Happy Turkey Day

Today was the first time Chris and I hosted Thanksgiving. This has been one of Chris's dreams. We've been looking through lots of cookbooks/magazines and even trying out a few recipes since September. Chris's parents flew out from NY and we had Great Aunt Janet join us. We are so thankful to be able to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner in our own house and most of all spend the day with family.While we were cooking this morning, Penny was playing in her room. All of a sudden I realized she was very quiet. I peeked in and found her reading a pile of books. Penelope is very thankful for fleece pajamas and books
Grandma helping Penelope walk. Don't you love the outfit? It is from Penelope's Great GrandmaWalking with Grandpa

Penelope was very thankful for Grandpa scooping her up and consoling her after she bonked herself in the head with her rings. You can say she lives in the moment. Just a few minutes later and everything is all right with the world.Chris grilled the turkey. I highly recommend it. We used the oven for all our other goodies!Not a great pic, but here's our table before we ate.So what were all the yummy goodies? Here's the list of what we made:
Turkey--grilled with butter and herbs
Mashed red potatoes
Green bean casserole (I know some people absolutely detest this, but it is a family favorite)
Roasted Butternut Squash with shallots and mustard vinagarette
Cranberry-apple sauce
Rosemary rolls (bought those from a local bakery)
Pumpkin cake--made by Aunt Janet
And an assortment of olives and pickles. We got to use our very fancy relish dish. It was the first present we got when we announced our engagement. Chris has been using it to hold his change, keys and what other odds and ends he has in his pocket at the end of the day. I was really excited to clean it and use it for its real purpose.

After dinner Grandpa convinced Penny to wear her socks. Too bad it is on her hands! Funny Grandpa!

Later in the evening we played 10,000. Great dice game (also called Farkle). Right now I'm making homemade turkey stock with the carcass and some veggies. Very easy instructions in this month's Rachel Ray magazine. Can't wait to use it in comfort recipes this winter!

Tomorrow we meet up with Grandma and Grandpa to see Santa so I'll be posting about that and a separate post with pics of our newly painted kitchen cabinets.