Hosting Thanksgiving

We finally hosted Thanksgiving! We had my parents down (the first time Mom didn't have to make a Thanksgiving meal), Chris's parents, Kimmi and, visiting from PA, Cheryl and Jabbour. I'm all the more glad we got the table we did - it expanded enough to fit everyone comfortably in the dining room. We rearranged some of the furniture since I have a thing for buffets :) We moved the black buffet out into the porch, which opened up a lot of space.

I had been thinking about the meal for a few weeks, planned it all out, and then Chris and I went shopping. We ended up getting an almost 22-pound turkey and I've never cooked a turkey before. I can say I started out being a bit nervous, but I am grateful for all the advice people gave and for the research I did on the Internet beforehand on how to dress it. Don't worry - I didn't dress it up in a suit and tie.

I made stuffing (my favorite part of Thanksgiving), fruit salad, pumpkin pies, cranberry sauce, and apple cider. Chris and Kim steamed green beans and mashed potatoes. Also, I was going to make dinner rolls, but I forgot to read the bread machine instructions ahead of time so I didn't realize it would take the machine almost 2 hours to make the dough...oops :) Chris saved the day by running out to Breadsmith to buy some.

I finally pulled out my grandparents' china and it was beautiful!

I am extremely happy with how everything turned out, and am forever grateful for all the help everyone gave. Chris was awesome and Kim was crucial for cleanup (thank you for jumping in!). Thank you again to everyone in the family! Glad you could be part of this Thanksgiving!

Turkey Trot

I ran my first 5k yesterday thanks to Kimmi! A while ago, she suggested that we as a family do the Minneapolis Turkey Trot, a 5k fun run the morning on Thanksgiving. I secretly have always wanted to do a 5k, but never went through with it.

It was absolutely beautiful yesterday morning! There were a host of interesting costumes (including dogs in costumes which is almost always fun). The best part was Kim ran with me the whole way, thereby distracting me. Had she not done that, I likely wouldn't have run the whole thing (my mind gets in the way).

Afterwards, I felt fantastic and didn't test my stomach's capacity even though there was lots of good food for Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the great suggestion and all the support Kimmi!