Thanksgiving Day Blessings

Beautiful day everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I did. It was a day of time with family and friends, reliving old memories and creating new ones.

Our house, as always, was full of people. Mom and dad hosted about 21 people:

Grandma Wilson, Grandma Jarvis, Bill, Kim, Tom, Addison, Reagan, Erica, Austin, Deb, Faye, Eric, Cary, me, Kelly, Becca, Amy, Mike, Steven, Spencer, and Stacy. Add to that? 3 dogs: Nina, Roscoe (the Corry's newest addition!), and of course, Chester!

On Wednesday night, Cary and I went to my parents, where we baked M&M cookies and 'dog

food' cookies (a.k.a. No Bake). This is a tradition for mom and I to do together, with dad usually kicking back, watching tv, and being our official taste-tester. 'Poor' Cary got to join that position this year.

Cary and I also made a buttermilk pie--it was the second time I have made it! To add to the feast, he and I also made baked macaroni and cheese from a recipe I found in a magazine. At the moment we got into the kitchen to make it, I realized the dish was for 2 servings--uh oh! I hope I have enough ingredients! (Turns out that I bought more than enough ingredients, and everything was fine--I even got some compliments on it!

Thanksgiving day in Dallas was a beautiful fall day (the most perfect you could ask for ), and throughout the day there were people both inside and out, and the 3 dogs were romping around, playing...well, trying to play.

Poor Nina kept chasing Chester playfully, but Chester was intimidated by Nina's size and kept running away from her and into the door (literally). When he finally learned that it was all play, time was winding down and they didn't get to play much more.

It was wonderful to see my family, especially those whom I haven't seen in almost a year, since the wedding. Kim, Tom, and the girls drove in from Colorado to celebrate and early Christmas and to join us. Addison and Reagan get cuter and cuter everyday, and keeping up with their blog helps keep us in touch, but pictures don't describe how cute they are!

After dinner, we headed to Cary's parents house, where we got to meet and visit with Brad, Faith, Helen, and Mema while waiting for Gary and Brenda to get home. Helen and I even played a couple of games of Chinese Checkers, something I have never played before! Unfortunately, Cary's Granny wasn't able to join us at the last minute, but it saved me more turkey ;o)

The feast was delicious with turkey (marinated in orange juice), sweet potatoes, bacon-wrapped green beans (Faith--I would love the recipe!), broccoli rice casserole (another something I put together), stuffing, and cranberry sauce (one of Cary's favorites!). For dessert, homemade pies of every kind you can imagine: blueberry, chocolate, buttermilk, apple, and pumpkin! Needless to say, I ate very well yesterday!

I am still new to the family, but I love these guys! If I got to choose my in-laws, I most certainly would choose them again! I definitly gave thanks for them yesterday. Granny--I do hope you are feeling better!

I have to say thank you, as always, to those who contributed to Chester's restful night. He is still groggy today!

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all now time to set up Christmas!