Thanksgiving 2014

We had a smaller Thanksgiving this year. Jen was our only out of town guest. I was a little nervous about my turkey this year because I was using the electric roaster that Mama got for me. I had already used it for other dishes, just not the turkey. I read several articles on the Internet about how the roaster is different. The main thing I found out was that it cooks faster and doesn't brown the skin as much, but that the turkey ends up being extra juicy. So I timed everything based on the longer cook time. One of the recipes I saw said that a 19 lb turkey would be ready in 4 hours. My roaster cookbook said 2 1/2. Mine ended up being ready after 3 hours. It did brown a little, but I rubbed it with butter and stuck it in the oven for 30 minutes to get it browner. It was perfect! I also did mashed potatoes and rolls. Mama made the dressing, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. And Grandmother made her broccoli salad and cream corn with sausage. Everything was so good!!!! Plus we had a little birthday party for Mama. We gave her $50 to Tuesday Morning and a hummingbird charm.

 

After everyone left, we took short naps, watched the Cowboys game, and got all of our Christmas decorations out. My main goal for that evening was to get the tree decorated. Nathan and Charlotte helped me, and it looks so pretty! I did the ribbon and then just let them do all of the ornaments. They only broke 3! Poor Nathan broke two in a row and felt really bad. Then I broke one (so I guess it was 4 total) and he felt better. Ha! Around 10, I left to do a little Black Friday shopping. Since everything opened earlier this year, and I didn't have to wait til midnight to start, I figured I'd just be gone a couple of hours especially since I didn't have anything specific that I needed. Well, once I got out, I was having so much fun shopping by myself that I didn't get home until 4:00 am!!! I bought one thing on sale (a pair of pajamas for $7.00 and everything else I liked was not on sale like two pairs of earrings, a necklace, and some shoes). It was fun though. Now we are finishing our Christmas decorations, which I'll show in a different post. We are trying to get everything ready because Wayne and I are going out of town Monday through Wednesday for Wayne's Nashville Christmas party.