a homemade thanksgiving

This year Matt had the brilliant idea that we make the Thanksgiving meal for my family at my grandparents' house!
We like cooking but having never attempted a turkey or some of the other traditional Thanksgiving dishes, we were a bit nervous. We got my sister on board, compiled recipes, wrote a detailed shopping list and crossed our fingers that all would go as planned. (And we decided that whatever didn't quite work out - well, at least we could laugh about it later.)

Matt tackled the 17lb. turkey (literally - it went flying at a couple of points in the cooking process, once in the sink and once onto the counter) and thanks to an oven bag and a savory rub,  it turned out deliciously!

I made a beautiful apple pie (which I sadly did not get a picture of, but that only motivates me to make it again) and then raced between assisting with other dishes, trying to keep the kitchen clean and tending at times to both kids.

My sister found an amazing sweet potato casserole recipe by Emeril and worked on that, as well as making her signature mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy.  (Ah yes, when I say "homemade" not even the cranberry sauce was out of a can.)

By the time we sat down to eat my mom counted 14 dishes total and the only thing that remained untouched on the table at the end of the meal were the  rolls (okay, these ones were store bought).

Both kids graciously took naps during the Thanksgiving meal and when Hannah woke up she was anxious to try some pumpkin pie!   (She didn't seem to mind that we left out the evaporated milk and that it tasted, well, a bit dense.)

All went well until we tried to start the dishwasher and discovered it was broken!
 We spent a better part of black Friday washing dishes - but it was worth it!
We now feel very prepared for future Thanksgiving meals (not that I'm committing us to anything at this point).