Thanksgiving Prep & Fun.

So sorry, you have to turn your head for this photo.  I could not get it to rotate for the life of me!   November Thanks started out with a salute to Veterans at Kate's school.   "Give a hand to Veterans." was the theme.  Kate called her Great Grandpa Harvey and asked him what his favorite colors were to decorate her Thank You Hand in honor of him.  She worked very hard on this project.  Her hand was displayed on a huge quilt at the school. 

We started out our Thanksgiving celebrating with Great Grandma Van Zee in Pella.  I volunteered to bring an apple crisp for the dessert.  I got a fancy dancy apple peeler last yr and the kids loved it!  The spiral apples were so much fun to make.

Will was determined to help with the project as well.

Ta Da!

On Thanksgiving we went to W'burg and celebrated with Brett's Mom and the rest of the family.  Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera.  But like always we had a ton of great food, chatting and exchange of xmas lists for the kiddos.
On Saturday Brett & I hosted our 1st Thanksgiving at our house.  My mom was determined to teach me how to cook a turkey.  With her guidance and a great recipe from a friend we accomplished the task!  We were so proud!

I found out halfway through the day that my parents had a little bit of anxiety with my cooking plan.  When I told them I didn't put the turkey in the oven until 7:30 that morning and the plan was to eat at noon they got a bit nervous.   However we really weren't off by much.  We had to cook the bird about 30 min. longer than what we had planned for, but it worked out fine.  My dad is the gravy pro (with mom's guidance) in the family.  I gave them the reigns on the gravy. 

My Mom did a great job as Supervisor of the chefs.  She is such an AMAZING cook.  I have learned everything I know about cooking from her. 

We broke out our chargers and table cloths for dinner.  I don't think I have used them since before we had kids!  A little dusting was in order before setting the table.

After the turkey coma went away we played a few family games.  Fibber was the game of choice this year.  The funny glasses and nose pieces made it pretty fun. 

No a week of working out to burn off all those extra calories before we head to Iowa City next weekend for our final Thanksgiving Dinner with our Iowa City family!!!