Turkey Day. . . at last.

Okay, so this Thanksgiving Day recap is a little late but at least it's here! We had a fantastic weekend with friends from across the country as we hosted our first Thanksgiving feast in our new home. Kevin and Tammy drove from Minneapolis, Jon and Julie travelled from Seattle and NY respectively and Jared, Breyn, and Rowan drove from the North side of town. All the festivities unofficially started Wednesday night as the first of our guests arrived and then officially kicked in as we made the final preparations for the T-day feast. It was all traditional fare and I'd say overall it was a gastronomical success. . .

Turkey (brined and then roasted a la Good Eats style)

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Jellied Cranberry Sauce

Lion House Rolls with Honey Butter

Laura's Spinach Pear and Goat Cheese Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

Mashed Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole

Roasted Butternut Squash

Pumpkin Pie

Cherry Pie

and

Chocolate Whipped Cream

After letting our food settle we played an interesting and funny game introduced to us by Jared and Breyn called The Paper Bag Game. The premise of the game is to pick up a brown paper bag using your teeth while standing and without using your hands. After each turn you rip the piece of the bag off that you bit. It was hilarious and a revealing exercise in who was the most flexible in our group of friends.

It was such a fun FUN day (and weekend--I'll post more about the rest of our activities from the weekend as I can). We were so glad to have such dear friends with us to celebrate all that we are grateful for.