Home Sweet Home: Thanksgiving

Overall, my first Thanksgiving was a huge success! The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Matt's parents drove up to Gardner and stayed with us for the week. It was nice to spend some time with them and I am sure they enjoyed their grandparent time with Andrew. Tuesday night I premade the mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. Of course they were from The Pioneer Woman Holiday Cookbook! Here is a link to the mashed potatoes recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/11/delicious_creamy_mashed_potatoes/

Wednesday I had to work so Sandy and Butch watched Andrew. It was a very slow day for work and since I work from home, I was able to work on the brine for the turkey. This was my first time ever doing any kind of brine! I was very nervous about it because I didn't know the end result! According to everyone on Thanksgiving the turkey was delicious! Even the white meat was moist. The only thing I didn't care for is that we made the gravy from the drippings of the turkey and the brine had oranges in it. I didn't like that the gravy had a sweet taste to it but it wasn't horrible. Here is the link to the brine recipe:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/10/my-favorite-turkey-brine/

Started cooking the brine at 2 pm the day before Thanksgiving. Let it completely cool.

I place the turkey in the fridge Sunday night so it would be thawed out by Wednesday.

After the brine cooled, I placed the turkey in a trash bag (yes a trash bag) and poured it in with Matt's help. Then it soaked in the brine for a little over 16 hours. Took the turkey out of the brine and into the roasting oven a little after 8 am. The key that I learned on Food Network is that you want to temp the turkey yourself and not rely on the thermometer in the turkey! Temp to 165 degrees in the thickest part of the thigh and you are good to go.

Finished result! It was delicious!

I also made some dips, got some appetizers ready, and made some deviled eggs Wednesday night. Woke up at 7 am Thanksgiving morning to feed Andrew and get the turkey ready. Got the turkey in, the ham, warmed up the mashed potatoes, placed all the appetizers out and everything else that was needed. My parents came over around 930 and everyone else showed up around 1130. We prayed and ate and ate and ate! I probably ate too much butt that's what you're supposed to do right???? Enjoy some pictures from the day!

Forgot I made homemade cranberry sauce. No canned stuff for us!

Andrew hanging out with Grandma Sandy while mommy worked on Thanksgiving dinner.

Turkey butt lol

My dad cut the turkey.

While Matt's dad, Butch, cut the ham.

The kids colored some pictures while waiting for dinner.

Andrew hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma Kreutzer

After we ate dinner, we made out game plan for Black Friday shopping!

And ate some pies, all made by Wanda!

The cherry was my favorite!

Lemon Meurange

As stated above, we made our game plan for Black Friday shopping. We went to Walmart first and got there at 4 pm. They opened at 6 pm and we were out of there by 630 pm! Then we went to Michaels, some other place that I can't mention or someone will get in trouble lol, went to Kohl's but didn't buy anything because it was nuts, then finished at Toys R Us. Got home at about 1230 and went to bed. Got up at 7 to feed Andrew and then Butch and I headed out again. We went to two Home Depots, Bed Bath and Beyond, then met up with Matt, Mitch, Carolyn and the kids at Culver's for some lunch. After that Mitch, Butch, the kids and I went to a baseball card shop and then Mitch took Butch to the Legends while I wrapped up some shopping at HyVee! I got most of my Christmas shopping done on Black Friday which I was very happy about!

Saturday I went over to my parents house in Lansing to hang out with my family. My sister really wanted to see Andrew. My aunt from California, Deann, was in town and we wanted to see her as well. Other grandparents and aunts came over to visit as well. We helped my mom put up the Christmas tree and enjoyed some more family time.

Grandpa and Andrew watching football.

Helping my mom hang up Christmas decorations.

Andrew was exploring their house.

Andrew climbing up a stair for the first time.

Sunday Matt's parents went home and I decorated the house for Christmas. Love decorating, especially for Christmas!

We placed the tree in the corner 1. Because that was the only spot it would work and 2. Andrew can't get to it. We placed a pillow in between the chair and sofa.