First Adult Thanksgiving

I’m 28. And just experienced my first Thanksgiving as an adult. (This means that I cooked stuff. A significant amount of stuff)


Our menu included:

• Turkey, smoked. Supplied by Mrs. MHJ.  
• Fresh green beans. Snapped the morning of and simmered all morning in an attempt to get them to taste like Grandpa’s green beans
• Oyster dressing. This dish was risky, but turned out excellent. I figured we live in central Florida, why not have dressing with oysters? Plus, it is a Paula Deen recipe.  
• Sweet potato casserole. Aunt Karen’s recipe. Delicious.  
• Corn Salad. Mom’s recipe and a favorite of H and L.
• Hawaiian sweet rolls. Store bought.
• Pecan Pie. I think this was also a Paula Deen recipe; with bourbon.  
• Pumpkin pie. Supplied by Mrs. MHJ.

My fun in-laws gave us the honor of hosting Thanksgiving this year. We love having visitors! R got to take his dad skeet shooting and they installed some very classy looking chair railing in the nursery.  
 Mrs. MHJ helped me cook, introduced me to Brighton, and we had fun wandering around downtown.  

Shelby Ann quickly realized she was Mrs. MHJ’s favorite and took full advantage. (This is her begging/looking adorable for a snack)  


Things I learned:

• In central Florida, preparations for Thanksgiving include mowing, edging, and weed eating as well as last minute grocery store runs.
• Look at your menu list on the scrap paper before eating. The green beans we worked so hard to prepare were still simmering on the stove while we ate lunch, completely unaware that I had forgotten to serve them. And the sweet rolls are still in the top of the pantry, unopened.
• Turn the air down several degrees before you being cooking, yes, even at 9 am. (This may apply to central Florida only, considering it was in the high 70’s and we run the air year round)
• R is great at cleaning the kitchen. Just kidding….I already knew this.