Thanksgiving Debriefed

Hello All! I hope that you had a marvelous Thanksgiving, full of good food and good company. Ours was lovely. I have all the pictures to prove it.
Our preparations began on Wednesday. We listened to old school Amy Grant Christmas music and baked enough pies for an army: chocolate cream, banana cream, pumpkin cream, chocolate pecan, classic pumpkin, dreamy apple and one classic pecan that didn't quite make it safe out of our bipolar oven. I called it rustic and ate it anyway.



On Wednesday, we also began the brining process on our turkey.




WARNING: the next picture is not for the faint of heart.....





eeeeek!!! I've never handled a turkey in my life, much less one that was walking and clucking hours before it landed itself in my sink. we gave it a good washing, plucked some straggling feathers and quickly submerged it in this lovely stuff:


my 2nd try at making a cheeseball and it was actually a hit. my first attempt was not so bright.

we had the lovely Amy Owen with us. she counseled us through the turkey cooking process.

and the lovely Amy Noxon made caramels, YUM!



kneading dough for the Parker House Roles mmmm...

Note: after reviewing the pictures of my face, I have determined that I am incapable of smiling like a normal human being. and I will be attending smiling 101 directly following our return to the U.S. of A.





Then, we turned around on Friday and had a SECOND Thanksgiving for our Azeri friends. It was sooo wonderful. I had four of my students come. Between all of us who invited people, we had eleven Azeris join us. We made them all little party favors with candles, truffles and cards with scripture about giving thanks.


Fatima, Fidan, me, Sabina and Xatira



Now, time to breakout the Christmas decorations!!! I've already started making pom pom garland, and Ryan surprised me by bringing home a little, but very sweet tree the other day.