Thanksgiving!

This year we hosted our first ever Thanksgiving in our very own home! I am delighted to say that it went off without a hitch!

Mom came down Wednesday evening to help me prepare. I had tried to "brine" the turkey, but had an unfortunate situation with the "turkey bag". It really didn't matter though, the bird came out excellent if I do say so myself!

I was responsible for the: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and bundt cakes. The bundt cakes were easy- I ordered those in advance from Nothing Bundt Cakes (so good) but the rest was up to me. For the stuffing, we made Stove Top for inside the bird (it was the fall back) and then I made from scratch my very own Paula Dean apple/cranberry stuffing! It was SO good! Mom, Dad, Andie, John, Joyce, and Jared all came over for Thanksgiving. Aunt Mary and Uncle John came by for dessert as well.

my veggie tray

Mom, Aunt Mary, and I went shopping Friday morning. We started at the mall at Midnight (that's right)! We hit up Bath and Body works first, then headed over to Toys R Us. While we got into the store, the checkout line was like 3 hours long. At that point, mom and Aunt Mary went over to Old Navy while I got in line at Game Stop. I sat at Game Stop for 3 hours talking to a very nice woman who was in line for the same item I was. Finally, at 6:00am they opened and I got my item for Aaron! After that we hit up Best Buy and Ulta. I have to say, the stores were very well stocked even with their heavily discounted items, it was a great shopping day!