A Tale of Two Thanksgivings

This year, I was lucky enough to celebrate TWO Thanksgivings. Brent had to work on Friday (lucky him), so he was not able to make the 12 hour round trip trek to Ardmore, OK for my family's Thanksgiving. Since I had not seen the entire family in years, I decided to drive up to Oklahoma by myself (OK - I also brought Blazer). Then I drove back on Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving with my hubby! So here is my tale of two Thanksgivings.

(There are LOTS of pictures on this post, but let's be honest - who doesn't like pictures?!)

Thanksgiving #1: Focus on FAMILY

Thanksgiving in Ardmore is full of tradition. Each year, my grandparents make their turkey with sausage on top. I'm fully in favor of this. For appetizers, we have sausage and cold duck (a sparkling wine). Here is my Grampy, Aunt Robyn, Grammy, Mom, and Aunt Susan getting everything ready.

... And here is the feeding frenzy that followed. I mean, seriously, we are grown people. I like the blur in the left part of the picture. I'm not sure who that is, but they are NOT messing around when it comes to appetizers.
We had EVERYONE in the family there (except Brent... sad face). That was a total of 18 people!!! Thanks to my grandfather's handiwork, we all sat at the same (very long) table.

Here's a funny poster my Aunt Robyn made to commemorate the extra long table.

Me with cousins Lee and Melissa

I finally got to squeeze my little cousin-nephew Parker.

Here's my baby with my cousin's baby.

Julia squeezing said baby.

Me and my momma

There were so many people there that we did not all fit in my grandparents' house. Lots of us had to stay in a hotel. The hotel did not allow dogs, which was an issue for me. If you know me at all, you know I am a huge rule follower. But you'll be glad to know that I'll break any rule for my dog. So here is Blazer, looking confused, popping out of the duffel bag that I stuffed him in to carry him in the hotel. Yes, yes I did. Sweet little muffin.

Thanksgiving #2: Focus on FOOD

After hanging out with the fam, I made the 6 hour drive BACK to Houston to:

1) Hang out with my husband

2) Decorate for Christmas

3) Make Thanksgiving meal #2

Tonight, we finished decorating and made our own cozy little Thanksgiving dinner. It was really fun. I made some simple Thanksgiving recipes that I've been wanting to try, but never have been able to because I've never hosted a Thanksgiving. Since it was just the two of us, we made scaled down versions of Thanksgiving favorites. Here's what we ate!

Lemon & Sage Roasted Turkey Tenderloins

Find the recipe here. I used turkey tenderloins instead of a whole turkey, and I used sage instead of rosemary.

Individual Potato Gratins

Find the recipe here. I added Gruyere cheese in between layers and on top. I mean, why not?

Mushroom Dressing

Find the recipe here. I added a 1/2 cup of white wine to the dressing and a layer of grated Parmesan cheese on top.

Lemon & Sage Green Beans
Steam green beans. Toss in 1 T. leftover lemon & sage oil from turkey. Zest lemon on top.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Find the recipe here.

So that's it, folks! Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too! It's just the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year!