A Great Thanksgiving

I’ve had some pretty great family get togethers over the years. In fact when I reflect back on my childhood it is often family get togethers that I remember most fondly. There is just something about being with family that is irreplaceable.

This year in order to get on the “correct” rotation for Thanksgiving gatherings we doubled up and visited both our families. Now we will be in sync with the other cousins and siblings who have to rotate between one side of the family and the other (even years my side, odd years Monika’s side).

This doubling up made for quite the feast.

We started at Monika’s parent’s house and had dinner with her parents, brother, grandparents a couple aunts (her aunt Margaret came from Germany)  and an uncle. The food was great as it always is on Thanksgiving and the conversation was enjoyable but unfortunately we had to dash off to the second dinner before we could have dessert. This was alright considering that there would not only be a second meal at the next location, my aunt’s house, but also a variety of different pies and sweets. Unfortunately I didn’t think about taking pictures while at dinner number one but I think Monika might have some tucked away on the camera that I’ll have to post later.

When we arrived at my aunt’s house everyone had already begun eating but like always there was a ton of food and I jumped in for round number two. I had turkey, potatoes (both mashed and sweet), stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce (the jellied type that remains in the shape of the can), black olives and sparkling cider. This was nearly identical to my first meal and one again it hit the spot.

After we ate we had a great time catching up. There were 18 adults 3 kids and 2 dogs at this gathering so there was a good deal of commotion.

It was perfect.

Once dinner had settled it was definitely time for some pie. I believe there were 5 pies (pumpkin, apple and pecan), ice cream, a loaf of cranberry bread and some funny little marshmallow turkeys. All of this was washed down with coffee and hot spiced cider.

There was such a great feeling in the house as everyone caught up on life, shared stories, ate food, and laughed as word spread about one of my cousin’s kids drinking out of the dog’s waterbowl while they pretended to be a dog.

It truly was a great Thanksgiving and I felt blessed to be able to share it with both sides of my family.

I have many other pictures that I could post but this last one is my favorite from yesterday.

Can you find my aunt Martha hiding in this picture…?