Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Day we went to my mom's and celebrated with a yummy feast of turkey and all the best side dishes. Since my mom had recently been in the hospital, she decided to order all the food from Boston Market, but it was really good. I highly recommend it for anyone who isn't able to cook for whatever reason but still wants to entertain. (My Nanny also did this last year because the kitchen in her apartment is more like a closet, but she really wanted to host everyone at her place. God bless her!)

Anyway, my mom was determined to serve everything from real serving dishes, and eat at the dining room table with china, crystal, and silver. So, you would never have known that the food had been ordered from someplace if you had stumbled upon our gathering. Of course, if you HAD stumbled upon our gathering, we probably would have offered you a place to sit - but we didn't have one. My mom's dining room table was full. My mom's husband Charlie and Nanny's companion John were even warned about the "overhang" at their respective ends of the table - where the table pad underneath the tablecloth extended about 6 inches past the end of the actual table - so they were under strict instructions not to put their elbows on the table or there'd be a disaster. Funny enough, both Charlie and John heard the word "overhang" and thought it was a comment on their bellies - but this was BEFORE we ate. Ha ha!

But, I digress. Here are some pictures from the day:

Dorothy wore her black velvet dress with red cherries all over it. It is from Gymboree but I bought it at a consignment store and it was like new. There was no question of what dress Dorothy would wear to my mom's - cherries are special in my family, since Cherry is my mother's maiden name.

These photos were taken after we'd put on her second pair of tights because about 10 minutes after making her entrance, she stepped into the dog's water bowl while wearing the first pair. I mention this because the first pair of tights were white with a cherry print that matched the dress.



Here is a close-up of the dress.






Hey! It's my beautiful cousin Shannon. She is 16 and a junior already at John Carroll, the same high school that I went to. She is a smart, multi-talented, and very sweet young lady. I'm so proud of her...can you tell?


My mom and Aunt Jackie looking at some recent pictures of Shannon from her Homecoming dance. Aunt Jackie saves everything from Shannon's high school in an album (photos, correspondence from faculty, programs from school assemblies, you name it), just like my mom did when I was in high school. Someday Shannon will probably be buying a piece of furniture just to house all of these albums!

My brother Shawn, Dorothy, my mom, and Nanny (my grandmother and Dorothy's great-grandmother). The green fuzzy hat was something Nanny brought for Dorothy and she couldn't get enough of it.

This picture cracks me up - Dorothy looking at the Doorbusters ads with Uncle Shawn.

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Then, on Saturday, we were planning on hosting my whole family (including some who were not able to be at my mom's on Thursday.) Sadly, everyone either cancelled or got sick - so Rob and I were cooking an 18-pound turkey and all the trimmings, and as of Saturday morning it became clear that no one was coming to help us eat it except Rob's cousin Kristin, Peter, and Porter. So, we started making phone calls to our friends! Thankfully, our good friends Paul and Sandra were able to join us with little Anna, who is 1 month younger than Dorothy and one of her preschool and playgroup buddies. I didn't take any pictures, but we had a wonderful time and the food was SPEC. TAC. U. LAR. I mean, wow. God gave me a husband with some serious culinary skills, y'all. (And training, of course). We are still eating the leftovers and I'm still going "mmmmhhh" with every bite - even days later.

Kristin and Peter, Paul and Sandra, thank you so much for coming over and sharing our Thanksgiving feast with us. We really enjoyed spending the time with you!