Thanksgiving

 Well, we had a lovely day, but I did not get my camera out much....

I did a lot of the prep work and made up things that I could do ahead.  On Tuesday I made bread (for dressing) and dinner rolls, then put together a birthday dinner for hubby.  Did not get a photo....  He was 65 and got his favorite beef and noodles with German Chocolate cake for his birthday meal.

On Wednesday Grandson did not have school so he helped me to make the cranberry relish.

Using MY Grandma's food grinder to crush the cranberries and orange.

Then we added sugar and tasted...

sugar needs time to dissolve and mix in!

Then I came up with the idea to make place cards.  We did stamping and also a bit of coloring in...

Later that evening I made the pies, Pumpkin from my own garden, but store-bought apples.

Photo taken after one piece was taken.....

And then The Big Day.  I made my last contribution, the dressing, at home. Then we went over to my son's where he and d-i-l like to entertain and have the big house to do it up right!  Both of the boys helped d-i-l to finish all the other dishes and then the eating began!

There were 12 of us all together: My sons and their family or girlfriend, then my d-i-l had one of her sisters and her family.  It had all the essential elements: Crying babies, pretty decorations, and finally the quiet munch of great food.

Later that weekend we got our annual family photo, again with un-cooperative kids but I think we got one that will work:

All together.
(at least it's good of the grown-ups)