Our Primal Thanksgiving Feast

Disclaimer: This is our Primal Thanksgiving feast that follows the 80/20 rule, since a few of our must-haves are not entirely Primal.

While I've always loved Christmastime the most, Thanksgiving is right up there, mostly because I love spending the day in the kitchen making delicious food for my family and friends. This year, Dad and the family came out to celebrate and eat with us. I think it was a success, since I didn't hear any complaining about any of the food. For the most part, I think I did a great job for our first Primal Thanksgiving! Next year, I'll be sure to add in even more delicious (and Primal) food!

Hmm... I wonder how you can tell we're cooking right now?

Our turkey is ready for the oven!

I went with my usual recipe, it hasn't been bad yet!

So there wasn't much time for photo-taking while we cooked.

I was a busy girl!

Here are some of our finished sides!

Brussels sprouts

Cranberry Waldorf Salad

Sweet Potatoes - My favorite!

My plate!

(Non-primal foods were only the little bit of stuffing I had and the marshmallows on top of the potatoes!)

And since we had dog-lovers for guests, 
look who joined us for dinner.

So we relaxed for a bit.
Then it was time for dessert.
I made Caramel Apple Cheesecake Dip and we had pumpkin pie!
(Warning - this was so not Primal!)

After digesting for a while, we started to play Monopoly,

on Nate's iPad.

 

So that was our amazing Thanksgiving feast. All of the recipes are on my Pinterest board - http://pinterest.com/hp620/my-favorite-primal-recipes-for-fall/. My long-time favorite has always been that sweet potato recipe, but the brussels sprouts with cranberry-pistachio pesto is my new favorite side dish! We had a really great Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending the rest of the weekend together doing some shopping and some relaxing. Here are a few more snapshots from the weekend:

This is what happens when the people eat too much food.

Emma just wanted Uncle Nathan to wake up and play!

After a few minutes of sitting and waiting, 

she started to give up...

We went to Niagara Falls on Saturday 

and enjoyed the beautiful view from the Canadian side!

It was great to be able to cook our first Thanksgiving meal for family and show them around our new home state. We love exploring NY and always enjoy showing it off to anyone who visits! We're glad Dad and the family were able to come out and spend the holiday with us! Next up, another Christmas in Chicago!

It Feels Like Fall

I've been so busy with my practicum this semester that aside from all of the fun craft projects I've done, it hasn't felt like the holidays are coming. I haven't even been home to enjoy my fall decor! I'm finally in NY long enough to take photos of my finished products. Now it's starting to feel like the holiday season!

My dictionary pumpkins from last year!

The newest pieces of my collection.

I love them!

My Book Page Pumpkins.

Spray-painted Pinecones.

My Pumpkin Canvas.

And, finally,

my Chalkboard Pumpkins -

decorate as Jack-O-Lanterns for Halloween,

then erase and write a Thanksgiving message on them!

They all turned out fabulously!! I would show you my burlap wreath, but my pins need to be reinforced somehow... Hopefully it will be ready for Christmas. Today we had some snow. Now that I feel like I've been able to enjoy fall, it's turning into winter! I guess it's time to move on. Next up, Christmas decorations!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

We have had a wonderful year and have so much to be thankful for, including the delicious meal that we made today. We opted for a quiet, intimate Thanksgiving today; just the two of us (and Emma, of course). I spent the morning cooking, but it was so worth it. 

Thanksgiving 2011

 Best Turkey Ever

 My decoupaged pumpkins.

 Begging for table scraps from Daddy.

Of course he gives in.

It has been a very relaxing Thanksgiving. The only cooking that's left for this weekend is to make some turkey soup and a turkey casserole. Yum!! There isn't much else on the schedule for today. We can't wait to go see The Muppets later!

By the way, we're currently taking reservations for Thanksgiving Day 2012, location to be determined. ;-)

So much to be thankful for...

We've had a year full of blessings! Married life in Boston is fantastic. We love New England and have the best time exploring all it has to offer. Amit's almost halfway done with school and just finished his first board exam. The best part of Boston, though, is the amazing group of people that we are blessed to call our friends!

So to celebrate our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, and to give thanks for friends, I offered to cook the turkey and have everyone who was still in town over for some food... oh, and of course some Rockband!

John is always up for some Rock Band... 

and his kids are following in his footsteps!

Aiden even tried to sing and play drums at the same time...

We just didn't tell him that the drums/mic were actually off when he did.

So I definitely figured out the best way to keep hungry boys from getting impatient when waiting for dinner... Turn on Rockband. They probably played it for a good two hours before we ate.

I even got a chance to play in between turkey checks... 

although Abby enjoyed stealing my mic!

We got lots of quality Rockband time before our big meal... Now its time for the big reveal. Yep, the first turkey I have ever cooked on my own! It was a 21 pound turkey, stuffed with citrus and onion, with an herb butter rub. Sounds good, right??

My fantastically delicious turkey!

There was a LOT of food!

Tamsen made pumpkin cheesecake for dessert... Yum!

So all of us adults were in a food coma after dinner, but the kids were still full of energy. Aiden kept asking over and over again when we could play Rockband, but Abby amused herself for a while... Amit's shark oven mitt came in handy! (I definitely never expected us to use it this way when he put it on our registry!)

Abby came up, would bite us and say "Gotcha!"

So the big kids finally gave into Aiden (I mean, come on, who could really say no to him?) and started up again with Rockband. They put on quite a show! Here are some of my favorite random shots from the rest of the night... 

Amit admiring his handiwork... or maybe just wanting to eat it? 

Aiden has some real Rockband star potential!

Abby fell asleep on Tamsen, so John took this picture... How cute!!

Then when Abby woke up, I stole his camera to get this shot!

I think I'm getting pretty good at action shots...

Abby enjoyed playing with my stuffed animals...

this is her "Amit don't you dare touch my toy" face!

 

Here's a great shot of my handsome husband

 

Melissa took this picture of John "attacking" Tamsen!

She turned into our official Thanksgiving photographer...

Celebrating after Abby hit some notes when singing!

So that was our awesome Thanksgiving... Hopefully getting together like this will become a tradition, at least for the next two years!