Thanksgiving in a nutshell:  awesome.  delicious.  busy.  loud.  fun.  uniting.  perfect.  

We ended up with 19 total around our tableS for Thanksgiving.  My parents arrived Wednesday evening and showered us with gifts for the house, including the set of China dishes my mom is giving to me.  I was also given some wonderful belated birthday presents such as photo frames and beautiful serving bowls.  Stuffed in the truck trailor was also the head and footboard for our bed along with matching side table–all of which coordinate with our dressers.  And to top that all off, they had completely shocked both of us with a great ping pong table and gorgeous brand new foosball table for the youth room.  HOLY SMOKES!  Kevin has been saying how much he’d love to get a ping pong table down there but we didn’t think it’d happen for a while.  Wow.  Kevin spent most of Thursday (before and after eating) setting up the foosball table from the box and Friday they put up the ping pong table.  There are pictures below.  We have already had a blast with these two items and we know the teens and probably all our college friends will LOVE them as well!  I can toss all the boys downstairs and they will probably be content there for hours…wireless internet, dish tv, a huge stereo system, lots of couches, chairs, and cushions, and the above mentioned tables of goodness.  

Thursday went off without a hitch.  The Eccles arrived mid-morning with a trailor pulling the amazing Balwin upright piano (with baby grand strings) that was placed perfectly in our living room.  Oh and they also brought my birthday gifts–a leather laptop bag from Brian and a 7 qt. crockpot (a request of mine) from mom and dad.  Moving right along….I had never cooked a turkey before…and here I was roasting two twelve pounders.  The herb rub I put on the them tasted perfect and the timing went well.  Ten pounds of potatoes were peeled and mashed, and sweet potato casserole was attempted and won awards.  Besides the rolls I threw in the oven, our guests provided Waldorf salad, cranberry jello salad, green bean casserole, cooked corn off the cob, and more rolls.  And of course there was the huge spread of appetizers (cheese balls and crackers, nuts of all sorts, candies, and deviled eggs.)  Don’t forget dessert!  I baked two apple pies (lovely & delicious if I don’t say so myself…my guests seemed to agree!) and two pumpkin pies (a first for me…but very delish!).  Eccles brought 2 yummy elderberry pies and Kaufmans brought a huge Texas sheet cake for our chocolate fix.  

I worked hard to set a beautiful table.  or three. :)  We fit all 13 adults in the dining room and the 6 people under 22 in the living room at a lovely round table.  Check out all the pics below.  

Our new bar stools & lamp

After we took down the extra table, we added a sheet of plywood to expand our current table.  We added the 3 chairs we were given with a table we’re using in the teen room and now our dining room is more aptly filled and ready for visitors.