Thanksgiving at the Brown Residence

I don't know how it happened, but I ended up having Thanksgiving dinner at my house for the first time in almost 20 years! The original plan was to go to my mother's house, but a couple of weeks ago, she informed me that she was not in the mood for it, so she wasn't doing anything this year. My husband and I then took the initiative and decided to cook dinner for the two of us and his mother.

On Tuesday, my mother called and asked if we were cooking. I told her we were and that she was more than welcome to join us. Meanwhile, my husband went looking for a small turkey, but was unable to find anything smaller than an 18-pounder. The day after that, my sister called to tell me she didn't have to work on Thursday, as she originally thought. So, I invited her and her clan to join us too. She accepted. Later, Wednesday evening, my daughter called to inform me that she and my son-in-law would be coming too! Ok, so now it was looking like a big deal and I'm so glad Charlie didn't find a small turkey!

I asked them all to bring a little something so the cooking wouldn't be left up to one person (namely ME). It worked out great and we feasted gloriously. Hubby cooked the turkey and it turned out both beautiful (as you can see by the picture above) and delicious! Mom made her famous home-made fudge...MMmmmmm... and brought her little sidekick with her, much to the chagrin of our fur-baby, Leelu.

Mom and Baby



Leelu

Of course, afterward, we all felt a bit lethargic, due to the massive amounts of tryptophan we consumed . My sister, Ginger collapsed on the couch immediately after dinner and crashed out:

Sleeping Beauty

Charlie and I played with the young'ens while everyone else was recovering from stuffing themselves. We had a blast. It had been several months since we'd seen the kids.

My nephew, Jayden

My niece, MacKenzie



My niece, Amberlyn


Our little beautician

We were so happy to have Charlie's mom there too. She drove up from Alabama and brought lots of fattening pies and other goodies. Mmmmm....

Charlie's mom, Vickie with MacKenzie

I was overjoyed to get this opportunity to be with my family. It was the first time in a long time. Just writing about it now brings tears to my eyes.

A Kiss from an Angel
Me and MacKenzie

This was the first holiday get-together at our new place and it made us so happy that our family joined us in celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. I am truly grateful for my husband, my family and my life.

Left to right: Vickie, Joseph, Ginger, MacKenzie,
Amberlyn, Me, Mom, Baby Jayden

Me and Charlie

My grandmother and my sister, Lisa (and family) were not able to make it, and we sure missed them. But we'll see them next month at Christmas at Mom's house.

I hope we have many more days like this in the future!

Technorati tags: Thanksgiving Dinner, family