Before I forget the HUGE menu we had for Thanksgiving...here goes:

Turkey-of course a herkin (yes I said 'herkin') 22 lb-er which we "brined" soaked in saltwater and spices over night and it was so yum and juicy and yum--even days later :) we WILL do that again!

Potatoes-Gabi peeled them Wednesday so they were all ready to put on to cook :)

Corn-sweet frozen

"honey-ish" Carrots-also peeled in advance and then boiled with salt and then covered with butter and brown sugar after pouring off the water :) our answer to mushy yams :)

Gravy-turkey drippings w/ potato water and carrot water too..

Bread-made Tues. because Rick said he wanted bread instead of rolls this year even though our friends brought the yummiest rolls and we ate all of them instead :)

Stuffing

Cabbage Salad-the kind with toasted almonds and ramen noodles also prepared in pieces earlier

Broccoli Salad-the kind with bacon and crasins-yum! following the theme and prep-ed early

Cheese "ball"- we use the term loosely because it never makes it into a ball but is totally addicting, we also made this ahead of time and snacked away

Veggie dip and veggies

7 Layer salad-used to be a total fave, but not so much this year...

Orange Jello-Zack brought home a coloring project from school that was a turkey holding a sign saying "Eat More Jello" so he did the honors with the jello this year, made it but didn't like it to eat :)

"Tasty" Beverage

Olives and Pickle tray

(Friends brought: Rolls, Yummy green bean casserole, yummy berry jello dessert, cheesy celery, pumpkin pies, and ice cream and probably something I'm forgetting)

then we moved on to dessert...in an effort to stop the gluttony, we invited several families over to help eat dessert...we usually end up with TONS of leftover dessert, which isn't THAT bad of a thing but really, I can't eat a whole apple pie, or a pumpkin one either...anyway, this was the dessert fare (and of course added to by the yummie treats that friends brought as well):

Chocolate Pudding Pie-made with sugar free instant pudding and the sugar free-ness was totally ruined by using chocolate whipped topping this year---yummy!!

Pumpkin pie-purchased at Costco, because I just love theirs

Apple Pie-I did the crust this year...it was ok, I think I added a little too much cinnamon...

Mini Cheesecakes-just keep popping them in your mouth! (and yes I baked them! this time)

then Ricky struck...just to keep it real and let him take full advantage of his diet "cheat" day he requested "normal" treats---because everybody likes them:

Brownies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

and Rice Crispie treats (he made those)

Can you say we are PIGS! though it was fun to share, we still have WAY too much dessert lurking, so come on over! after school snack time at our house! We had a great time and though this is a ridiculously huge list of things to prepare, Thursday morning after cutting and prepping most everything all I had to do really was bake the turkey and dump stuff into pots to boil...the only thing actually made Thursday was the gravy---well worth the effort! and made the day and the 20 minute culminating meal that much more enjoyable for me :) that and I had my new maternity jeans on that are oh so comfy and RoOmY!

(OH yeah, PS, I don't think I've officially blogged that we're 'expecting'--a baby (didn't peek this time)...March 26)