Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year. Jim's Mom was waiting with Jim for me to get home from my weekend with Sarah in Provo. She had decided to come a few days early while the weather was nice. She usually comes the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but last year a storm blew in and she couldn't come... it just didnt' seem like Thanksgiving without her, So it was nice to have her here and safely too! Jim had the whole week off too, so they had a good time shopping together the first part of the week while I had to work. Sarah made it on Tuesday without any snow or trouble getting here Yay!! Olive Garden had surprised her with a week off as well! Yay!

Wednesday after work I made pies... I made a pecan pie, a pumpkin pie, a coconut cream pie and for Sarah I made the jello strawberry Cheesecake that comes in a box.. that's her favorite.

Sarah was helping me make pies... I'm glad she is around or I would forget to take pictures!!

                                       This is what Sarah made with the scraps of pie crust dough..
This year Grandma and Grandpa B. had dinner with Nancy's family at there house, and Andy had to work until 7 pm on the actual Thanksgiving Day, so it was just Jim and me, and Virginia and Sarah... we practically had a whole pie for each of us!!

this is a picture of Nancy and Jeff's whole family along with Grampa and Grandma B. We had to run down and take a pic for them while our dinner was cooking since the whole Craven clan was together!!

Back to our Thanksgiving day.....

Thanksgiving morning I got up at 5:30 to get the turkey on the smoker (it had been bathing in a brine for the last 24 hours!) Once I got him smoking, I went back to bed for a couple of hours... don't you love sleeping in on the holidays??
Then I got up and made homemade Lion house rolls, and stuffing with portabella mushrooms diced up in it and cooked in the crockpot... and stuffed mushrooms for an appetiser that we ate at 1....and yams, JIm's mom helped me come up with the recipe, and mashed potatoes that I baked in the oven after they were mashed... (don't worry, I'm going to post  all of my recipes on my blog!!)
We didn't eat our actual dinner until 3.... here are some pics (thanks to Sarah) while we waiting in anticipation for dinner, and Andy didn't have to be to work until 2.....

I love cooking and just had so much fun in my kitchen cooking all day and listening to Christmas music... I think I actually like Thanksgiving over Christmas!!
Here are some shots of the dinner preparation...

Yum!!

then afterwards we all were lazy... some of us fell asleep....

Then later we watched Harry Potter (Sarah is really into that and was catching up on all the movies) and we ate our pies!! YUM!!!

Andy got home and ate dinner, and watched movies with us.

I'm sooooo thankful for the fact that I have a job, and Jim does too, which enables us to have a warm house, all the comforts of home, and good food.... AND I  am most thankful for my family... my immediate family, my extended family, and friends too! AND I am thankful for the gospel and the happiness it brings into our lives and the promise of being with our family even after we die.... I mean after all, Family is what life is all about and I can't imagine EVER being without them......