Our Thanksgiving

It just seemed like this year's Thanksgiving has been the best one yet. One of the main reasons, I'm sure, was because we had parents with us to share and celebrate it with. Another factor that played into the stress free, peaceful, and charming Thanksgiving day was that most of the food was planned and prepared ahead of time. Yeay! I so love stress-free holidays and although it seems hard to do, I think I'm getting a hang of it.

So without further a-do, here is our home-made Thanksgiving table decor and festivities. I loved and appreciated the Thankful Tree, Ella's beautiful table tents and turkey card more than any store-bought decor, just because they mean so much more than just pretty decorations. Our hearts and talents (well, Ella's) are in them and that's worth more than anything to me.

Per Ella, we had an extra set of everything for a "guest" which she decided was going to be Jesus or Heavenly Father. And I agree, they should always have a honored spot at our table.

A closer look at the precious table tents:

(They each had a "seasonal" drawing on it, such as deer, turkey, bird, donkey with bandana, and a ... gun! Go figure, you need one if you're going hunting! :)
We ditched the traditional pumpkin pie and made marble cake for dad's birthday! It was delicious!!

(and no, we didn't start with cake!! ;))

We first had some yummy appetizers:

(Anchovies/sardines spread on French bread, soy cheese/cherry tomatoes/kalamata olives, spinach and tofu puffs, radish salad, grapes and apple slices.)

And then we moved on to deer tenderloin and pork chops (dad's favorites), with a side of green beans casserole (which was "enhanced" with bell peppers and portabella mushrooms), and Hrishi's yummy sweet potatoes. Simple meal but delicious and pretty easy on our stomachs.

Since we went for quite an untraditional Thanksgiving this year in the "meat" department, Ella was a bit dissapointed! She was really hoping to see a big plump turkey on the table. To ease her angst over this, I made a quick trip to the local grocery store and was lucky to find a AWESOMELY DELICIOUS turkey leg (a humongous one too!)

Here she is, enjoying the spoil. These speak for themselves for how pleased she was:

After the feast we took advantage of the nice weather and stepped outside for a walk in one of our nearby favorite spots:

                               Two happy couples!! :)

Then we came back and watched "Secretariat" We absolutely loved it!!!! It just seems that all horse movies are great! :)

And top it all off, we took a stroll in the historic downtown Grapevine to see the beautiful Christmas lights.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!