Our third annual Friendsgiving with the Erpelding family was hosted at our house this year! Our two families were joined by Great Grandpa, Sheela’s mom, who was visiting from Richmond, VA and Sheela’s best friend from Richmond but who now lives in Japan with her family came into town last minute to spend time with Sheela, so we had them over too! With 20 of us, it was a full house! The older kids were awesome helping with the little ones and we split who was responsible for which dish, so with all that team effort, it was a relatively easy-going Thanksgiving!
Ready to go before the feast begins.
We brined the turkey in a huge bucket of salt water and spices two days before, patted it dry and let is sit overnight in the fridge and then roasted it for a few hours on Thanksgiving. The result was a juicy, tender and crispy on the outside turkey that everyone gobbled up.
Our friend, Michael, has a wet stone for knife sharpening and graciously agreed to sharpen all of our knives prior to Thanksgiving. Our super sharp knives felt like brand-new!
The Erpeldings brought a delicious honey-baked ham, yummy green bean casserole, yummy marshmallow sweet potato casserole, their traditionaly yummy sauerkraut, and yummy pumpkin and pecan pies. We contributed the turkey, rolls, pecan-crusted sweet potato casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce, mini pumpkin pie desserts for the kids and homemade apple pie from the girls’ school’s fundraiser. We all had leftovers for days! Everything was homemade, but if I had to do it over again, I would definitely outsource the rolls… no matter how many times I try them, I am not a good bread/roll maker! We were in luck that the weather was unusually warm this Thanksgiving and was 85 degrees in the afternoon! The kids worked on crafts before dinner and because they seemed content playing outside, the adults went ahead and started eating first, inside.
Halfway through our dinner, the kids all decided they were hungry, so we took a little break to dish everyone up and let them loose outside where they feasted at their kids’ tables. Meredith sat inside on Sheela’s lap and ate, along with Ulala’s adorable baby, Emi, in the high chair.
Samantha and Owen dine together.
Lily put together a fun montage of photos she took, which was great since I was so busy hosting that I didn’t get any pictures! The Musicaly app she uses has a time limit, so you have to pause to look at all the pictures closely!
After dinner, the kids partied in the hot tub and pool. I’m sure our neighbors were wondering what kind of raucous Thanksgiving we were having!
I was in the kitchen getting out the desserts, when all of a sudden, I heard a loud chorus of “Pie! Pie! Pie!” coming from outside. Apparently, the kids were out of the pool and ready for dessert!
Samantha, Sheela, Amelia, Avery and Meredith
Great Grandpa and Meredith with their tummies full!
Our biggest ever Friendsgiving was a huge success thanks to everyone’s team work. We’re thankful to have such great family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving!
Lots of love,
