Post Thanksgiving Day Blues

So, JB and I hosted the big family event this year at our new house. We had my whole family over and a few friends too. We rounded off our brand new dining room table with nine people for the festivities. The house looked fantastic. JB worked his little butt getting things ready for the dinner and overnight guests. He finally finished the tile in the bathroom and it looks fantastic. I will have to post a picture of his excellent job just so I can brag again that it is finished. It only took six months of discussion and a little bit of nagging but he finally finished. I am happy.

But I digress... he also finished the baseboards on the first floor, mowed the lawn, painted the ceilings and finished a few other things that I can't think of right at this moment. I baked pies, prepped for dinner, made beds, vaccumed, washed the dogs, and generally picked up around the house enough to have my mother over for the night and not feel uncomfortable about it. At one point JB and I hugged, sighed and looked around at our accomplishments. It really is beginning to feel like our house. After only a few months we have unpacked all our boxes and are truly settled in.

The dinner was fantastic. I used a few recipes I found on the Williams Sonoma website and everything turned out yummy. We had a sage-rubbed butterball turkey, sage & sausage stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, creamed corn, rolls, green bean casserole, acorn squash, pumpkin pie, banana cream pie & french silk pie. We ate really late because we were sharing the holiday with my brother's girlfriend's family but everything turned out okay. It was nice not to have to get up and put the turkey in at 6AM. I can honestly say I'm not complaining about having the additional time in the day. We played a new game I found at uncommongoods.com called The Thanksgiving Box of Questions. It was a great way to entice conversation at the dinner table as well as get a feeling of what people were thankful for this holiday season. We also played on my parent's Wii during the night. Everyone took turns playing the different games on the big screen and my house was miraculously cleaned after dinner by my brothers and friends. God Bless great manners!

So, all in all the dinner was a success! I fell into bed after a rousing game of Five Crowns at around midnight. I was super tired and thrilled that everything had come together and everyone seemed to have had a good time. The next morning I got up and had coffee with everyone, then jumped into making pumpkin waffles. They took a bit of time but were worth it. I highly recommend trying them too. I will post recipes later when I have more time to post.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving~!