The Thanksgiving that Almost Wasn't

The day started off great! We had all the food made except the dressing and corn pudding. The turkey was in the oven. Nicky made the bloody Mary's and we were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade---we love that. It looked like it was cold in NYC while it was very nice here in Charlotte.

Sandy put up the grateful tree and told everyone to put what they were thankful for on a leaf. Of course there had to be "rules." You couldn't just say family, or spouse---too generic. You couldn't mention sports teams or a particular athlete. This was supposed to be thoughtful and from the heart.

My post on the tree also became my post on Facebook. I am thankful for my sons-in-law who are so good to my girls! Who could ask for anything more?

Getting the whole gang to stop for pictures is nearly impossible. I'm pretty sure that most families have a hard time getting everyone together.

 The grands aren't little anymore. Victoria, Morgan, Jordan, Elizabeth and Mitchell.

 Mitchell brought a girl, but she's just a friend---or so he says.

With 15 people, we had to use paper plates. Our plan was to eat at noon. Around 11, the electricity went out. The turkey was finished, but the rest of the casseroles had just gone in the oven. We waited for a half hour to see if the electricity would come back on. It didn't. Greg called and got the recording that they hoped to have it back on by 4 p.m. We only had two casseroles that actually had to cook. The others just had to heat through. Greg got the bright idea to use the gas grill. That did the trick. We ended up being able to eat by 12:30.

Greg was not able to use his electric knife, so Justin did the carving. He's found a permanent job! You can't tell by this picture, but he made it look all fancy on the platter.

We had turkey, dressing AND stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, carrot casserole, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, spinach casserole, squash casserole and yeast rolls. I think we covered all the food groups!!

After dinner, we couldn't really clean up, so we napped. Games after that. The electricity finally came back on around 6 p.m.---luckily, as it was getting pretty dark. The night went on. We had leftovers and pretty much wiped out ALL the food! 

It was a great day and we are truly blessed. We thought about all the families whose dinners were ruined. We're glad we eat early or it would have been us!! 

Oh, and there wasn't any football either!