Thanksgiving 2009

In a moment of insanity I said I would host Thanksgiving for my family of 33. And in retrospect, I'm so glad I did! Josh got to cook the turkey trying his hand at an outdoor pit, I got to make myself crazy with preparations for a perfect Thanksgiving dinner (maybe I'd let that one go next time) and we discovered our little home could do it! Not without a bit of crowding, but then my family is big...we're a crowd wherever we are.

I hope they all enjoyed it as much as I did!

Maddy, Faith, Emma and Ellie...cute girls or what?!

The extent of my creativity comes in the form of plagiarizing other people's brilliant ideas. This one comes from my friend Shawni. I loved it! Thanks, Shawni!

Notice a bit of role reversal? I tried to tell Josh that "MOM" inside-out was still "MOM." But when it comes to these big events he might as well take the credit. His smoked turkey was a-maaa-zing! I'm not one for turkey ordinarily, but was all a gobble about this year's bird. A job well done to my honey.

Char can't get enough of her cuz, Preston. Of course he is the only one that will give her piece after piece of "gon" (gum).

The feast...or half of it anyway.

A little hanging out after stuffing our faces with turkey and not yet quite feeling the effects of the tryptophan.

I love that these cousins are all best buds.

And of course I love, love, love my Allred girls! Here we are in order from oldest to youngest even (left to right): Cassi, Mikki, Kristin, Bekki, Mom (a little out of order, but then probably younger in spirit than all of us put together) and me.

Thanks to Mik for being our Thanksgiving photographer!