Thanksgiving!

Well friends..it was a BIG Thanksgiving for me. I accomplished a major first. Pretty freaking proud of myself. I will tell you all about it. And then you will wish for me to quit telling you all about it. Because that is now how my entire family feels about the subject. I talked about it, bragged about it, admired it for endless hours. Probably took all the joy out of it for everyone but myself. I'm still excited...want me to fill you in?

Now let me just tell you this post includes alot of pictures of me showing you the things I made. There is a lot of food going on in this Thanksgiving post. Past years, I usually just show up. My mom kinda loves to do it all herself and really never has us bring anything, but this year we went with the Cano's and they told me I could do whatever I wanted. So I did. And I will show you. Woke up nice and early to get my kitchen started. First up was a lovely cup of raspberry hot cocoa. Just to set the mood. I was so involved in my baking I barely drank any of it. But it looked pretty.

Caramel apple pudding cake was my first project. Just imagine brown sugar, apples, cinnamon and nutmeg. My kitchen smelled ridiculously good.

While that was in the oven baking, I pulled out my salad that I had put together the night before. Raspberry pretzel salad. Crust made of pretzels and butter, cream cheese layer, raspberry layer. Chill overnight and then whipped cream on top.

Now that is almost to pretty to eat. I said almost.

Meanwhile, my honey woke up and headed outside to finish up our Christmas lights. Its no Clark W Griswold, but it sure does look nice.

Fresh out of the oven. Can you smell that through your computer screen? Divine my friends. I am telling you.

Meanwhile, this one sleeps on...

and this one too.

The baby however, well he woke up. He was all smiles. I decided to take the next little bit to get a workout in. I P90X'd while my babe smiled on.

Finally the sleepy heads joined us. Of course we had the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on. Tradition. Always. Since I was a tiny tot. Here they are watching Santa Clause make his debut.

Now here is where the craziness comes in. My friends...drumroll please. For the first time ever, in my grown-up life, I attempted to make my moms homemade rolls. Gasp. I know, I know. Trust me, I was scared. I mean we are talking yeast here. YEAST! Horrifying. I was bound and determined though. So we got things going.

Heck I even had the boys scared. They sat just like this, right next to me on the counter, watching my every move. It was intense.

Got my dough all made and then the waiting game begins. Plopped it in this big bowl, placed it on my nice warm kitchen table with the sun hitting it and waited for the baby to rise. Oh the waiting. The waiting. It about killed me.

Thiago came in from outside to ask me how things were going. I rambled on and on about the dough, it didn't appear to be rising, he asked me how long it had been sitting there. I told him 5 minutes. He then said "well how long did your mom say it is supposed to rise". 2 hours, I told him. He rolled his eyes at me and said quit watching it. He then returned 15 minutes later with my Mcdonalds coke. Ya know, to calm my bread baking nerves. He's a good man.

I pulled myself away from the big green bowl and decided to use this time to get ready. Ta-da...all ready!

Got my little turkeys ready too.

Love these four. My four greatest blessings. So much to be thankful for but it all starts and ends with these guys. Love them.


Thiago then left for his moms house. We deep fried our bird this year, and he was in charge of it. He took Drake with him, cause I knew he needed a nap and would fall asleep in the car. I had work to do...

back to my rolls. About an hour into it, I started to see some real progress in my dough. It was rising!! I did it! Oh you guys, can't even tell you how relieved I was. Time to make some crescents. Got it all rolled out.

These two busied themselves with angry birds, wandering over to me every now and then to check on my progress. Sweet boys, they were so proud of their mama. Probably cause I was going on and on about how awesome I was.

4 cookie sheets full of crescent rolls. Time to rise again. Another hour and half. I know the suspense just kills ya.

Gathered up my kids and my food and we were off. Family picture. This was seriously the best out of like 20. Honestly, I tell ya...young kids and family pictures. They don't mix.

Look at this beautiful table. My mother in law is the cutest. She put so much work and thought into the presentation. I am all about the presentation and she did beautifully. Love her so much.

Boys busied themselves with some art projects while we waited on that bird.

And here we go..the big reveal. Look at my rolls!!!

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful. You guys they tasted just like my moms. Oh my heck, I did it. I am an official grown-up/mom. I made my own rolls. And now I will stop talking about it.

Our dinner was delightful. My mother in law and sister in law both made wonderful things as well and it was delicious!

After dinner and dessert, we cleaned up, visited a bit and checked out the Black Friday ads which I don't participate in. No thank-you, I would rather enjoy Thanksgiving night with my family and then go home and go to sleep. We headed to my moms from there for a quick hello and some of her delicious pie. No more pics though, I was tired from taking pictures of all my food. Haha.

It was a beautiful day! Hope all of yours was wonderful as well. See you soon friends...