Happy Thanksgiving

We decided to grow a tree on our wall.

A Grateful Tree.

Everyday we would write something we were thankful for on a leaf and put it on one of the branches.

I was incharge of writing and Tate was incharge of putting the leaves up. 

The boys were thankful for things like: trees, colors, shirts, Veterans, pizza, our friends and toys.

Tate liked the leaves being all clumped together.

It was a great way to get in the spirit of the upcoming holidays!

This was my first Thanksgiving where I was cooking a turkey!

After doing a little YouTube research on cooking turkeys, I decided maybe we didn't need the whole big bird.  It was just going to be me, John, Angie and Will (and some little kids:), eating the turkey.

Seemed like a lot for just the four of us.

What about just doing the a turkey breast?!

Smaller, all white meat, more up my alley.

I found this crock pot recipe using cranberry sauce, orange juice and dry onion soup mix.

Sounded good.

Ryan (not feeling well), got up with me at 3am and since we were up for a while, we decided to get the turkey ready! 

While Ryan slept in the next morning, I was up with Tate and Blake who were anxious to help too.

I put them on stuffing duty. 

They helped cut up the loaf of sourdough bread.

Blake got smart after a while and ditched the knife (which was tricky to use), and just tore the bread in small pieces.  Tate kept with the knife. 

Ryan woke up just in time to lick the whipped cream bowl. 

Tate also helped write everyone's name on the name cards and set the table.

He did a great job! 

We didn't eat until 4pm since Angie had to work that day.

Since we had some time to kill before dinner we decided to go for a walk.

To clarify:

John opted to watch football.

I went with the boys on a walk.

Tate and Blake rode their bikes and went way faster then me and Ryan. 

We got back in time to get dinner together.

The rolls turned out awesome! 

Good thing the rolls and stuffing we great because I think I got paranoid about serving raw turkey and overcooked it.  I'll have to brush up on my turkey skills for next year. 

We are so happy to have some family living close by that was willing to join us for Thanksgiving.

We are grateful for all our many blessings....

including pumpkin pie after dinner!