Thanksgiving 2014

We hosted Thanksgiving again this year but we had more family than last year! We had almost all of David's family. His older sister, Annie, and her family visited before Thanksgiving and weren't there for the actual holiday, and David's little brother, Scott, is still on his mission in Minnesota. We missed Scotty!

It was great having so much family around! It always is :). We made a lot of food and probably ate more than we should have... we played a lot of games and celebrated with some festivities. We read through the Thanksgiving story and had some fun Thanksgiving snacks (thanks to Pinterest).

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/originals/6c/f4/04/6cf40482a0bf56095e42b0974f7be049.jpg

http://meaningfulmama.com/2013/11/turkey-treats.html

http://www.thecasualcraftlete.com/2013/11/24/frugal-crafty-home-blog-hop-51/
Ours wasn't quite as pretty... We peeled more apples than needed for our apple pies so we used those. It was not as colorful.

Our feast consisted of homemade mashed potatoes, rolls, green bean casserole, turkey, gravy, sweet potato casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, and coconut cream pie bars. Needless to say it was all delicious and we had more than enough food. We ate our Thanksgiving meal for lunch so we munched on leftovers for snacks and dinner.

This was my first time making coconut cream pie bars. And they are worth the effort! They were a big hit. I will definitely be making them again. Recipe from Willow Bird Baking.

David requested my mom's blue-ribbon apple pie. My mom makes delicious apple pies! We have missed her pie! But we came out with some great apple pies this year. Kate and Janet, two of my sister-in-laws, helped make the pie crust the night before Thanksgiving. The next day my mother-in-law joined the fun of assembling the apple pies. They got crafty :). Janet made a polk-a-doted top crust and my mother-in-law made a latticed top crust. They looked great and tasted even better. It is always fun to make things with others :).

We all put leaves on our Thankful tree. It sure makes a beautiful tree when we all reflect upon our blessings :).

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the park and had some more fun!

It was truly a marvelous holiday!