Thanksgiving 2012

We hosted an early Thanksgiving dinner for Cas' family Wednesday night, and it was a great motivator to get lots of house projects completed - pictures on the wall, stone on the fireplace, and cushions that went up on our bench less than 2 hours before dinner was served. 

 

I had picked up a turkey from the BBQ place across the street, and when I got home, it was cool and looked seasoned but raw.  I followed the instructions to cook at 300 degrees for 3 hours, but was panicking - and as I told my cooking experts about my turkey, they were panicked for our guests, that I'd be serving raw turkey.  Turned out it was smoked and refrigerated, so no food poisoning - hurray! 

 

My brother and sister-in-law flew in from Indy that evening and were able to join us for dinner.  Cas prayed for the food and then suggested each family share one thing they were thankful for, with our family starting.  We turned to Collin and he delivered his lines beautifully - "I'm thankful I'm going to be a big brother."  Only the grandparents knew, so it was a delight to see the reactions and cheers from family.

 

Collin playing with Uncle Alex -

 The next morning, reading with cousin Jacob -

That was all the photos I took at Thanksgiving - I was so busy worrying about the turkey and just enjoying conversations with family that I ended up with no photos.  But we had a wonderful time with Cas' family and it was fun to have the first of many family gatherings at our new home!

On Thanksgiving day, we stopped by our cousins' home to say hi before they ate lunch together, but then we hit the road for New Braunsfels. 

Coady, Alex, my grandma "B" and me (in a jacket to camouflage the baby bump since we were telling my mom and dad's family that day) - 

Bigger group shot -



 

This was the first year since we got married that we made it to New Braunsfels in time for us to eat Thanksgiving with the family.  So thankful to Cas and his family for celebrating on Wednesday so we could do "we're thankful" reveals with both families!  Reading with Uncle Larry while we waited for the 24 family members to file in for dinner -

Happy couple pre-reveal -

Once again, we let Collin share his "thankful" line and the family cheered in surprise.  Since my brother had heard the baby news the previous night, he video taped on the iPhone, and we're thankful to have the moment captured.