A Virginia Thanksgiving

I never planned to put on my own Thanksgiving feast--at least, not for a LONG time. Thanksgiving is the ultimate family holiday, and I thought we would celebrate it with one side of the family or another at least until we became grandparents! Moving to Virginia changed all that. There was no way we could turn around 3 weeks after arriving and fly to Utah. So, I tackled the preparation of a Thanksgiving feast on my own this year for the very first time.

Luckily for us, Thanksgiving was not lonely, even though we were away from family. Our awesome friends, Kirk and Jamie, came all the way from Boston (braving horrendous traffic which turned a 7 hour drive into a 12 hour drive) to spend the holiday with us. Jamie did a great sum-up of their visit on her blog, complete with pictures, so click here to check it out. We had a great time with them and were sad to see them go, even though we had to spend a few days recovering from what we fondly refer to as a "Carpenter Hangover" (a combination of lots of food, laughing, and sleep deprivation). The food turned out pretty well. The stuffing had a little too much sage, but otherwise was better than expected. And I made my first attempt at cheesecake, which turned out much better than expected. Oh, how I love holidays that involve lots of food! I had more fun putting the meal together than I had anticipated.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!