Happy Thanksgiving!

This year was quite the change from last years Thanksgiving. I went from helping my Mom with the dinner for 70+ people in a church house gym, to just my family and next door neighbors Katie and Eric. Their plans fell through and I couldn't have them eating alone. It was really nice. But I now know the CRAZINESS of making food ALL DAY and fully appreciate all the years my mother did it for us!!! That's really all I did, and I LOVED it! It was perfect! I put the turkey in the oven at 8:00 am and didn't stop making food until it was time to eat. But I did get a lot of new recipes! Like: Artichoke and Spinach Dip! YUM! Pepper Cheese Ball (a Merkley favorite) and... others I can't remember right now. I made my first Chocolate Pudding Cream Pie. (and failed because Ryan told me to mix the whip cream in AFTER the pudding set up)*sigh*

In the end everything turned out great! My neighbor Katie made fruit salad and a pumpkin roll for dessert. WOW! Ryan was in heaven with that roll. After a lot of playing and eating and talking, we called it a night. It couldn't have been a more perfect "first" Thanksgiving for me and our family!

(p.s. Sorry no pictures due to a lot of cooking!)