Hosting Thanksgiving

I hosted my first Thanksgiving and did not die! And I did it with a baby on my hip -quite literally. It was a small, but wonderful gathering of family and friends. Friends? Coworkers to be exact. Well, foreign coworkers to be even more exact. If that is possible. My aim was to produce a thanksgiving meal they would remember positively and an afternoon/evening that would be full of easy conversation.

If we remember back to one of my very first posts (here), it was to use this home we've been blessed with to bless others. So as we opened our home to family and friends, this was again our goal -that our Heavenly Father be glorified through our hospitality.

So about my coworkers, one is from Spain and the other is from Mexico. Neither of them had ever celebrated Thanksgiving to my knowledge. This made for a day of firsts. I so enjoyed their help cooking. We all carved the turkey together. Everyone pitched in as Josh carved and his Grandma gave great instructions. I was trying to make sure the gravy was finished at the same time. It was beautiful, turkey day chaos!

Then we sat down and enjoyed the food, discussion about the history of Thanksgiving (Who actually does this? It was kind of fun and I want to implement talking about why we celebrate each year.) and what each other were thankful for this year.

Here's the menu from our special day:
Roasted Turkey (Fisher Hill Farm)
Mashed Potatoes
Giblet Gravy
Salad
Cornbread Dressing
Green Bean Casserole
Potato Rolls (recipe from The Kitchn)
Honeyed Cranberry Sauce with Kumquats (Nourishing Traditions)
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie

Not only did we have excitement because of our special guests, but it was also Dax's first Thanksgiving! We think he was pretty cute! Here are pictures of him and our fun day.

We couldn't be more thankful this holiday season!

Stephanie