Thanksgiving

So we hosted Thanksgiving this year - a week and a half after moving, and with Ryan being gone on work travel for a week of that time. But luckily my mom stayed with me for the week, ostensibly to help out with Josie but really she helped immensely with moving and unpacking stuff every day after work.  So we were in pretty good shape by time Ryan got back, with at least the main level of the new house being fairly well unpacked and organized.  And we probably should have been more stressed about Thanksgiving, but I'm thinking we were just numb to the stress by that point, given all the house stuff we've been going through.  Everyone brought food and drinks, and everything was delicious with no major calamities, so all in all it went very well.

The only real issues were that the turkey breast didn't get all the way cooked, since we had roasted it breast side down to maximize juiciness, but then struggled to get it to the right temperature without overcooking the dark meat.  We attempted to flip it over, but this 21-pound bird wasn't interested in cooperating and promptly split in half.  We ended up cutting off all the dark meat and just putting the breast back in for a while longer.  So here is the (still upside-down) turkey just before it was divided up:

Note in the above picture the skillet of spinach - that was one of the other bits that didn't go quite right, since we sauteed a whole bunch of spinach, to be accompanied by some whole roasted cloves of garlic... and then forgot all about it until we came across it while cleaning up after the meal. We still had plenty of food though, so it worked out fine - and I still ate all of it over the next week, so at least it wasn't wasted :)

[The spread]

We were fortunate enough to get to spend Thanksgiving with Ryan's parents, one of his sisters and her kids, my mom and aunt, my brother and sister-in-law, and even my dad and stepmom all the way from Michigan.

  

[About half of our guests, in our still pretty bare living room]

[My brother and sister-in-law]

[Josie, taking care of her offending barrette]

Josie was pretty much in her element: she was in her own space, surrounded by people who were willing to give her plenty of attention :)  So she had so much fun, alternating between being shy and yelling at people, and getting to play with her cousins.  She had started the day in a relatively well-coordinated outfit, but due to a leaky diaper and the discovery of a Halloween costume in the tubs of clothes Ryan's sister brought over for her, she ended up in rainbow-striped pants and butterfly wings.  Naturally :)

[Being shy with my aunt]

  

[Attempting to dribble/steal the ball from cousin Riley]