picked Grammy up in Atlanta on their way.  We were so excited to host our first out of town guests in the house that we didn't realize that the next few days would involve being constant referees between all living creatures below waistline.

First the dogs were trying to eat the cat and Hannah ran screaming from the dogs every time they looked at her.  Then Max realized that this is his house and the dogs were more scared of him so he spent the rest of the week chasing them around.  Hannah finally warmed-up to the dogs to the point that she could walk toward them and maybe even touch them if she was holding someone's hand.  All the while Max still runs from Hannah if she gets too excited about his presence.

We were so excited that Grandad brought his chain saw!  He spent Tuesday morning taking two little trees from our side yard to try to save the fence.  We were also busy around the house with meal preparations, but tried to take breaks for time outside so the animals didn't kill us all.  We went to the park on Wednesday morning and let the dogs and Hannah run around.

Here is Hannah and Didi chasing after the dogs and Grandad.

 Here is Josh and Max chasing after Hannah who found that it is really fun to run down the hills.

Here is Max pretending Josie isn't there while Josie is just hoping to find a way to be dominant.

 Hannah with Grandad and Didi.

 Having so much fun on the swing.  She actually cried when we tried to get her on the slide and then cried more when we had to go home.

We even stepped out for Cajun Cuisine on Wednesday night.

Now for the main event.

We started Thursday morning with the Turkey going in the oven.  I tried a new recipe that I found on Pinterest because this was my first full turkey and I didn't want to mess it up.  It worked great!  The main point is to cook the turkey breast down.  This is how it came out of the oven at the perfect temperature.

  Then after another hour of cooking sides and rounding up the troops we laid out the spread on the buffet counter. (Just to let you know the candied yams were made out of left over homemade sweet potato baby food and they were a hit!)

Unfortunately since I am the resident picture taker and I am also the resident cook there is a shortage of pictures.  I did snag this one in the morning of Hannah stealing the entire bag of potato chips off the table and stuffing her face... and her hands.

After dinner I clocked out for the day and didn't get any more pictures.  Josh then drove down to pick-up his brother, Jason from the airport because our house wasn't quite full enough.  When they got back we served up pie!

Friday morning we said goodbye to Grandad, Didi, Grammy, and the dogs.  Then we all succumbed to illness.  Josh's tummy went on strike and the faucets on Hannah and My noses jammed in the on position.  We tried to make the most of it and entertain Jason, but we were confined to the house Friday.  Saturday Josh was feeling better so we got out and about a little despite the rain.  We introduced Jason to some Cajun food and finished off the night hanging the chandelier in the dining room (which was a little late for Thanksgiving due to minor delays) and rehanging the mirror.

Unfortunately last night Jason joined the club with a sick stomach and our colds got worse.  Talk about a rough weekend.  It really makes me feel that the stress of preparing a holiday meal was almost a walk in the park.