Thanksgiving 2011

We hosted Thanksgiving again for the fourth year in a row.  This is actually a very selfish thing for me.  Can I just say that there is nothing better than leftover turkey and stuffing sandwiches.  As well as the world famous (okay, maybe just in my world) turkey rolls.  I claim Thanksgiving before anyone else does simply because I want claim to the leftovers.
And if you haven't had them before, you need to try turkey rolls.  Which can be made with chicken, but it isn't nearly as good.
Mix shredded leftover turkey with cream cheese.
Take thawed roll dough.  Flatten out, fill center with cream cheese turkey mixture, and seal roll around the filling.
Dip in mixture of 1cup melted butter mixed with a dry ranch dressing packet. 
Bake until rolls are no longer doughy.
Make a gravy using leftover butter ranch mix, cornstarch or flour, bouillon if needed for taste, and of course, water.
As for Thanksgiving itself... what's wrong with these pictures?

Yes, that would be the men of the family being completely obsessed with the black Friday ads.  While the women couldn't care less.  We played board games with kiddos.

The man and I were quite certain that although last year, being the first year either of us had ever gone black Friday shopping, turned out to be a fun experience, we weren't necessarily prone to do it again.  Until the man spent the entire evening flipping through ads, circling things with a sharpie. 
We survived 10:00 Walmart, and Midnight at Shopko, and 5:00 Lowe's.  I find it impressive that we're 90% finished with our shopping for our circus when we hadn't previously even started.  I think I would call that a black Friday success.  And it was fun to boot.  Although, come to find out, most everything is fun with the man, no matter what it is that we're doing.

I loved being surrounded by my family.  We had both of the man's parents there, his sister and her boyfriend, one set of my parentals, and my brother and his family. We didn't have my part of the circus as I was nice and traded my ex Thanksgiving for Christmas.  His entire family (including two out of state sisters) were in town and they wanted to do a large family picture.  So our Thanksgiving only added up to 14 people, but that's about our comfortable limit for the dining room.  If we hit many more than that we'll have to take it to our open basement.  I think Julie-mom brought the best veggie dip I've ever tasted, and we had pies galore.  In fact, we've eaten pie for all three meals for the past three days.  I kid you not.  The circus is in heaven over it. 

I love that on Thanksgiving my great grandma's china comes out.  And every time my Brent-dad sees it he says, "she would be really happy about how it's being used now."

This year was the first year that I made a pumpkin pie.  And a banana pie for that matter.  Usually I just do the chocolate and apple pies.  But as I made both the pumpkin and banana pies it was nostalgic.  I have some very dear memories of my Dick-dad making those pies every Thanksgiving.  And I felt a little bit of pride that I was following in his footsteps with the pie making.

Thanksgiving is a time of reflection.  A time of tying generations together.  And with my great grandma's and my mom's china, and with my dad's pie making memories, I'm bringing my circus into a family of traditions.  They're not big traditions, but they're ours.