A Gilmore Thanksgiving: 2011

We had an enjoyable Thankgiving! We began preparing for our Thanksgiving Feast a week before...buying the much needed turkey, potatoes, dressing etc. The necessary items needed to prepare a feast tend to run low here on the island, especially on our Military Post, mililtary personal and veterans from all over the island come to shop the reasonable prices at the Commissary. So, as you can imagine the store and parking lot were extremely crammed.
On Wednesday, I prepared the Gilmore Family favorite...Grandma Unsworth's Rolls. Dallas' Grandmother loved to bake and cook, her love for doing so left behind several family recipes two of which Dallas and I used for our Thanksgiving Feast. It is a nice little tradition we have started, being so far away from family this is one of the many ways we help our children feel the presence of FAMILY. The rolls turned out HEAVENLY and I am excited to pass Grandma Unsworth's recipes onto my children.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the turkey before it was carved...let me just add
that the turkey looked beautiful! You can sorta see the coloring on the wings and thighs, sorry Dallas.

Thursday Dallas woke at 5:30 am to prepare the turkey and the stuffing. Not only did he prepare and bake our turkey, but he also baked and prepared four delicious pies from scratch; one apple pie, cherry pie and two pumpkin pies! I am so LUCKY to have a husband who loves to prepare turkey and bake pies because preparing the turkey is something I DID NOT want to do at 5:30 am! The pies were AMAZING! So YUMMY!

Apple Pie

Cherry Pie

I was also in the kitchen...I prepared the mashed potatoes, candied yam,  and wardolf salad. The candied yam and wardolf salad are two Kinlacheeny family favorites, so I had to prepare them depsite me being the ONLY one who enjoyed the candied yam...I think my children will EVENTUALLY come around to love this dish.
Sadie also helped in the kitchen, she helped prepare the veggie dip and veggie tray and did a MARVELOUS JOB! She is ALWAYS so eager to help and I need to give/make more opportunities availiable to her.

Sadie's Veggie Tray

Sophie helped set the table. I wanted to "dress" our table for our Thanksgiving Feast, but doing so proved to be VERY EXPENSIVE so, I opted to buy and add one new thing each Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday. For our Thanksgiving Feast I wanted to add a bit of elegance so, I purchased some red (nondisposable) napkins. The girls LOVED them and had a blast adding them to our table spread! Unfortunately, I could not find a table cloth to cover the expanse of our dining table so, I covered the table in some decorating fabric I had in storage...cause you know I love to sew and have fabric stashed away for times like this! The table turned out lovely and I was pleasantly surprised at how well the girls managed to arrange things! Job Well Done!

I had planned on wearing our Sunday Best for our Thanksgiving Feast to "jazz things up a bit" but, once the food was done, that became a different story...WE HAD TO DIG IN!! We wore whatever we were wearing to prepare the feast and that was OK!

Ammon making his "crazy eyes" face! Gotta love it! He ate his Thanksgiving Feast
in nothing but his pull-up diaper! Classic.

We Feasted at 12:30pm and were done by 1:30pm. The kitchen was clean by 2:30, followed by a short nap (parents only...the kids were wide awake) and then off to the theatre we went to enjoy our new Gilmore Family Tradition...watching a movie on Thankgiving Day! We watched "Meet the Muppets", it was suprisingly very funny and enjoyable...the nice thing about the show was, it CAPTURED the kids attention in a good way! Ammon was dancing in the aisle to the music and the girls were laughing. Dallas and I had a couple of good laughs as well!
After the movie we came home and enjoyed our delicious pies made by Dallas! We had a VERY enjoyable Thanksgiving. We are so grateful to have Dallas home, it makes ALL the difference. Last year, around this time he was at a checkpoint in Iraq eating a depressing "Thanksgiving meal", this year he is HOME with us and we are SO THANKFUL!! While eating we went around the table to share what we were most thankful for; Daddy being home, Family, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what topped the list. Oh, how I am so Thankful! I am trully blessed to have such a WONDERFUL FAMILY AND AN AMAZING HUSBAND!