Thanksgiving Recap

This was the 5th year that I hosted Thanksgiving at our house and I have to say, hands down it was the best and easiest year ever! I guess you learn a thing or two over the years. This was however, the first year that I did the turkey (RIP Bob! What? You don't name your turkey?) because we usually deep fry them and anyone who knows me is aware that I shouldn't be let near anything that could explode/catch the house on fire! 


And my favorite hosting tips of the year include:

• Cleaning my whole house a few days ahead of time, I'm sure y'all are thinking "DUH" but for some reason I usually wait until the last minute
• Make your mashed potatoes and then throw them in the crock pot on warm. No one likes cold mashed taters! 
• While you are at it, throw your Paula Deen ham in the biggest crock pot you can find. This clears up so much oven space and keeps the ham nice and juicy! (Don't forget to keep basting it! And put the crunchy glaze on last!) 
• Enlist help. I have a VERY HARD TIME asking for help with entertaining. So instead I put all of my relatives to work "watching" Trey and keeping him out of the kitchen (thank goodness for childproofing the oven with locks recently) this kept me free to cook and JD free for whatever crazy task I have in my mind at that current moment
• Send as much food as you possibly can home with relatives. This year we were headed out of town so it was an easy one for us but usually I end up throwing so much food away because JD and I can't eat it all or just get sick of it. This year I made sure I was stocked up on paper plates, press n seal and containers that I didn't want back so that we could find homes for the rest of the food. 

 I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because it was such a busy and quick day - but here are some!! 

What a difference a year makes!!