Smashbug: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays....who am I kidding? I love all holidays. But the big differentiator of Thanksgiving is that it had nothing to do with buying or giving gifts - the gift is in being THANKFUL. Just being with your family and enjoying each other. For over 20 years we have spent Thanksgiving with our dear family friends at their house. This year circumstances were a little different and we decided to change it up a bit. Chad's mom has been progressively getting worse and we really want to spend as many holidays with her as we can. Her memory is quickly declining and she gets confused and overwhelmed very easily. Bob and Cheryl's kids were all sort of scattered this year as well so it was a good opportunity to just invite them over to our house. They came along with Tony, Kellie and their kids. Cyndi, Anika & Todd came as did my parents and brother. It was a beautiful day so the kids were able to run and play outside while the adults cooked and watched football!

Chad has wanted to roast a turkey for a while so we bought at 20 pound turkey and started roasting it at 7am! He was one dedicated chef and basted that sucker every 30 minutes for hours! It turned out beautifully.... and delicious! Tony fried a smaller turkey and brought it. My mom made some of her AMAZING cornbread stuffing and pecan pie. Nothing is worse than yucky gooey white bread stuffing. BLECH!!!! We are a southern family and do not believe in white bread stuffing. This is something we have had to convert Chad to - his family is from the Chicago area and still make midwestern food. I made two huge batches of sweet potato casserole - one with marshmallows and the other with brown sugar and pecans. Both were delicious. We made some obligatory mashed potatoes and Anika brought some green bean casserole as well. All in all - it was gluttonous and delicious.

We had a nice day that ended with watching some college football. Who doesn't love football on Thanksgiving? We are sad that the Aggies don't play UT anymore on Thanksgiving - it just doesn't seem the same.