Post Thanksgiving Thankfulness

I can't believe Thanksgiving has come and gone already. This Thanksgiving was the first one we have ever had for the family. For 30 years we have gone to New Jersey to spend it with Jim's family. Unfortunately Jim's dad passed away in June so we thought it would be nice to host it here as all the memories there could prove to be to much this year. Hence,  I think we may have started a new tradition!

We ended up having 18 people for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a unseasonably warm day with the temps in the upper 50's, which almost never happens in Pa. I personally think its way to warm for Thanksgiving, but the kids enjoyed it as they played outside most of the day.

We ate RIGHT ON TIME which also almost never happens!  It helped that for the first time I used a roaster oven that freed up the oven so I could cook all the sides at the same time. I have to say the turkey was delicious. I will be using the roaster oven again for the christmas turkey!

I also prepared all the sides the day before that way, what needed to be cooked I just had to stick in the oven. I used the crockpot this year for the mashed potatoes and WOW how easy it was and they were delicious to boot!

So our menu changed so many times but the final menu was...
Turkey
mashed potatoes
green bean casserole
scalloped potatoes
sweet potato casserole
cranberry sauce
cranberry fluff
stuffing
corn
applesauce
asparagus

We had the adults sit in the dining room and the kids at another table in the hallway that is connected to the dining room. Taylor and Savanna made place cards that way there was NO fighting over seats or who is sitting at which table which has happened on more than one occasion.

We also had quite the dessert spread!Pies, breads, cakes and rolls, YUM!

It was a great Thanksgiving celebrating with family and some friends. Everyone left by Saturday evening and we cleaned up. It's amazing how dirty a house can get with 16 people staying under one roof!!!! 

Since everyone was gone I began taking all the fall decorations down on Sunday. It's quite a task being that I have probably as many fall decorations as most people have Christmas! When that was done I made a new huge Christmas wreath for over my fireplace. Again, I saw one that I loved in a magazine and decided to make it as the old one I had was to small for the space. Here's the end result! 

I have no idea exactly how many ornaments I used, I lost count around 100. I love how it turned out and can't wait to put it up in a week or so.

So that's what I did over this holiday weekend, what did you do?