Thanksgiving 2017: Days of Thankfulness

I was a little nervous this years Thanksgiving was going to be a disaster as a few of my siblings had flu like symptoms just days before hand. I was so worried about avoiding sickness that I went as far as to avoid my family for an entire five days, and I brought ingredients to my house in order to stay ahead of the game and get Mexican Wedding Cookies done.

I spent Thanksgiving in all of my favorite ways. Starting the week before by making 281 Coconut Bonbon's with siblings. Sickness then occurred and I made 182 Mexican Wedding Cookies from the comfort of my healthy home. Tuesday it was back to my parents as sickness seemed to have subsided and with a little help from a couple siblings I made 257 Buckeyes.

Wednesday it was back for Pie Day. This years selection was 2 Pumpkin, 2 Caramel Pecan, 1 Apple, 1 Apple Cranberry, 2 French Silk, 1 Mincemeat, and 1 Lemon Meringue. I left before the French Silk were made but Thursday I was happy to see Shelby had pulled through and completed them.

Thursday morning after having our own little family breakfast we headed to my family's where we first passed out our Thankful Gifts to the family before we all worked on setting up tables, putting out table settings, and finishing the food. I added my own-made-by-myself-not-a-traditional-dish Creamy Corn to the spread which was exciting to me. This years spread was a Turkey my Dad smoked, a roasted turkey by mommy, a ham, Stuffing, Oyster Dressing, Home-made Noodles, Greenbean Casserole, Sweet Potato Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Creamed Corn, Grandma Nancy's Orange Sauerkraut, Layer Salad, Cranberry Relish, Cranberry Jello Salad, Stuffed Celery, and Mommy's Rolls. I think that's it..

The rest of the expected family arrived and we commenced feasting.

We played games, ate lots of pie and treats, and ended the evening with leftover sandwiches on the few leftover rolls. The guys all played basketball and probably some football, I stayed inside and pigged out.

Friday morning the girls, Wesley and I were up reasonably early and headed back to my family's where we had our traditional pie for breakfast along with some beautifully fried over easy eggs and sausage links, courtesy of my mom who believes in protein for breakfast ;)

We hung out Friday playing games, the guys target shooting, and feasting again on leftovers. We also had a very brief visit from my sister Avery and her little family, so, for a couple minutes this Thanksgiving season ALL 14 of my siblings (counting myself) were together! <3

Saturday morning we headed over to the Smith's as they were celebrating Thanksgiving then. We participated in the family gift exchange, I'm excited about the gift I received and will likely devote a blog post to it before long, and followed that with more feasting. We had another fairly traditional dinner and spent teh rest of our day hanging out and playing games.

That sums up how Thanksgiving 2017 went for us. Perfectly. We have so many things to be Thankful to God for and focusing on it for a few days a year will always make up my favorite days of the year.