Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite Holidays. One for obvious reasons, all that time spent in the kitchen and eating. Two, because there is nothing in this world better to me than spending time with family! I have so much in my life to be thankful for- health, being able to be an Aunt, job doing what I love, family who supports me, Mikey who blows me away with the love he has for me, really really great girlfriends, a place to call home, an amazing man who took on the role as my grandfather and changed my life forever, having the freedom to decide what I do with my life, Jesus for being the ultimate sacrifice, Eric, Mark, and Chuck for being the best brothers a girl could ask for, my moms recovery, food on the table every night, Jetza (my car), and the list could go on but I'm sure you are starting to get bored:)

My Thanksgiving was a little scattered this year, but it brought us closer together. We had planned on doing thanksgiving with Mikey's family this year, at his sister's house. Wendy had organized what everyone was bringing and we were all set with our grocery list, checked off and ready to go. I am in love with Mikey's family, I really enjoy all of them especially his nieces and nephew. I am telling you they are some of the cutest kids (my nieces and nephews lead up this cutest kids group) and I seriously couldn't even begin to describe how cute they are, here is a pic....

Okay so you get the picture now, too cute! Well the day before Thanksgiving lil Landon (16 months) had to be admitted to the hospital, he had pneumonia in both lungs and had to be put on oxygen since he was having trouble getting enough on his own. So the thanksgiving feast was postponed till further notice. Our main concern was landon not our food. Mikey and I took over watching Emersyn, and even with the circumstances we enjoyed being able to spend some quality time with her.

He's gonna make a great daddy one day:)

Thanksgiving day I got to enjoy a thanksgiving meal twice at Cracker barrel!! The first one was with my brother up in Chattanooga. Since everyone wasn't getting together at Wendy's I joined my brother to go and see our mom who is in assistant living doing intensive therapy. She was hit by a car back in August and it has and will continue to be a very long recovery. I enjoyed spending the time with my brother, and we were both so shocked at how many people were out at Cracker Barrel! The place was packed, they did a really good job though of getting people in and out. You couldn't beat the deal- Turkey, Ham, Dressing, 2 veggie choices, biscuit or cornbread, and dessert~ All for $9! It was really good and I was happy to get a traditional meal. I had the meal again with Mikey later that night once I got back, and we both found out that we were purty smart leaving only 2 pins in their table game:)

We ended up making the things we bought for the Thanksgiving meal saturday. I made collard greens for the first time by myself. They were good but they have a long way to go before they meet the standard of my moms! I got rave reviews on my squash casserole, which is a simple recipe from Paula Deen (get the recipe here). It calls for squash and zucchini, I left the zucchini out of mine. Mikey made a delicious ham to go with the turkey.

 I don't normally care for ham much, but I couldn't stop eating it! The glaze he made for it was right on point. We finished making up the rest of the sides for Wendy so she could have a good meal before returning to the hospital.

Mmmmmmmm

Yes this years Thanksgiving meal may have been sporadic, and not have gone as planned. At the end of the day though, Family is whats important and I have to say we were so THANKFUL that after 5 days of being in the hospital lil Landon came home that Sunday morning.

too cute right!?

ttyl~Misty