Thankful

I am thankful for a successful Thanksgiving with family. We hosted for David's family which included his parents, his sister and her husband and their two kids, his Uncle Billy (who married us 10 years ago) and his friend, Charles. I like a full table and it was, with food and people.

I had planned to take photos of every dish, but sadly once they all started getting done I had no time to even think about it. But here was the menu:

Appetizer: Cranberry/Orange/Pecan Relish over cream cheese with crackers

Roasted Turkey Breast w/homemade gravy
Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole
Pineapple Casserole
Sweet Potato Balls
Balsamic Carrots
Roasted Brussels Sprouts w/Bacon and Walnuts

Unfortunately my yeast rolls, which I make 2-3 times a year for the past 25 years, didn't raise. They were flat and hard and glutinous. I refused to put them on the table.

And during clean-up later, I found the homemade dressing in the oven where I had shut it off but forgot to pull it out. Fortunately, when I reheated it for our lunch yesterday, it wasn't very good. I had tried a new recipe (why I don't know) instead of going with the traditional. Fate stepped in and saved me from serving this to my guests - thank you fate.

Desserts:
Pumpkin roll w/cream cheese filling served with salted caramel sauce.
Sugar Cream Pie
Cherry Cream Pie

Everyone was satiated and beyond. After enough time, we lit up the karaoke and the kids as well as David's Mom and Uncle belted out some tunes.

David's mom has Alzheimer's, as you've learned from previous posts. There are few if any benefits of Alzheimer's, but for Carol it has removed the worry what people will think. Granted this isn't always a benefit when you are in a restaurant or at a large gathering of people, but for karaoke - she had fun. Here is a taste: