Thursday, December 3, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend

So I know I just had a pretty long vacation from school last week, but...

How much longer till Winter Break???

I was not ready to head back to work on Monday after our very nice Thanksgiving weekend. Matt's family came out from Kansas to spend the holiday with us, so we combined our families for our dinner on Thursday. That meant Matt and I would be hosting Thanksgiving at our house for the first time.

I spent the week planning, shopping, and cooking. Come Thursday, I was as prepared as I could be. And I was very excited!

Rubbing down the turkey with butter and herbs. Yum?

My pretty table.

Matt, carving the turkey. It looked beautiful, but I didn't get a picture before Matt dug in. You'll just have to believe me when I say that it was super pretty.

Our spread.

Our menu included:
1. Butter Herb Roasted Turkey
2. Turkey Gravy
3. Dressing (Grandma Mewhinney's recipe)
4. Mashed Potatoes
5. Macaroni and Cheese
6. Green Beans (with bacon and onions)
7. Greek Salad and Strawberry Salad
8. Apple-Cranberry Sauce (home-made!)
9. Rolls and Cornbread

Eating.

Eating.

After dinner, the moms were nice enough to clean up.

Yay! Stuffed after our delicious dinner.

Once we'd recovered from our huge meal, we turned to dessert.

Yummy sweets.

Our desserts:
1. Apple Pie (made by my dad - awesome)
2. Cheesecake
3. Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
4. Cherry Cobbler
5. Pumpkin Tarts
6. Pumpkin Roll
7. Fruitcake
8. White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies
9. Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies

Obviously, we had plenty of food.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing with football and leftovers. It was nice to just sit and spend time with family.

Nieces.

Kiddos and me toasting to Thanksgiving with Sparkling Cider.

Matt's family stayed with us throughout the weekend, so we tried to find a couple of exciting things to do. On Friday, we headed south to Colorado Springs. The whole family took a cog train up to the top of Pike's Peak.

Matt on the train. Unfortunately, our seats were all separated, but it was still a cool ride.

On the train. Can you see Kansas?

Trying to get a shot of the view off the train.

At the top. It was cold.

Scott and Kellie's family.

Pretty view. You only get views like this on top of giant mountains.

Us on top of a mountain. Sadly, we did not climb this one.

Pretty.

Papa Herndon.

Our train.

The trip to Pike's Peak was a lot of fun, and visiting with Matt's family was really great. But it's also nice to have a quiet house again.

After they all headed home on Sunday, we had to start decorating for Christmas! Unfortunately, our little, puny tree wasn't gonna cut it in our new huge living room. So we bought a giant one.

Matt, deciphering the instructions.

Our tree, with a single ornament. The ceremonious first ornament was none other than...

Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of course!

Now we just have to decorate the rest of the tree. But we'll get on that later.

1 comment:

The Moskal Family said...

haha! I love your first ornament! Perfect!!!

Looks like you had a lovely Thanksgiving! Just reading your menu makes me hungry for more Thanksgiving and it's only 8am!