That's Right, It's Turkey Day

I am Nat's younger sister, 3rd of the 4 girls in our family. Nat was gracious enough to allow me to blog about my day of Thanksgiving for all to read.

This was my first married Thanksgiving, and I offered to host for my husband's family (brave, I know). Alaina (oldest of the daughters) lent me her house for our festivities and we crammed 11 adults and 5 kids into Lain's 3 bedroom condo. I had my first experience with cooking a turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy for all 16 (minus the 1 baby) people. This was also the first year I heard about brining a turkey. The recipe is an Alton Brown Calvert family tried and true, and it turned out so nice and juicy. In fact, the only downside to the turkey was the slightly salty gravy. So anyway, we had all the classic favorites, and a dessert spread consisting of 7 different types of pie, oreo truffles, and butterscotch oatmeal cookies. I was so grateful to have so many people help out for Thanksgiving.

Now, I love Thanksgiving, but I am happy that starting tomorrow, I get to celebrate Christmas without being considered in the crazy category. I mean, not that it stopped me before, but now I can really celebrate the most wonderful time of the year. I put up a strand of lights outside on November 16 and set up the Christmas tree on the same day. I've slowly been putting up more and more Christmas decorations, and finished my outside lights on Wednesday night. I just can't help but celebrate my favorite time of year. How soon after Halloween is considered acceptable to start celebrating Christmas? Does Thanksgiving warrant it's own collection of pilgrim, indian, and Mayflower decorations? Thanks for reading and may your holiday season officially begin.

Written by Kendall, blog at http://kendalllee.blogspot.com and http://sousandhischef.blogspot.com/

ps. Sending this email from a draft in my inbox. I'm sorry, Nat! And thanks to Whit for posting on Thanksgiving.