I was nervous about the turkey but thankfully, we borrowed our BIL & SIL's roaster which freed up the oven and Stephen attempted a smoked turkey - both turned out amazing!! I wanted to make sure everything was cooked on time and ready to eat shortly after everyone came over. Everyone laughed at me when I said I was going to make a cooking schedule utilizing a Gnatt chart but let me tell you, it worked like a charm and kept me on track!
Getting my first turkey ready - we bought a brine kit from Publix and it worked so well for the roasted turkey and Stephen made a custom brine for his smoked turkey breast. Stephen also thinks I look like Tupac with that bandana ;)
Even though we ordered a fresh turkey, it was still frozen so I broke out the hair dryer to melt the inside so I could get the neck out
I was really happy with how the tablescape turned out. I had a thick, plastic table cloth and paper leaf placemats which worked great since our niece was 2 - I didn't have to worry with anything getting ruined. I picked up a bunch of pumpkins on Halloween for dirt cheap at the local patch and left them in the fridge after soaking them for a few minutes in a bleach/water solution. I was really happy that they stayed fresh and I was able to use the small pumpkins as place cards.
We prepped everything the night before so that on Thanksgiving day, we had some time to sit on the couch, watch the parade and look through Black Friday ads - it was perfect. Everyone came over about an hour before we were supposed to eat so once everything was pulled out of the oven, we were good to go!
We didn't have any toys for Siena in the house so I grabbed her my old iPhone and she loved it!
When we pulled the turkey out and I saw the leg bones sticking out, I panicked thinking it was bad but thankfully, it was fine - just didn't look as pretty (and you can see my schedule on the counter on the right lol!!)
Stephen cutting his smoked turkey breast - next time, we'll get a full size!
Stephen's mom brought all of the pies!
After lunch, Siena took a nap while we cleaned up and watched some videos. It was a pretty rainy day but thankfully, it cleared up later in the afternoon so we went outside and played some football and corn hole.
After corn hole, Stephen, Lauren and I loaded up and hit a few stores nearby - we didn't find too many deals. My BIL & SIL headed home that night while my in-laws and little BIL stayed the night. The next morning, we had cinnamon rolls and chatted until it was time for leftovers for lunch.
After lunch, Stephen and I headed out to the outlets while my in-laws headed home. I found a ton of great things at J Crew as well as some other little items we had gone in for. If you didn't see on social media, we were stuck in the parking garage for 1 hour and 45 minutes... and there was no earthly reason why we were stuck!! It super sucked but let's be real, it could've been way worse - we could have a screaming baby in the back and have bad attitudes lol After getting home, we did another big house clean to get ready for Christmas decorations!
Stephen's now having fun and making faces in my mirror pictures
It was a great Thanksgiving and I'm so glad we were able to have Stephen's family over (and it went really well lol). Although, I don't think we'll be hosting for quite some time haha! Linking up with Annie
