Thanksgiving.....

to say that thanksgiving at our house was nice would be an huge understatement.....to say it was caotic would be even more so........

we didn't get home from the road till late on tuesday evening, so most of wednesday was spent with a mad rush to the grocery store and all the preperations for the thanksgiving meal.....luckily, my sister, wanda, who lives near us had picked up the turkeys and was thawing them, so that major task was well underway!.....brad's cousin, lu, came from boston and we had dispatched our young nephew to the airport in pittsburgh to pick her up and she was safely ensconced at the house, waiting for us......next came all the crew from north carolina.....my sister, karen, two of her three girls and their families, her other daughter and her family, who live closer to us......and then the day after thanksgiving we were joined by wanda's son, david and his wife sarah, who would have been with us on thanksgiving but sarah had unfortunately had a mishap and broken her foot on wednesday and wasn't quite up to the trip thursday!.... all of the usual suspects were there, save my son, jj and his family from kansas, who we missed dearly!

the thanksgiving meal was all of our "traditional" goodies......turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn pudding, cranberry salad, deviled eggs, salad, sweet potatoes done up two ways, one with marshmallows and brown sugar and the other in a casserole so that everyone has them the way they like them......hot, homemade rolls......and then there were the pies.....pumpkin, pecan and cherry.....sour cream pound cake and pecan rolls!!!!!.....

friday found some of the younger set braving the early morning sales with some of us older (wiser) folks joining in at a more reasonable hour!....and then that night we had a seafood night.....we had a shrimp boil with potatoes and corn on the cob, along with some crabcakes and pan seared scallops!......the evening was almost declared a disaster when it was discovered that the wvu mountaineer game against pitt was not on any of our available tv channels, but every computer in the house was soon fired up and the game was enjoyed online!......that the mountaineers beat pitt in what is locally known as the backyard brawl was a very sweet icing on the cake!!

saturday was alot less hectic.....it had been declared "leftover day" foodwise, so the only cooking involved was creaming some turkey under biscuits and setting out all the leftovers out of the fridge.......

most everyone headed home early sunday morning.....the north carolina group headed out at "dark-thirty" that morning......and brad and i took lu back to pittsburgh to catch her flight home that evening......i missed them all the minute they were out the door.....there were 21 total.....our time together was filled with food and football, brad tending bar, shopping, catching up, playing with the kids, family drama, and, of course, more food! it pretty much had all the elements that make up an awesome time together!......