Thanksgiving 2014

We headed to my parents' house in Alabama for Thanksgiving, and honestly, it all seems like a blur. We were in the middle of moving to NYC, and our stuff had already been picked up by the movers. We were also trying to solidify our lease for our new apartment, and Johnny and I were both stressed out of our minds. Our NYC apartment is a co-op, and the approval process was ridiculous. We had a phone interview while we were in Alabama, and money was leaving our bank account like no other.

On top of all that, Sally had the worst cough, and she wasn't sleeping well at night. When our baby girl is sick, Johnny and I are both a little more stressed out.

I will say this. We had some amazing food while we were there. We ate Southern barbecue, catfish, fried green tomatoes, and my mom's Thanksgiving feast can't be beat. We also had some scrumptious donuts from my parents' local bakery. We were very spoiled. And it gave us a chance to catch a breath before heading back to Utah, tying up loose ends, and moving to NY. It was great to be with my sister and parents for a few days, and I loved seeing Sally bond with all of them. That might have been the very best part.

Scenes from Thanksgiving 2013

Blogging about our lives has taken a backseat to life the last couple of months. I told myself I had until Sally turned one to get my you-know-what together. Right now Sally's entertaining herself by having a conversation with Siri on my phone, so I'll let you decide how I'm doing. But really, each month I think Johnny and I are getting the groove of parenting more and more. 

This was Sally's first Thanksgiving! We headed to Heber and celebrated with most of Johnny's family. Sally was the only baby in attendance, so she got lots of love. It took her about an hour to warm up to everyone, and then she was loving all of the attention! I brought my corn pudding and two pumpkin pies (with store-bought crust... shameful). Everyone's food was so yummy. While we waited for dessert, people went around and shared funny stories about Grandpa Tom. We were all laughing pretty hard, and it was a great way to remember him on Thanksgiving. Per the usual, Sally fell right to sleep in my arms at 7:00 and slept all the way home. 

It was a pretty darn perfect Thanksgiving. We feel so spoiled having so much family to celebrate the holidays with this year!

 my little Thanksgiving helper & Johnny's "salad" plate

 waiting for pie & enjoying the feast

Sally playing with Uncle Will & our tree sans decorations (while Johnny stresses over some sports game)

Our Christmas decorations are all up now, and hopefully I can share them soon (if I ever get caught up on all our other happenings!).

Thanksgiving 2012

We had a great Thanksgiving this year! Johnny and I were just going to spend Thanksgiving with each other again like we did last year since I don't want to travel far anymore. But my parents and 16-year-old sister, Lia, came up from Alabama, which made it so much more fun! My mom made half the meal, and I did the other half. All the food was super delicious, and Johnny and I enjoyed it for days afterward.

Last year I made the mistake of not making mashed potatoes, which is a staple for Johnny, so this year we made the Pioneer Woman's recipe, and it was quite delicious. Johnny did the hard part of peeling and cooking, and I just added the seasoning at the end!

My dad situated himself on the couch until dinner was ready...

It all came together quite nicely!

My mom, Lia, and I also made little turkeys for each place setting. The Twizzlers were supposed to be candy corn, but my mom couldn't find any at our grocery store. Therefore, our turkeys looked more like transformer turkeys.

Mmmmmmmm.

The cleanup crew! Have I mentioned that I love our dishwasher?

Afterward, we relaxed, napped, and just enjoyed our time together. It was a perfect holiday with some of my favorite people!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving was quite an exciting affair in the Galbraith household. Johnny and I had never celebrated Thanksgiving on our own, and I don't think we knew what we were getting ourselves into. I had the following items on the menu:

• turkey
• corn pudding
• rolls
• stuffing
• sweet potatoes
• side salad
• sparkling cider
• pie

On Thanksgiving day Johnny pointed out that we didn't have mashed potatoes and gravy on the menu, which I never had growing up, but apparently that is a staple for most families on Thanksgiving. Who knew?

In my head everything was going to work out just magically, but cooking that much stuff is kind of intense! I prepped the turkey at around noon and stuck it in the oven. The prepping process almost turned me vegetarian. For some reason I was freaking out about handling a dead bird, and Johnny was right over my shoulder telling me to calm down. Pulling the neck out was especially traumatizing. Handling the turkey was my least favorite part. We both concluded that if we had to kill our own food, we would live off nuts and berries.

When the turkey had about an hour left, I started making everything else. The dough for the rolls was rising in the bread machine, Johnny mixed up the stuffing and chopped up the sweet potatoes, and I made the corn pudding. The temperature inside our tiny apartment with everything cooking had to have been close to 80. It was SO hot. We were sweating and running around like crazy.

Johnny was in charge of carving the turkey, of course. I was done with that thing. We cooked it in a large disposable aluminum roasting pan, and as soon as Johnny began carving, the knife went through the bottom of the aluminum. Suddenly turkey juice was spilling all over the counter and floor. It was absolute chaos in our apartment for a few moments there.

By the time dinner rolled around, we were so exhausted and we had so much food. At one point, Johnny said, "Jo, this is enough food to feed my entire family." Our dinner was super yummy, and then we both crashed afterward for about an hour. When we woke up, we enjoyed pie and ice cream.

It was a wonderful day, and it gave me so much appreciation for all the moms who cook dinner for their families each year. I was so thankful that Johnny helped me the whole time. I couldn't have done it without him! Next year if we're alone again, we may simplify things a bit :)

Thanksgiving Day 2010

We spent Thanksgiving in the city this year with our friends the Koellings, Hardings, and Alexa.

Thursday morning Johnny and I headed to Central Park so he could participate in the church turkey bowl. While he played, I jogged around the reservoir in Central Park. We were both famished and exhausted by the time we made it home.

I went home a bit before Johnny so I could start making the rolls and corn pudding, which I tried to time perfectly so that they would be fresh out of the oven when we made our trek to the Koellings at 2:00pm.

All the girls split the cooking responsibilities, and it was so fun to converge with all our yummy food.

everyone else patiently waiting while the girls got the food ready

cranberry sauce and rolls

salad

turkey, gravy, yams, and stuffing

mashed potatoes and corn pudding

all the bakers!

sparkling cider!

Mmmm

pumpkin pie for dessert

After we ate, we all took a quiz to test our knowledge about Thanksgiving. I was kind of skeptical of doing such a thing (52 questions!), but it ended up being a lot of fun!

Thanksgiving quiz

After the quiz, we played Catch Phrase, which was super entertaining, and then we all just talked and had a good time together.

playing Catch Phrase

don't know what to say about us...

Overall, this Thanksgiving will probably end up being one of our most memorable!