California... part 5 ~ Thanksgiving

We are truly blessed! There is always so much to be thankful for, but I just love this time of year when the focus is mostly on being thankful. This year, I am thankful for my sister and her family, and for the amazing opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with them... among many other things! Not only was this a Thanksgiving full of blessings and things to be thankful for, it was also a Thanksgiving of a lot of firsts. It was Micah's first Thanksgiving, it was our first time celebrating Thanksgiving in California, I'm not sure about this one, but it might have been Matt's first time carving a turkey by himself, (there was some online research being done on how to do this) and it was my first time preparing an entire Thanksgiving meal with no help or guidance from mom or dad! Granted, I didn't do it on my own... I did have help from a seasoned Thanksgiving meal preparer, my sister... so maybe this "first" doesn't really count, but we had a blast working together to get everything ready, and the end result was delicious!

Warming up those stomachs for our feast later on

Luke helping me make cheesecake... yum!

Is it done yet??

Lisa and Matt with the bird ~

Our buffet line

The chefs with our labor of love ~

Dig in! I love how Lisa and Matt are the only ones who could pull themselves out of their plates to smile for the camera! :)

Even Micah was a huge fan of the meal! I have NEVER seen this kid eat so much! And usually, whenever I give him meat of any kind, he puts it in his mouth and promptly spits it right back out again. Not this time! Our turkey was delicious!! :)

"Get your own, Luke!" ;)

Luke had just woken up from his nap as the food was being put out, so he wasn't too interested in eating right away. Eventually he did sit with Lisa and eat a bit, but before too long had to get up again and play with Micah.

Mmmmmm

After dinner playtime. No tryptophan sleepies for these guys!

The boys were gracious enough to clean up the dishes afterwards... check Lisa's blog for pictures of Luke and Micah "helping" too :)

Relaxing after a job well done

Later that night, some friends of Lisa and Matt's stopped by with an apple pie for dessert. Add that to the peppermint chocolate chip cheesecake Luke helped me make, and we were in sugar heaven! :)

Micah sitting with Suzanne... Matt, Mike and Mike's son, Carter are at the table in back.

Luke and Carter playing

I think this Thanksgiving gets the prize, in my book, for my favorite Thanksgiving to date. It was so much fun making up a menu, preparing everything, and doing it all with my sister! We missed the rest of our families back home, of course, but had a wonderful time just the same. Let's do this again next year! ;)