Thanksgiving 2011...

We had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner this year with all of our close friends. It has become a great tradition where all of us get together and celebrate the year that we had. We turn the living room to a restaurant setting so that everyone would have a spot to sit.

My two helpful cousins came in early and helped with the setup. One of them made this creative cheese and cold cut arrangement for us...

Then I got ready and the guests slowly started to arrive and gather up around the kitchen as usual.

I make the turkey in an oven bag. Since we only have one oven I send one of them to a friend's house where they cook it before heading back to us.
We basically make two turkeys and few side dishes. Then everyone brings a dish; either a side dish or a dessert... We always have so much food. Much more than we can eat...
Then some of the friends get to take home goodie bags.
My husband wears his cook outfit and always carves the turkey with some other friends.

Then kids eat... They get to have the great food that is cooked by all of the mom's...

Then we get serious and start getting ready for the adults...
He looks so good with that jacket...

Everyone lines up by the buffet to fill up their plates and head to the tables...

This is some one's first plate... It looks good... But I can tell it is the first plate since it has no meat and rice... ;-)

Then we all enjoy good food and great company...
We show the pictures from the previous years on TV and everyone gets to talk about the years passed, what they were doing, how little the kids were, how big we were when we were pregnant, etc

Ladies seem to have a group picture every year for some reason...

Then the couples must have pictures too...

I have to have one with my handsome husband...

And my wonderful mom...

In the meantime all the kids were in the media room, enjoying a movie... They also got to play outside and enjoy the backyard...

It was a great day.

We are so thankful to be able to continue this tradition and enjoy a day with family and friends.

Thanksgiving food...

The annual Thanksgiving party at our house this year was again a great success. We had 22 adults and 17 kids. It was a little too crazy at times but everything worked out. Menu included many delicious food and I wanted to take the time to post the food first...
We set the tables in the living room so that people would have lots of places to hang out...

I made two turkeys, three sides, a dessert, and a fruit salad. The other food was brought by friends. Lots of very good food...

Happy Thanksgiving

Every year we invite several of our friends to Thanksgiving dinner. This is one holiday that we really love and look forward to. We have been doing the Thanksgiving dinner party for the last 7 years except the year that my daughter was born.

It is a major deal in our household. We move all the furniture off of our living room and replace them with tables. We usually ask some of our friends to bring chairs. It seems though we have no issues finding tables in my house. This year, we had 24 adults and 17 kids. Kids don't get to sit with the parents but we somehow manage.



I make two giant turkeys (in bags), three side dishes and one desert. This year, I have made sauteed leeks in olive oil, bean salad, red cabbage salad, and pumpkin cheesecake. Everyone brings a dish or a bottle of wine. Some of the other items were, rice with orzo pasta, stuffed grape leafs and eggplants, lima beans, meat stuffed pastry, chicken salad, barley salad, etc.



At the end, we had lots of good food and great company.