thanksgiving

Last night Mark and I hosted a small early Thanksgiving Dinner. This year we are spending the holiday in Los Angeles at his sister's house but I had been itching to host one of my own. We invited our Pastor and his wife (a dear, dear friend of mine) and another couple from our church that happens to have the same last name as ours.

Everything turned out very good,  I was so glad to see our guests (and Mark) going for seconds and in some cases, thirds! There were barely any leftovers even though I cooked lots of food. Oh Joy!

I wanted to take pictures of the food as it came out of the oven, but cooking, serving, entertaining AND taking pictures is more than I can handle and I did not want the food to get cold. Today I took pictures of the leftovers, so I could have at least a little bit of it registered and recorded.

The Menu:

Green Beans and Pine Nuts

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Sausage and Chestnuts Stuffing (I roasted chestnuts for the first time!)

Deep Fried Turkey (we got an indoor fryer and loved it)

Gravy (I used the Williams-Sonoma  Turkey Gravy Base, awesome stuff!)

Cranberry Sauce ( I made a basic recipe and added orange zest)

Our foyer decoration.

Each guest had a different thanksgiving card. They were:

We give thanks for friends

We give thanks for family

We give thanks for provision

We give thanks for our health

We give thanks for Salvation

We give thanks for today 

 Our coffee table decoration.