Let's Talk Turkey...

We had such a fantastic Thanksgiving this year! It was special, because it was our very first time making our own thanksgiving dinner; and it turned out great! We were going to have our good friend Rachel and her kiddos over to join us, but unfortunately they all ended up being too sick to come. So it was the three of us, and we had a blast! Sean and Tara watched part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and Tara loved it :) She got really excited about the floats, and the songs, and the dancing. Then later in the day, the house filled with the smell of turkey...Mmm. About a week ago, Sean was expressing to me how excited he was to finally be able to cook us a thanksgiving dinner; and he did an amazing job! It was such a sensory experience...when Sean pulled the turkey out of the oven, and popped the rolls in; the house filled with the incredible aroma of home made dinner rolls. Then when they were done, and and put the yams in to cook; the house smelled like sugar cookies for some reason! I think it was the marshmallows...hehe. But we ended up making the turkey, and ALL the fixings! I made a couple of favorite dishes, Sean did the bulk of the cooking though-and all credit must go to him :) He did the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, yams, gravy, potatoes, rolls, etc. I informed him that he's in charge of doing the turkey every year, and that his candied yams were the best I'd ever had (he threw in a secret ingredient that I never would have though of-it makes all the difference!) But we thoroughly enjoyed the day as a family, and had so much fun with each other. Seeing Tara enjoy it all was so rewarding. We ended up eating a bit later than we had planned, so by the time we were ready to eat, Tara was famished! We set the basket of rolls on the table, and went into the kitchen to get the rest of the food, and by the time we walked back in; Tara was already halfway through devouring a homemade roll :) And she apparently LOVES cranberry sauce! We served her some, and before we could pray, she had reached over and served herself another big spoonful! Then during the prayer, I saw her sneak yet another heaping spoonful of it, and I heard her say "Mmm!" lol What a funny girl...So all in all, it was a wonderful thanksgiving; and we're already looking forward to next year-and anticipating how things will go with Tara being three and a half, and our new baby being a whopping 8 months old at that point! But I believe we'll be making the parade a family tradition :)