Thanksgiving

I'm a little far behind in my blogging. Life has been super crazy, so I'm going to try to catch up...

Since Erick and I have been married we haven't been able to go home for Thanksgiving because I've never had time off and Erick has been in school so they don't have much time. We've always had a little Thanksgiving celebration on our own but never really had anyone to make a big feast for. This year the Sayers came to Lincoln for Thanksgiving. Erick invited a few of our friends over, so all in total we had about 10 people. I love to cook but have NEVER cooked for 10 people. It made me a little nervous but I made a schedule and made things ahead of time. But totally forgot to take the Turkey out of the freezer, so Tuesday night I had a minor freak out that my Turkey was still frozen solid and I had to drop it in the brine first thing in the morning...YIKES! Against my better judgement and all the years of teaching about never leaving poultry out, I put the big ol bird in the sink in water and hoped for the best.

The next morning I started the brine, rolls and jello salad while Erick went to pick up the Sayers at the airport. I had to work the entire day on Wednesday so I left Erick to entertain.

Thursday morning we woke up late, but since I did most of the prep work on Wednesday and assigned out pies I could take it easy. Oh yes and more assignments we made:

This was the first potato Max has ever peeled. Grandma Janet would be so proud but also a little disappointed he has to use a peeler. He peeled about 4 potatoes and then that was it, he was done.

Here's my brined Turkey, he looks like he's been in a fight with all kinds of bruises. Don't worry that's just the molasses. Ooh he was so good! and those of you who know me know I HATE touching raw meat...and I hate meat that has to be taken off the bone. So when I was prepping the turkey I pulled out my purple rubber gloves to put on and everyone looked at me like I had 2 heads. I explained that I DO NOT touch raw meat and they just watched me like I was the entertainment!

Everything was made in disposable tins...I DID not want to clean up afterwards.

Our Table...I had a little trouble being ok with plastic utensils and paper plates. I am more traditional, I like to pull out the china that we got for our wedding (Hello? That's the only reason we have it really because when else would I use it?....i still think it's kind of pointless that we have it, but don't tell Erick because for some reason I insisted we register for it)

A portion of our spread:

You notice the guys were first in line. Erick was only worried about his Martinellis.

Sayer tradition is playing bingo after dinner. Mimi sent a box of prizes before they got here. It was a lot of fun. We all made out pretty good!

One thing we did that was a huge hit was Erick's zapper game. He made everyone play it. The funniest part is Mimi LOVED IT!

The Sayers headed back home early Sunday morning. We were happy to have them out here.