Our Kind of Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving around the Littlewood/Wallace family always involves lots of cooking, which always results in lots of eating. Mia and I took a "before" shot of the kitchen...before it looks like a comfort food grenade exploded in there.  I turned on the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in the kitchen and got to work.

This is a list of what I was in charge of this year...yes it's a lot of cooking, but I love it! I have to write out a schedule so everything gets done on time. I thought I would have a two hour break, but it turned out that I only got about an hour the whole day to relax before the meal.

Everyone's favorite Thanksgiving dessert...we've traded in the traditional pumpkin pie for Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. It's really the most delicious thing ever.

This lovely shot was a total reflection of how I was feeling at this point in the cooking...after Bob took it, I said "you had to take a photo when I'm putting canned corn in the mixer?" What would Martha say?

Roasted garlic. I can think of no other substance on earth that is this good...its applications in food are endless.

Every year, Bob gets a good share of the grunt work, and unfortunately, none of the glory. Besides peeling potatoes and washing dishes, his other job is stirring the Roasted Garlic Potato Soup. Since I make such a big batch, I have to make it in a huge stockpot that burns ridiculously fast. Let's just say that the last two Thanksgivings we've had Smoked Roasted Garlic Potato Soup. And both years I have shamelessly blamed Bob (well, he was supposed to be stirring constantly). This year, he stood and stirred for 10 minutes until it came to a boil. Turns out, all he needed was some football on the TV and he was good to go. And yes, I did ask him if he had his hand down his pants in this photo...he said he was just resting his thumb in his waistband. Men.

The after shot...it seemed like we were doing dishes all day on Friday.

The kids and my brothers Andrew and David

Get in really close Aidan...

I'm so grateful that we live close to family. In a perfect world, we'd live near all of our family, but it's just not possible. I'm thankful that we always have a place to be on the holidays, to be with the people who love us for who we are.

David asked me to throw him a roll. Since it's Thanksgiving and we try to put on some semblance of grace and good manners, I had to get Mom's approval. I love that she gave me a look that said, "He said throw him a roll, so throw him a roll!" I did, and David caught it. This was the moment of the Great Roll Toss...I'm grateful that I have a family where tossing rolls is acceptable at the table.

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. After dinner we packed up the kids and headed over to my house for dessert and some relaxation. We had three desserts to choose from this year: Apple Pie, which my mom brought, the aforementioned Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake and Sweet Potato Pie which I made from scratch. It was my first foray into pie making, and I think it turned out pretty well! After we got the kids to bed, we all got comfy on the couch and watched a movie...not exactly a "traditional" tradition, but that's us...we sometimes just roll with it. Plus, I was totally pooped out after all that cooking! Happy Thanksgiving!