Helping Grandma Prepare A Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving 2010 was a grand affair.  Two days of preparation.  We had to wait until Katie's flight brought her into town before sitting down for the big dinner.  She had a 12 hour shift at the hospital that started on Thanksgiving "eve", then had to get home and sleep a few hours and then get on a plane to get to Grandma's house in time for the feast.  The day before Thanksgiving, Grandma got busy making her chicken and dumplings......

The morning of Thanksgiving, we had a huge bowl of romaine/grape/broccoli salad to make.  Slicing the grapes in half was assigned to......

she could talk to family on the phone and slice grapes at the same time!   Pecan pie making was next on the list......

I had Grandma's old cookbook as a guide and we were busy crushing pecans and mixing ingredients....

Another job Grandma could do sitting down was pull all the ham off the bone....

We assigned peeling potatoes to Pappaw.......

Grandma seasoned the turkey once we got it in the cooking bag......

Grandma and Judy worked on the homemade rolls that everyone loves......

and Grandma sat at the dining room table with me and we made the green bean bundles together.......

Luann helped Grandma with the gravy......

and Steve carved the two turkeys.  A fried turkey and a traditional turkey.......

along with all the foods above we had pistachio salad, Waldorf salad, celery with cream cheese and pineapple, pickles, olives, cornbread dressing, broccoli rice casserole, sweet potatoes, little smokies and meatballs in the crock pot, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, chocolate pie and I'm sure a few more things I can't remember.  It was a grand feast.   A special celebration with family.  A house full of laughter, story telling, football games (on t.v. and in the front yard), chicken foot dominoes at the dining room table, watching home videos and playing Nintendo games.  Good times enjoyed by all !