Thanksgiving 2013

We had another great family holiday.  We're so thankful that we had family with us, Nick's parents joined us for the holiday.  The boys were ecstatic to have them here for a few days.

The day started off with Nick making pancakes for everyone.  

I had prepared most of the dishes yesterday so all I had to do was heat them up in the oven.  

 While I heated everything up, the boys worked on a Thanksgiving day craft with the grandparents and Nick.  They made placemats for themselves.  Everyone traced their own hand on the paper to make a turkey.

 These are the placemats:

There is a "turkey hand" under all the scribbles if you look really hard. He likes stickers! :)

This was mine. I forgot to put my name on it. 

Gavin's job was to set the table and he was really happy to have such an important job.  He kept saying how much he was looking forward to the food.  He told me he wanted a little bit of everything on his plate.  

Here he is folding the napkins for each place set. 

 The table is set....

This year we did a vegan thanksgiving feast and also gluten-free.  I had to accommodate our vegetarian-ness, Ellie's dairy allergy and Mary's gluten intolerance and I loved the challenge was really looking forward to having an all homemade feast.  I was really scared that something would not cook well but am very happy that everything turned out great.

The final menu:

• Salad
• Vegan lentil loaf with a maple glaze
• Stuffing (vegan and gluten-free)
• Green bean casserole w/homemade fried onions (I'll definitely be using that recipe to make onion rings later on)\
• Sweet potatoes "casserole"- baked with cinnamon and maple syrup
• Maple carrots
• Roasted brussel sprouts
• Mashed potatoes
• Apple Crisp
• Pumpkin Pie (this was store-bought....and there's a story)

This is Gavin's plate.  A little bit of everything.  Not pictured: His salad plate but he even had salad (with ranch).

After lunch, we hung out...

dancing with Grandpa!

Round #2 for dinner

Almost forgot to take a family pic.

After dinner, we all sat down to watch an "Elf on the Shelf story" and Nick mentioned that he could drink some hot chocolate.  Gavin heard "chocolate" and his ears perked up.  So, I made some hot cocoa and Liam couldn't stand waiting for the pot to get hot.  Here he is standing over the counter, saying "hot chocolate please"

 I think we just started a new tradition, hot chocolate after Thanksgiving dinner.  Gavin is up for it.

 After all the wait, Liam tried the hot cocoa and said "I don't like it"....we think it's because he's never had a hot drink.  It was definitely sweet enough (I even used real sugar!).

Overall, it was another amazing family day. I'm beyond grateful and happy to have had the in-laws in town to be with us during the holiday.  I probably would've been really homesick otherwise.  We are grateful for absolutely all the blessings we have in our lives.  We have three healthy and beautiful children and we have jobs that allow us to spend quality time with them and for that we are very grateful.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!