Turkey Lurkey

There she is folks. Our first turkey ever cooked in our own oven. Isn't she a beaut'? Actually she looks pretty gross here right before she went into the oven - all smothered in mustardy marinade, butter and bacon.

So this is before.....

And this is after!

Jeremy had a great time carving the turkey. He had to use his manly muscles to rip that bird to shreds!

The table was beautiful; the pumpkin centerpeices and mason jars for our drinking glasses - we just couldn't have been more festive!

As I said before, this was our first turkey we ever cooked and this Thanksgiving was also our first ever hosted in our home. It was a definitely a holiday of many firsts. It was fun to put on a dinner party for my family. (We take turns each year with Jeremy's family or mine for the holidays and this year we got to spend the day with my family.) Here was our guest list: Louie, Elizabeth, (no Thomas and Amy - they were in Utah) Samuel, Marcos, Melody, Jordan, Stephanie, Mica and of course, our family. So, how many is that? 14 people. That's the smallest Thanksgiving feast any of us had ever been to! But it was so nice to be just us. Look at those happy feasters.

Here's the food and who brought what: (Those are Mom's bread bears at the bottom of the picture - homemade and soooo delicious!)

Jeremy & Jennifer: pumpkin soup, turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce and pie

Mom: bread bear rolls, potatoes, corn, ambrosia, 2 kinds of pie

Dad: turkey (Deep fried! It was sooo good!)

Samuel: candied yams

Marcos: pumpkin pie

Melody: green bean casserole

Jordan: whipped cream

Stephanie: chocolate covered strawberries and marshmallows

We had enough dinner and dessert to feed 30+ people!

After dinner we wrote what we were thankful for on a paper leaf then hung it on Lizzie's "Thankful Tree" she'd made for Joy School. Of course someone was thankful for fuchi - it wouldn't have been a Duran family get-together without the fuchi. It was still sweet to share our thankfulness.

Marcos debuted his pumpkin pie - it was quite yummy for his first try! Mom brought Cherry Cream Pie, Apple Pie, Stephanie brought chocolate covered strawberries and marshmallows, and Jeremy bought a Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin cheesecake. Mmmmm. We had a fun round of Apples to Apples (a board game) after filling our bellies with dessert. Who won the game? I can't remember. Doesn't matter...all I know is we had a lovely time together.

I am thankful for Thanksgiving.