Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hyrum's brother and his family celebrated Thanksgiving with us this year.  The London Wrights were a little late arriving since Ian got slammed at work a couple weeks before they were scheduled to arrive.  We observed Thanksgiving on Friday since they didn't arrive in Munich until late-ish on Thursday night.

Friday morning Charity and I mixed, chopped, sliced, crushed and cooked with help from the kids.  We enjoyed a bit of monkey bread for breakfast and then prepped the pies--apple, pumpkin and vanilla cream  After they were mixed and baking, we chopped and prepped the food for dinner.   Charity and the kids cut up potatoes-regular and sweet, as well as the stuffing ingredients. 

I worked on the turkey. This turkey was quite an adventure.  We had to order it at a market and we picked it up on Thursday.  I usually brine my turkey but since we didn't have a bucket or a place to keep it overnight, I did some research and opted to dry-brine the bird.  Before picking up the turkey, I took inventory of our supplies and decided to double check the bag I had bought.  After opening if I discovered a 3 meter long bag that was open on both ends and not very wide.  It was clearly not for roasting turkey in.  We had a good laugh over that.  Then once I was ready to rub the turkey in salt and seasoning i pulled out the foil pans I had ordered from amazon to find the turkey looked like a toddler lounging in a toy bin, half in and half out.  I laughed but kind of panicked because I wasn't sure how we were going to cook this bird.

I went ahead and rubbed in the seasonings and Hyrum asked around at work to see if anyone had a large roasting pan we could borrow the next day.  There were no takers, so after dinner on Thursday I ran down to the shopping center to see if I could find a decently priced roasting pan that would fit our 15 lb bird.  I found a great one that was large enough for the turkey and small enough for the oven.  There may have been a happy dance involved : )

So, Friday morning I rubbed it with some butter and more fresh herbs and added some carrots, celery, garlic and onions to the chest cavity, then into the oven it went for 3 1/2 hours.   It was interesting getting a fresh turkey.  There was no plastic package of giblets, they were just sitting the in chest cavity and the heart was even still attached.  Pretty great for an anatomy lesson, not so good for whetting appetites.

      

After our morning prep session, Ian, Charity, Moses, Hyrum and our boys went out to see the glockenspiel at the Marienplatz and check out the Christmas market while the girls and I watched the turkey, finished up the desserts and got a few more things ready for our feast.  And feast we did.  We had a true Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings.  We had ingredients from Germany, England, and the US to get us through.  We enjoyed sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, carrots, rolls, gravy, salad and of course, turkey.  We enjoyed the food but laughed as we barely ate enough to make a dent in it.

     

After dinner, we enjoyed a presentation the kids had put together.  It was in part for Cub Scout and Faith in God requirements but they had fun and enjoyed putting it together.  We sang songs, played games, watched an original skit, and listened to an original poem too.

It was great to be together as a family and be able to celebrate a day of thanks. We have so much to be grateful for and it was nice to spend time over the past few weeks to talk and reflect on it.  

*Special thanks to Charity for capturing and sharing most of these images.  My hands were usually a bit too gooey for picture taking.  : )