Thanksgiving with the Family

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun.  We  took off  on Wednesday to Atlanta for 3 days with my family.

I love celebrating the holidays with a lot of family around and this year we did that, with extended family at my cousin, Brenda’s house (I think there were 17 of us).  She lives in Suwanee over in Atlanta, so we all drove over there for the day.  They moved into their new house over a year ago and this was the first time I had been there.  It sits on a bluff overlooking the Chattahoochee River and it was a beautiful, sunny day and we really had a great time.   My cousin, Brenda and her mom, Aunt Mary were cooking up a feast when we arrived.  The men were cutting up the turkey in the background.

My dad, Uncle Eugene (mom’s brother), and my mom waited at the breakfast table and caught up.  We haven’t all been together in awhile, so it was a great day of visiting with family.  Mom brought several dishes too, so we had a huge feast.  Me, I got off the hook and didn’t have to bring a thing.  🙂 But, nothing was left out, there was SO much food.

Brenda’s daughter, Denise, chatted with my niece, Lauren, on the right.

And we all love to take pics, so used the opportunity to get some new pics of the first cousins, Howard, me, and Brenda.  We always have a blast when we’re together, laughing at lots of old memories and this time was no exception.

Lauren brought her new boyfriend, Phillip, who she graduated with from law school.  He practices law in his native city of New Orleans.

Did you eat as much as we did??

Oh my gosh, it was SO good.  I think we decided that this year we had more food than ever before on a Thanksgiving Day and did we enjoy it?!  I have to say,  I was pretty  miserable at the end of the day, but it sure was good.  I could not eat like this every day, that’s for sure.  Back to the gym for me tomorrow. 🙂

I think the above pic shows creamed corn, 2 kinds of greens, turnips and collards, rutabagas, fresh green beans with potatoes, and of course, the sweet potato casserole with brown sugar and pecan topping.  That’s ALWAYS on the Thanksgiving menu.

There was ham and fried turkey (2 of them).  We LOVE, LOVE fried turkey.

Pineapple casserole and potato salad.

Pineapple Cheese Casserole

2 sticks butter or margarine

2 large cans chunk pineapple

2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup each, sugar and flour, mixed together

Crushed Ritz crackers

Layer 1 can pineapple on bottom of round baking dish. Top with 1 cup cheese, 1/2 of the sugar and flour, 1 stick melted butter.  Add another layer of pineapple, sugar and flour and melted butter.  Top with crushed crackers. Bake @ 350* until brown, around 1 hour.  Eat and enjoy!

Squash casserole and more greens (we had 3 kinds of fresh greens) and to the right, hash brown casserole.  We like our greens in the South. 🙂

And can you believe I missed pics of ALL the desserts, but this one. This was one my mom made, a turtle cheesecake.

So, I hope that you and your family had a wonderful time together too.  It was great to just relax, get away for a few days and be with those I love.  And being unplugged from the computer for a few days was relaxing too.

We did help Alabama win the big Iron Bowl game against Auburn by cheering for them.   Whewwww, that was a close one, but we pulled it off.

And on Friday, we didn’t do the Black Friday thing (I refuse to get in that madhouse), but I did sneak over to the Ballard’s outlet in Roswell, so I’ll show you that trip in another post.  I found a really pretty lighted tabletop tree in an urn, which I can’t wait to find a spot for.  It’s time for me to finish up my Christmas decorating and relax a bit and enjoy the season to the fullest.  We are having a little party at our house this year and I’m excited that we are having company.  If you go to the trouble of all that decorating, you might as well have people over to enjoy it,  I say!

My sister’s house is ALL decked out for Christmas too, so I took lots of pics and will share that as well.  You will love it!