As For Me and My House: Thanksgiving Highlights & Pictures

Thanksgiving has always been a favorite holiday in my family. Since being very young, it has always been a big celebration with family coming in from out of state. We then have 3 or 4 days of crazy fun. This year our group was much smaller. Even though we really missed our extended family we couldn't help but feel festive. What's there to not love about having NO school, eating a ton of food, shopping and going to the movies!!

Before we started our eating frenzy, we kept with our tradition and gathered in a circle and each shared what we were most thankful for. There were many tears and just a deep sense of gratitude from everyone. We were thankful for our faith, jobs, good health, marriages, etc.

Here are just a few more things I am thankful for that I didn't get to share on Thanksgiving...

I am THANKFUL for my boys who will still wear collared shirts when I ask them to dress "handsome" for Thanksgiving.

I am THANKFUL for the internet where I was able to google, "How to scald milk." I had no idea how to scald milk and had plans to try to blacken it. Instead I followed the directions from the internet and made yummy sweet bread dough for homemade cinnamon rolls to be enjoyed Thanksgiving morning. I even kneeded the dough. (Never mind that some said they were burned!! Ahhh!!)

I am THANKFUL for Scott who jumped in and helped me make 6 dozen homemade rolls for our feast. (I'm not sure why we made so many rolls. There were only 12 of us so we ended up having a half dozen rolls each. I think we were secretly hoping our CA relatives would still drive in to town.)

I am THANKFUL for my sweet sister who is an incredible hostess of almost every special occasion. She has an incredible heart of service and willingly opens her home to anyone who will come. (She also makes a yummy homemade apple pie!!)

I am THANKFUL for my brother in law, Kent, who once again made Louisianna Gumbo for Thanksgiving. This is his 13th year in a row of doing this labor of love that draws neighbors and friends to the door with their bowls in hand. YUM!

I am THANKFUL for the moments I get to see the "little boy" still in Brandon. When I explained to him that we were making homemade cranberry sauce, he looked puzzled and said, "OK, are you going to cook and smash the cranberries and then put them in a can!!" Eh gads.. clearly we had never served homemade cranberry sauce! It was delicious and will be on the menu each year.