My brother Todd, his wife Michelle, and my brother Blair
Noah and baby Jake!!
My mom, her husband Al and baby Jake. He sure gets around!!
Brenna and Julianna!! The girls have to stand together against the mountain of boys in our home!
My three, Brenna, Noah and Tobin, who could all hardly stand for a picture to be taken of them. I keep telling them, they'll thank me some day!
Our yummy Thanksgiving table!!!
Andy cooking the turkey!
Want to know what I loved about Thanksgiving: absolutely everything! I loved the food, our deep fried turkey, our salads, vegetables, green bean casserole, and rum buns (yes, they were from O'donnells) But... two things in particular stand out for me about the holiday weekend.
I realized that when you have your large (in numbers) family over, we had a total of 18 people celebrating Thanksgiving, and your kids are as old as mine, you just kind of let go of where your kids are every minute and you don't worry what they are doing!! You know that they are with their cousins, having a great time, playing, running, jumping, blogging, etc....It really didn't matter as long as they were having a fun time with no bloodshed involved!! And I was glad for them; they are of the age where the food magically appears on the table (like Hogwarts banquets) and the grown-up talk is wicked boring. I love this for them. It is one of those days where all seemed right in the universe.
What was soooo amazing about this Thanksgiving is that for the first time, I made homemade green bean casserole and Andy realized he will never go back (so he says) from making a deep fried turkey.
The green bean casserole: We always have green bean casserole. Ever since I can remember, we have had this dish as part of our Thanksgiving.
Flashbacks: I have a clear memory of my mom putting frozen jello salad squares into the freezer awaiting the feast. As far as I was concerned, they could have stayed in the freezer. I remember this broccoli dish one of her friends made which as far as I'm concerned could have stayed underground. I remember eating the marshmallows off of the sweet potatoes and leaving all of the sweet potatoes behind on my plate. I remember cranberry relish that retained the form of the can as it slid out onto the plate. I remember eating the dark meat of the turkey and loving it. And there was always the green bean casserole. Even though it was a vegetable, I ate it with gusto!
Let me just say, that getting all of the dishes ready for one appointed moment in time, still hot, warm, juicy, tasty, and ready to eat has got to be one of the hardest things to coordinate. And I completely understand getting some help from Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines.
And I am embarrassed to admit that I never realized until I was searching on the internet this year for the recipe that I have been eating the peasant version of green bean casserole! Peasant version ingredients: canned green bean, fried onions, cream of mushroom soup, and milk. But I found a homemade recipe for green bean casserole and I knew I had to try it. Fresh green bean casserole ingredients: fresh grean beans, mushrooms, onions, half and half, flour, panko break crumbs, pepper, chicken broth and nutmeg!! Doesn't it just sound better? So, I bought all of the ingredients and began cooking. Cutting up the onions...I'm still crying over it! I think I have a sensitivity to onions. I pushed up my sleeves, and dug in. You would have been so proud of me!!
I was a little stressed as I started cooking it really late in the day, and Andy wasn't quite sure that we needed to have green bean casserole-- I persisted! Andy has never really liked the casserole, but I do think he liked it this year! I am so glad I made it and I think we now have a new take on an old tradition!!
Andy's turkey was amazing! I can't believe how juicy it was and how fast it cooked in the deep fryer. The day was warm enough for him to cook the turkey outside in shorts! He did ask me to pick up a fire extinguisher though. I wasn't too sure about what this implied! Apparently deep fryers and cooking turkeys are the number one reason, houses burn down and people end up in the ER on Thanksgiving. I'm glad Andy was taking precautions! Luckily, he never needed it. Andy does an amazing job every year with the turkey. He has brined it, cooked it sitting on top of an open beer can, and so many other ways that really make the turkey ooze with taste! I love that our tradition is for him to make the turkey. We had a fabulous dinner. Everyone makes such great dishes. From the Bumgardners corn stuffing (pudding) to the Colchagoff's crab pie, we each have our speciality which make for a wonderful family celebration. Happy Thanksgiving.
The second thing occurred the next night as we had friends over! I saw Noah for the first time playing with a toddler. Usually Noah is so involved in what the "big" kids are doing, he can hardly pay attention to the younger ones! On Friday night we had our friends over and I realized he was sitting next to me laughing, playing peek a boo with a blanket, and tickling our friend's little girl, Sally. It was so fun to watch. Noah looked like he was having a great time and she was laughing that laugh that starts low in the belly and comes out with pure joy. It was so fun to see a side of Noah, that honestly, I have never seen before. That is a lot to be thankful for.
