My 1st Thanksgiving Dinner

This year will be the first time to make and host Thanksgiving dinner. My mom, brothers, sister-in-laws, and nephews will all be here (just on my side). We are having Thanksgiving dinner with DJ's family on Thursday. My dinner will be this weekend. My oldest brother, Brandon, and I came up with the idea of potluck Thanksgiving. I will be making the turkey, dressing, corn, gravy, mac n' cheese, pecan pie, chocolate pie, apple caramel cheese pie, and banana pudding. Brandon is bringing ingredients to make mashed potatoes (to make at my house so they will be warm), deviled eggs, rolls, broccoli n' cheese casserole, pumpkin pie, cherry pie. My mom and youngest brother, Taylor, are bringing green bean casserole, vegetable tray and fruit tray for snacking. Then my middle brother, Matt, is bringing drinks and the cranberry sauce. I am really excited about all the food we are having. It may seem like a lot, and it is! But this is exactly how it used to be when I was growing up. The only thing that is missing is my Texas family. We used to have the WHOLE family at my grandmothers and she would spend all day cooking and my cousins and I would spend the whole day playing outside and stuffing our face and watching football. It was great! Banana pudding was her specialty! It isn't Thanksgiving without it.

Yesterday I started getting my list of ingredients together. There were several things I already had on hand, but I still ended up with a large list for the grocery store! I figured today wouldn't be too bad at the store. I went at 10 am. It was packed! I guess everyone else had the same idea! I was lucky enough to get everything on my list I needed. I even got fresh sage! It was the last package too! I have my schedule made out and I am ready.

I made the brine for my turkeys today. I am so excited about my turkey. In the past I have failed at making turkey. I didn't thaw it all the way through and parts of it ended up raw. But this time I have started thawing the turkey early and so we shouldn't have the same mistake! I am making two turkeys. A few weeks back, the stores had 14-17 lb turkeys on sale for 50 cents a pound. I bought two since they were small and I will make one the day before and one the day of. This way we will have enough to eat the day of and for sandwiches later on! I will try to keep you all posted though out the week on my preparations for the big feast!