Thanksgiving 2009

This Thanksgiving Day was definitely different than last year's. Joe and I and the furry kids rolled into Casper on Thanksgiving Day and ate our dinner at the local Hometown Buffet about 45 minutes before they closed. Can't say anything nice about that dinner.

This year we didn't go to Utah and dine with the kids as it was the Hatch's time for Thanksgiving. And, we had invited the sister missionaries to eat with us a few weeks ago. Then we started adding people that we knew probably wouldn't have a place to eat a nice Thanksgiving dinner.

There was Bill (l) who has been very kind and shuttled Joe around to appointments while I was at work. Susie (r) is a single mother who came along with her son and one of his friends.

Tiana came with her little baby, Matthew and Joe and Sister Merrill and Sister Lyman.

Our menu consisted of a 22 lb. turkey (cost of $6.88) that was cooked perfectly by Joe, peas, corn, cranberry sauce, little smokies brought by Susie, rolls with homemade apricot jelly and choke cherry jelly made by Trina...

Oyster dressing and some other dish brought by Bill, sweet potato souffle, giblet gravy and I made a homemade cornbread dressing for the first time and LOVED it. For dessert we had pumpkin pie - one baked by Trina and one baked by the sisters, Peanut Pudding Cake and a Pumpkin/Spice Cake Trifle supplied by Jill Shire. Steve showed up that morning unexpectly with the trifle as a gift to us.

Yes, I'm proud of my dressing. I made the cornbread the night before, then crumbled it up and made it based on the recipe of the dressing made at The Wishbone in Tifton. I called them and begged for their recipe. I only was only given the ingredients - not amounts.

So, we had a houseful since our little house isn't so big. Everyone showed up around 2:00 and everyone left around 5:30. Quite a difference from last year.