Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thanksgiving!

The kids woke up pretty dang excited, calling out "Happy Thanksgiving" to everyone. A very cheery way to wake up. Love it. They were pretty hyped and decided to pretend to be spies while we started things in the kitchen.




Since my brother was arriving pretty late in the day from Arizona, we timed everything to be ready when they arrived and enjoyed a late dinner together with everyone. To tie us over, we always set up a table of appetizers to munch on throughout the day--YUM! This picture doesn't do it justice--we put out lots of yummy finger foods and it's DELICIOUS!


Cocktail Shrimp with sauce, homemade cheese ball with various crackers, celery and dip, Swiss cheese served with toothpicks, Holiday Bowls of peanut M&Ms, garlic-stuffed olives, feta cheese-stuffed olives, and several appetizers including mushroom turnovers, mini cheese souffles, and mini crabcakes.


Lots of prep goes into a delicious holiday meal--lots of dishes, cooking, sampling, pressing, mixing, chopping, basting, setting, etc. We have lots of helpers which is really fun:







I'm very sad that you can't see our awesome dining room light fixture that Mark put in a couple of weeks ago--we've got to get a picture of that. It's gorgeous and fits so nicely in the room and we can see so much better in there with the better lighting! Oh, and see that blue flannel/fleece material in the doorway? We bought the material before my Mom got here and she sewed it for us (thanks again, Laura, for the use of your sewing machine!) and we hung it up and DANG does it work well! It totally keeps the heat in our living room so nicely, which is handy in a big 1850s farmhouse! My brother LOVES our house--SO much fun to show it to him!

And despite my saying like 5 times, "Don't let me forget to get a picture of everyone at the table," we forgot. So, after getting kids to bed, we asked them to come back down for pictures. :P

It's been 16 years since my brother and I have celebrated Thanksgiving together, so it was pretty neat to have him here with us. And bonus, he brought his new fiance to visit as well, so it was pretty cool to meet her, too. She's beautiful, isn't she? And Jim, you should've come! Hey look, our gratitude door is behind me. Happy Thanksgiving!

8 comments:

Emily said...

Dave talks about the food at your Thanksgiving in Arizona to this day. Looks like a great day!

Boquinha said...

Oh, that's so cool to know! We make Portuguese-seasoned turkey and stuffing and it is REALLY yummy. Thanks for telling us!

J Fo said...

Sounds like a great day! I guess I shouldn't have read this at lunch time because my mouth is watering. Seriously. :)

Swawa said...

It looks like you've had a very nice Thanksgiving, and your appetizers look sooo good.

Boquinha said...

Jessica, when you guys visit, we will cook GOOD stuff for you!!

Sierra, thanks!

Chelle said...

Mushroom turnovers, mini cheese souffles, and mini crabcakes?! Now that's a spread. Where do you find all this great stuff? Jared and I both LOVE feta, but he doesn't like olives (gasp!). Do you have any other awesome recipes that include feta?

Boquinha said...

Rachelle, the frozen section of the grocery store. :P Jared doesn't like olives? Of any kind?? I love Greek Salad with Feta AND Kalamata Olives. YUM.

Boquinha said...

P.S. I'm a big fan of Allrecipes.com -- go there and use their feature where you put in ingredients you want (feta) and those you don't want and it'll generate all the recipes for you that fit the bill. YUMMY.