Thanksgiving 2009

For the last few years we have hosted Thanksgiving, we previously have rotated families, but this year both sides joined us.

Taylor has always been in charge of creating the menu, this is what we had: Appetizers: Shrimp/Cocktail sauce, Spinach Dip and Bread, Stuffed Celery, Olives/Veggie Tray Main Meal: Turkey, Pork Loin, Beef Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Sausage Stuffing (New Recipe), Broccoli Salad, Decorated Green Beans, Squash, Fluffy Orange Jell-o, Rolls, Flavorful Orange Drink Dessert:Pumpkin Squares, and Five Pies.

The new thing we tried this year was to brine the turkey. It sat in a 5-gal bucket in the fridge overnight in the brine and it definitely made the turkey cook faster. It was done 2 hours before anticipated. It was juicy and lovely looking

Taylor's cousins Kyle and Meleana and their family also joined us so there were 22 people in attendance. We had plenty of food and enough to eat again that evening.

Taylor had gotten movies from Red Box: Transformers 2, Star Trek and UP. The non-movie watchers played games or talked or napped. When it got dark we went and saw the "Lights Before Christmas at the Layton Park."

When evening hit Aleeya had a fever and throughout the night she was coughing and struggling to breathe. I took her to the Dr. in the morning and she has croup. The other kids are also coughing, but she has it the worst. The Dr. gave her a steroid shot and some drops to take. He said this comes on fast and that was certainly true for our kids.

We have so much to be thankful for that I can't list it all, but certainly we are blessed to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to have loving and supportive family, to have beautiful children that are the center of our lives, to have a wonderful home and I am thankful for our van (I can't believe I ever lived without one)! We are thankful that Taylor has a job and that he works so hard to provide for us and I am so grateful that I can stay at home and teach and nurture our children. We have great friends and are thankful for the opportunities that we have to serve.