Chopped pecans for the pecan pie and the sweet potato casserole. I know now why my grandmother loves her pecan chopping machine so much.
Homemade rolls...rising.
Peeling potatoes for the mashed potatoes.
Making the dressing.
The dressing all put together. I think I put too much sage, though. :( I'll never be able to make it as well as my grandmother. She's awesome.
Heavenly mac and cheese with Velveeta (thanks, Jill) and cheddar. The cheddar is white because it's not American...it's from London.
The finished rolls.
Jeff and Jill's mashed potatoes.
Pumpkin and Pecan Pies.
The food...almost all ready.
We forgot to take pictures once all the food was on the table. We had so many other things going on (explained later in this post). O-well. Once dinner was over, we made some coffee and played a game while we ate dessert.
Serena had never heard of creamer. So, Jason made her three small cups of creamer and coffee, in addition to her regular cup of coffee, so that she could try each flavor.
Okay...here's the story of Thanksgiving this year. For those of you who aren't familiar with our apartment situation, we've had hot water heater issues for about a year now. We are constantly calling repairmen to come fix it. Recently, the button that is used to flush our toilet started being very finicky. Occasionally it will not flush and we have to use a bucket of water to flush the toilet.
Well, of course, the hot water heater went out the day after Jeff and Jill arrived. But, thankfully, we were able to find someone to come out and fix it on Saturday.
Then, the sink clogged up. It was still draining, just very slowly. Until the day before Thanksgiving. It would not drain at all. We tried three bottles of Mr. Muscolo (like Drain-O). Jason tried using a plunger. Nothing seemed to work.
So Jason called a handyman that he knew. He said he would come the next day (Thanksgiving). We expected him to come in the morning or maybe even around noon, thinking he'd definitely want to be finished by 5pm. But...they didn't even arrive until 5:30pm on Thanksgiving day. Oh my! So, we were not able to wash any dishes as we were preparing food and getting everything together.
Then, the handymen could not find the problem. So they were looking desperately for another way into the plumbing system of the apartment. So, we moved furniture in the living room and the washing machine in the bathroom and still found nothing. Then, he wanted to look behind our "pantry." So....while we were still trying to get everything cooked and together for Thanksgiving dinner, we had to move everything out of the pantry and onto the table (because all the dirty dishes were taking up the entire counter space) so that they could see behind our pantry.
Jeff was in charge of organizing the stuff on the table.
All our food on the table.
Things ended up fine. The handymen were still here when Serena arrived for dinner. But they finally left before we started dinner. They were never able to fix the problem. And they left a huge mess in the kitchen and the bathroom. It was disgusting. :(
Then, the next morning, I tried to wash a load of clothes. I was sitting in the living room when the washing machine started making a very strange noise. I ran into the bathroom to see what was going on and water was rushing out from under the washing machine. Seriously??? We laid towels down to soak up the water and then realized what had caused it. The "repair" men had unplugged the drain of the washing machine and never plugged it back in. Goodness gracious. We can't win for losing here.
Nonetheless, I'm so thankful to have my sister (and brother-in-law) here for Thanksgiving this year. :D
