turkey

Thanksgiving 2017

Our third annual Friendsgiving with the Erpelding family was hosted at our house this year! Our two families were joined by Great Grandpa, Sheela’s mom, who was visiting from Richmond, VA and Sheela’s best friend from Richmond but who now lives in Japan with her family came into town last minute to spend time with Sheela, so we had them over too! With 20 of us, it was a full house! The older kids were awesome helping with the little ones and we split who was responsible for which dish, so with all that team effort, it was a relatively easy-going Thanksgiving!

Ready to go before the feast begins.

We brined the turkey in a huge bucket of salt water and spices two days before, patted it dry and let is sit overnight in the fridge and then roasted it for a few hours on Thanksgiving. The result was a juicy, tender and crispy on the outside turkey that everyone gobbled up.

Our friend, Michael, has a wet stone for knife sharpening and graciously agreed to sharpen all of our knives prior to Thanksgiving. Our super sharp knives felt like brand-new!

The Erpeldings brought a delicious honey-baked ham, yummy green bean casserole, yummy marshmallow sweet potato casserole, their traditionaly yummy sauerkraut, and yummy pumpkin and pecan pies. We contributed the turkey, rolls, pecan-crusted sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, mini pumpkin pie desserts for the kids and homemade apple pie from the girls’ school’s fundraiser. We all had leftovers for days! Everything was homemade, but if I had to do it over again, I would definitely outsource the rolls… no matter how many times I try them, I am not a good bread/roll maker! We were in luck that the weather was unusually warm this Thanksgiving and was 85 degrees in the afternoon! The kids worked on crafts before dinner and because they seemed content playing outside, the adults went ahead and started eating first, inside.

Halfway through our dinner, the kids all decided they were hungry, so we took a little break to dish everyone up and let them loose outside where they feasted at their kids’ tables. Meredith sat inside on Sheela’s lap and ate, along with Ulala’s adorable baby, Emi, in the high chair.

Samantha and Owen dine together.

Lily put together a fun montage of photos she took, which was great since I was so busy hosting that I didn’t get any pictures! The Musicaly app she uses has a time limit, so you have to pause to look at all the pictures closely!

After dinner, the kids partied in the hot tub and pool. I’m sure our neighbors were wondering what kind of raucous Thanksgiving we were having!

I was in the kitchen getting out the desserts, when all of a sudden, I heard a loud chorus of “Pie! Pie! Pie!” coming from outside. Apparently, the kids were out of the pool and ready for dessert!

Samantha, Sheela, Amelia, Avery and Meredith

Great Grandpa and Meredith with their tummies full!

Our biggest ever Friendsgiving was a huge success thanks to everyone’s team work. We’re thankful to have such great family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving!

Lots of love,

Post-Thanksgiving Beach Day and Thanksgiving II

After a scrumptious Thanksgiving meal and fun morning with the Erpeldings, we headed home and everyone dozed off in a post-turkey coma. The best part about having Thanksgiving early in the day was being able to relax and not have to keep the kids entertained while preparing a huge dinner. Since it was a nice 80 degree day, we went to Aliso Creek beach that evening, where it was uncrowded, save for a few families roasting turkey legs and picnicking with their Thanksgiving fare around the fire rings. We may have to keep that in mind for next year! Stuffed, we just brought snacks, and lounged around until it was too chilly to sit on the cold sand once the sun went down. Early dinner + beach = awesome Thanksgiving tradition I’d like to replicate.

Mesmerized by seagulls.

Beach babes.

Peanut butter and jelly on Thanksgiving.

Thanks for that visual, Sammy.

Note Amelia’s painted nails. The twins have been really into begging me to paint their nails recently. It’s miraculous how long they can sit still while their nails are drying. All it takes is the right motivation!

Stuffed turkey.

Like a baby turtle, crawling to the sea…

We felt bad that Bandit didn’t get to partake in any turkey, so we brought him along to enjoy the salty air.

They girls and Jake built a pretty sturdy castle that withstood the waves crashing down on it several times. We kept having to move all our stuff up because of the high tide, and more than once, I had to grab Meredith and run for it before we got soaked.

Meredith could spend hours feeling the sand in awe and letting it slip between her little fingers. Unlike the twins at her age, she usually doesn’t try to eat it. We think she’ll be our smart one.

That night, after putting the kids to bed, it was time to bust out a second Thanksgiving meal for Great Grandpa, whom we had invited over for Thanksgiving II the next day. Jake and I tag teamed making sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and roasting a turkey that night while watching a movie. I enjoy cooking, so throwing together Thanksgiving II in the wee hours of the night was a fun challenge, and Jake tolerated it due to being able to watch a movie at the same time.

We had leftover cranberries and stuffing from our first Thanksgiving meal, and only needed to reheat everything, plus throw together some green beans, carrot gratin, and Brussels sprouts before Grandpa arrived. Pre-cooking everything the night before and reheating it worked out great, except for the turkey, which was about ten minutes away from becoming the parched Griswold Family turkey debacle. Slathered in gravy, the turkey wasn’t inedibly dry, but we will definitely have to practice to get it perfect in case we end up doing it again!

The kids didn’t mind.

Everything was Meredith approved.

Best buds.

There’s something about Great Grandpa that brings out the silliness in the twins. They get so excited whenever he comes over!

The rest of Thanksgiving weekend, Jake had to catch up on work that had piled up, so the girls and I hung out, put up our Christmas decorations, and feasted on leftovers. Meredith had a minor panic attack when the girls pranked her by telling her there were no more sweet potatoes:

Phew. You guys were just kidding.

We checked out a new park we hadn’t been to before and Meredith had the time of her life hanging out with the big kids.

Meredith is obsessed with play structures and climbed in and out of this tube for a solid thirty minutes. She is crazy adventurous whenever we go to the park and will crawl up and down the structures like it’s a piece of cake. We always have to be vigilant following close behind her because she truly has no fear.