What is Thanksgiving about?

It's about lots of things. Family, friends, laughter, a time to come together and, well, lets face it, it's about food. Good food too. Food that makes you want to lay down and take a nap after, food that violates almost every diet, plates that show know signs of portion control. Can we all just be honest about it.
This year my parents were in town visiting our house. It was just going to be us. My mom. My Dad. My husband. My 5 kids. That is it.
It was such a nice day. No worries about what time our house had to be clean. No worries about what time food had to be on the table. No worries about what to wear. It was a nice relaxing day. And the menu, the menu was long, it was thought out. we had every ones favorites. We had (way) more than we needed. We ate good!
Turkey- 1 deep fried in peanut oil, 1 roasted in the oven, Green Bean casserole, Butternut Squash Puree, Mashed Taters, Stuffing, Gravy, Cranberry sauce and dessert. Pumpkin Cheesecake and Marion berry Pie. My Oh My were we thankful for great food on Thanksgiving.
A little back story about my first Thanksgiving married. We cooked, just Adam and I, a feast,

the works, just for the two of us. It was nice to be able to do all that on our own. On that table is my first Thanksgiving Cheesecake. I have made one almost every year since. Mainly because Adam wants me too, mainly because Adam likes the story of my first thanksgiving cheesecake, that I worked SO hard to make. As we pull it out of the fridge, to take a picture of every thing before we ate. I was devastated to see my cheesecake, drooping in the center, sad and ugly. I was not sure of what could have happened to that cheesecake. where did I go wrong? Adam then pulls out 3 packages of cream cheese from the fridge, right where I had left it, and asked if perhaps these were suppose to be in it. OH MY GOODNESS! I FORGOT THE MAIN INGREDIENT!
I have come a long way since that thanksgiving 8 years ago. I am a much better cook AND a much better baker. My husband should be so proud!


this years pumpkin cheesecake was much better





Daddy and Isabelle watching the fryer