The Year My Brother Brought a No-Bake Cheesecake to the Gourmet Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving 2010 was incredible! We had delicious eats, and wonderful company. In years past, we have had random friends or extended family members join us at our table, but this year, it was strictly immediate family.

Some things are always the same: My husband makes his secret-recipe cheese ball, a 2 pound box of Sees Candy is offered with the Horse devours, at least one of the children is sick with a fever, Jenni is thankful for another year of marriage, Anna sobs during her speech, and my brother ALWAYS finds something to complain about.

Some things are always different: the menu.

This year I made...

Cider Bourbon-Glazed Roast Turkey with Shallot Gravy. I tried a new brine this year, and as usual, the turkey was perfectly moist!




Cheddar Bacon Biscuits. The interesting thing about this recipe is, is that you discard a little bit of the bacon grease, and then you baked the biscuits in the same pan that you fried the bacon in. They were incredible straight from the oven!




Sausage-Leek Cornbread Stuffing. Two Words: "YUM.ME."




My mom made our traditional family recipe of stuffing, and then she stuffed it in baked squash. So beautiful!




My Dad made some AMAZING Glazed Baby Carrots.




And my sister Jenni made Buttermilk Chive Mashed Potatoes. They are by far the best mashed potatoes I have EVER tasted!




For dessert, my mom made some pumpkin ice cream from scratch, I made a delicious chocolate pecan pie, my brother surprised us with a no-bake cheesecake, Jenni made a pumpkin pie, and my brother-in-law, shout-out to Desmon!, brought The World's Largest Gummy Worm to share. Somehow, the pumpkin and pecan pies were WAY overshadowed by the other options...people don't know good food when it's staring them in the face!








More pictures from our holiday...










In addition to all of the predictable things, this year I am thankful for the HOPE that 2011 brings. Next year should be an amazing year. This past year has been a season of working (figuratively and literally), and 2011 SHOULD be the year of harvesting the fruits of our labor. We SHOULD be 100% debt free by the end of April. I SHOULD be done working (my paid job, that is) by the end of April. After not traveling on an airplane in over 5 years, I SHOULD be going on two airplane required vacations next year. I SHOULD participate in a 10K, half marathon, and full marathon next year. And assuming I don't die in the next 50 days, I WILL turn 30 years old, and celebrate my birthday at a party I have been planning for almost a year! Hooray for 2011! (Geesh, what will I have to post about on January 1st!?)