Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  A glorious Fall holiday totally devoted to food, family and counting our blessings.  Our sister Allison & her husband Mike have been hosting our family Thanksgiving dinner for the last few years and we always look forward it.  It's the perfect way to kick off our holiday season!

This year we planned to eat dinner a little later which meant we had plenty of room for appetizers & mimosas!

It was such a beautiful day, everyone enjoyed posing for pictures and playing outside!

This year's Thanksgiving was extra special because my Dad & Karen were here to join us.  This was the first Thanksgiving I have spent with my Dad in 12 years and the first I have ever shared with my Step Mom.  They also brought their new puppy Teddy.

More appetizers.... my first attempt at homemade baked spinach dip turned out good!

The cousins had all kinds of fun together... outside & inside!

Dad Schuth ate his turkey giblets and Mom Schuth made our famous sausage stuffing... us Chicagoans like our sausage.

Teddy Bear... so cute!

Uncle Mike & Cam have a ball together!

Ah the simple things in life... Mikayla & Cam stopped to smell the flowers.

The sun sets so early now, the turkey was just coming out of the oven inside when I caught this.  The cloud colors were beautiful but I love how the sun is peeking through the trees.  It was a nice way to end the day and take on the night!

Grandpa Schuth always does the carving... unfortunately, I have no pictures past the carving because all I could think about was eating dinner!  Everything was delicious... and so was dessert, props again to my bro-in-law Mike who made the most awesome pumpkin cheesecake.  I wish I had a piece right now.

After dinner Mikayla & Cam took a bath together... :)

And can you believe it?  My husband actually helped clean up the kitchen.  Excuse his profane finger gesture, it's only because everyone was giving him a hard time.  *sigh* It was a great Thanksgiving... most of us stayed the night too!  We ended the night with some Schuth home movies and some more drinks.  Friday's agenda?  Christmas trees and a visit with Mike's Grandma.