Happy Thanksgiving from A Bunch of Turkeys!

I know, I know. Thanksgiving was so last week, but it was the first time Ryan and I ever hosted it since we've been married, so I feel it bears mentioning! (To excess, probably.)

In case you missed it, we actually didn't know until about a week ago that we were going to be hosting Thanksgiving. Mom had a goal to be home from the hospital and hosting it (with our cooking help) herself, but we decided that just was not going to be feasible, so we made the decision to relocate it to our house!

We also had a full house guest-wise the night before Thanksgiving, so we had to plan carefully for starting up early-morning dishes and such, trying to be as quiet as we could to respect the sleeping guests!

Ryan and I started our day about 6 a.m. - putting various meats in slow cookers. (We had turkey breast for the health conscious, turkey roast for the people who didn't care, and a small ham for the turkey haters.)

Ryan had to run to the grocery store to get a newspaper so he could comb through the Black Friday ads, so I asked him to grab some donuts while he was there. I hadn't really had the opportunity to cook up a homemade breakfast and hated to not serve our guests ANYTHING.

And yes, that's my menu/timeline there on the left.

We spent the morning on final cooking prep:

And we set up our garage for the official hosting place. We brought in some space heaters to warm it up, and it turned out to be pretty cozy. Several people mentioned what a perfect space it is for entertaining. And we agree! Worth alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll the hours of work and the money we put into finishing it!

Even though it was Thanksgiving, I took advantage of the chance to use my Christmas dishes, so that's why the confusion there. :) Thanksmas, right?

Ryan and Jeff went to the hospital to get Mom about 10:30 that morning, and she rested in the living room until it was time to eat. She was so tired! (She did take a house tour and enjoyed all the trees.)

(Braeya wanted to be part of the day too!)

All the food was done right on time. YAY!!!!! Here's a peek at some of it:

The spread, minus one of the meat platters. Ryan was still working on it:

This was one of my favorite pictures. It's kind of blurry, so I'm sorry, but I was trying to take it so fast. I heard Dad tell Mom he was so happy she got to come to Thanksgiving, and this was the little moment:

A few shots from lunch:

And the official family photo:

Thanksgiving 2017: It's a wrap! :)