Thanksgiving Goodness

It's over.  I feel like I am having a turkey/food hangover!  Yesterday was insane, but let me backup to a few months ago.

When Ben and I moved our little family to Texas 7 months ago, we realized that we would not be able to go home for the holidays.  I got nervous just thinking about having to do our own Thanksgiving dinner.  I mean I can cook, but I cannot cook a turkey and all the sides.  Thanksgiving dinner is a little intimidating!  Ben told me we didn't need to have a Thanksgiving dinner, that we could just have pizza instead!  We HAVE to have a Thanksgiving dinner I told him.  As the months passed by Ben and I decided that we just needed to get ourselves invited to someones Thanksgiving dinner.  So that was the plan.

In July a new family moved into the ward.  Their names are the Carter's.  They have a little girl named Kennady and she is about a year younger than Reese.  Well we have all became friends.  Kelsey and I started taking our kids to the park together multiple times throughout the week.  Reese and Kennady would play together and Kelsey and I would chat it up.  Well one day we started talking about the holidays and what we were going to be doing.  Thanksgiving came up and come to find out Kelsey was just as scared to make a Thanksgiving dinner as I was.  So we decided to join forces.  We were going to tackle that turkey and all the sides together.

As Thanksgiving got closer we invited a few more families and guess what?  Kelsey and I didn't even have to do the turkey!  We were both relieve I think {at least I know I was}. 

Well yesterday, even though I didn't have to make the turkey, I felt like superwoman.  I have never had to cook any part of the Thanksgiving dinner in my twenty-seven years before {I know I am spoiled}. 

The first assignment I had was to make an edible roll!  I was seriously terrified!  I had only made rolls one other time and that one other time they were TERRIBLE!!  They looked and tasted just like rocks.  But I was determined to master the art of roll making.

First I called my mom and asked her if she had a great recipe.  That was a negative so to the internet I went.  I found a great recipe online and practiced making the rolls for a week.  We have had rolls a lot lately.  Afer having two trial runs I felt like I could produce a wonderful roll.  The day of Thanksgiving came and YES the rolls were beautiful! 

Okay maybe not beautiful but they sure did taste delicious. . . that was all that I wanted!  As long as they didn't taste or look like rocks.

I was also assigned a fruit salad and two pies.  I made a apple and pomegranate salad.  A chocolate pie and a grasshopper mint pie {the pies were AMAZING}.

Everything looked great.  I was really stressed out while cooking everything and trying to get kids ready too.  Thankfully Ben is a great helper because I don't think I could have done it without him.  It kind of made me feel like a real grown-up because I helped create part of our Thanksgiving dinner.

After everything was cooked and ready to go we headed over to the Carter's apartment for the great Thanksgiving feast!  They had a kids table set up and they were all so excited to have table just their size. 

You know your rolls are good when your own daughter is smiling at the yummy deliciousness of that roll.  Her face says it all, "this roll is the BEST mom!"  Okay maybe not but I am just really proud that I produced an edible roll!

Reese was such a good little eater.  She was excited about turkey and Thanksgiving.  We have been having a hard time getting her to eat.  Sometimes she will just look at food and tell us that it looks yucky so she won't eat it.

Maybe it was the thrill of Thanksgiving or maybe she was starving because it was such a late lunch, but whatever it was she was the best eater!  She even had seconds which is truly a Thanksgiving miracle.

Benson was seriously in heaven!  He had a highchair all to himself and then we let him have his own little feast.  And feast he did.  He feasted upon turkey, mashed potatoes, a roll, and stuffing {we might have even given him a little pie}.   He LOVED everything, he even had seconds! 

I was just grateful to get to enjoy my Thanksgiving dinner with Ben.   

 After feasting we sat around and talked and the guys turned on Football.  The kids ran around and played and I just needed to relax a little to let me food settle.  I was seriously STUFFED!

 

Jacob became Reese's best friend yesterday.  They were so cute together.  Jacob sat and read Reese books after dinner, seriously so adorable!  We then stuffed ourselves with pie.  Oh Thanksgiving was good to us yesterday!  

We finally came home and put Benson down for a nap.  Reese, Ben, and I pulled all the cushions off of the couch and cuddled up together to watch the movie Brave.

Although we missed our family yesterday we are so grateful to have friends that can be our family while we are so far away from home.  Thanksgiving was wonderful and it was wonderful to spend it with such great people.