Early Thanksgiving

Every year since Jason and I have been married, we have gone to either my parents, or Jason's parents house for Thanksgiving dinner. It's fun to get together with all of the family, but this means I have never cooked Thanksgiving dinner. I have never even cooked a turkey! I decided this year that I really wanted to do it all by myself. So that we could still spend Thanksgiving with our extended families, we decided to have our own little family Thanksgiving a week early. So on Saturday, I got up early, cooked all morning, and we had ourselves a little (well kind of big actually) pre-Thanksgiving meal!! I have to say, I was so nervous to do everything myself. Along with the turkey that I have never cooked, I decided to make homemade rolls and spinach-artichoke dip which I have also never made. It also didn't take nearly as long as I though it would, and we ate a lot earlier than I expected. I even had time to mop my floor while I waited for things to cook. There were some bumps along the way, but all in all it turned out great! Our girls loved our meal together. Savannah made us place cards. She even made little Jared one! I think we will definitely be doing this as a tradition in our family other years. Just so I remember, here is what we ate. Turkey, potatoes & gravy, stuffing, corn, rolls, apple-candy bar salad, bacon wrapped little smokies, spinach-artichoke dip, cheese ball & apple crisp with ice cream for dessert. Yum!

Jason carving our turkey

Our little family sitting down to pre-Thanksgiving dinner

Savannah and her place cards

Lily making an absolute mess!

How Jared spent Thanksgiving dinner!

One of the traditions that I grew up with and have continued in our family is the thankful turkey. We made this handsome little guy at the beginning of the month for Family Home Evening, and each night at dinner, we all write one thing we are thankful for and put it in the turkey. At Thanksgiving dinner, we read all of the slips of paper. It is so fun to see how creative my older kids are getting at what they are thankful for, and funny to hear the things little Lily is thankful for. (Usually when we asked, she would just repeat the word 'thankful') Here are Savannah and Michaela with our cute little turkey!

I love Thanksgiving. It is such a wonderful holiday. Everything focuses on being grateful for everything we have. We are so blessed and are so grateful for our little family and the time we get to spend together. We hope everyone else has a great Thanksgiving holiday!!