Our First Thanksgiving

and I had the day off.....it was lovely.

We were very excited to celebrate our first Thanksgiving in America and very lucky we had family here too celebrate it with as Grannie & Grandad are visiting.

Mr C & Grannie got the preparations started on the eve of Thanksgiving, with Mr C making the Cranberry Sauce and preparing the "pigs in blankets" also known as chipolata sausages wrapped in bacon and Grannie made the homemade stuffing.

Mr C's homemade Cranberry sauce with the "special" ingredient

Grannie's Homemade Stuffing

The day of Thanksgiving started well we had a lovely family breakfast of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon along with Bucks Fizz (or as the Americans call them Mimosa) and cups of tea. After clearing away the breakfast table Grannie picked a jigsaw for us all to do, Mr C, Grannie, Grandad and the girls got stuck into the jigsaw whilst I got stuck into some online shopping and hit the Black Friday online sales, there were lots of bargains to be had and I did nearly all of my Christmas shopping at Macy's online within a couple of hours - result.

Grannie & Grandad enjoying a Mimosa

Mr C, Grannie & Grandad got on with preparing the lunch/dinner whilst still doing the jigsaw, the girls and I did a bit of Lego Friends building and it wasn't long before it was lunch/dinner time and we were about to enjoy our first Thanksgiving dinner - Turkey and all the trimmings - it was absolutely divine.

The "Bootiful" Turkey

Yummy yummy sausages

During our lunch we also had a special "Thankerchief"- made by Tilly at her pre-school with a set of instructions that read How To Use The Thankerchief - Everyone who is gathered for your holiday celebration will get a turn to hold the "Thankerchief" and share with the others the things for which they are most thankful.  We thought this was such a lovely idea that after our meal, starting with Tilly, we gave thanks for the things we are most thankful for. It was a special moment.

Tilly's Thankerchief

With our bellies full we retreated to the lounge to watch a family movie - Grandad picked a great movie Home Alone - set here in Chicago and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Whilst watching the movie Mr C set about making a Pumpkin Pie for dessert and after the movie we certainly enjoyed eating it with ice-cream.

Pumpkin Pie fresh out of the oven

Pumpkin Pie ready for eating

We had such a lovely family day it almost felt like Christmas Day, but without the presents and bonus we get to do it all over again in just over a month with presents this time.

And that was our first Thanksgiving in America and I like to think we did it in true American(British/Australian) style.