Thanksgiving in Review

The year of our Lord, 2010, the Pistilli children did their first Thanksgiving:

 

Eric had the rinse and prep the turkey.  He was hilarious! He knew what to expect inside, the girls, were not amused:

Meanwhile, Gabriel who loves my mom's cranberry sauce, learned how to make it himself! Notice his taped glasses? Poor thing, he has new glasses on order, but they came in and the prescription on them was wrong, and so we are "making do" with these, because he so needs them to well, uhm, see!!

It only boiled over once? lol, but it turned out so good!!  I was really proud of him! 

Next, the turkey needed some buttery up, and seasoning:

Do you see all the camera angles? My family gave me a new digital camera, so I was taking pics, Eric and Abby already had their own camera and Anna was using my old one, that is now the "family" digital camera! The paparazzi is in full force in our home now!!

 The girls choose from an assortment of seasonings and had fun sprinkling it all over the buttered turkey!

Eric being the strongest was voted to put into the oven.  A tent was made and the turkey went in for the allotted 5-6 hours.

I believe I have the smallest oven in the land! It just barely fits the 20 pound turkey, just barely!  The kids went out to play for a few hours.  Then came back for some prep work:

Eric started peeling the potatoes, and then talked Gabriel into taking over:

 

Anna did sweet potatoes, this was a new one for me, and we voted probably not high on our list for doing again!

The rest of the prep was fast and furious, and of the 4 cameras in the house, these were what you get out:

Gabriel did the gravy! Six packages! Woo Hoo!!

 

You can see the Stove Top Stuffing ready to be made, that was Abby.  We also had peas and corn! The girls were both in charge of hitting 5 minutes on the microwave!  

Eric had the 5 minutes for the brown and serve rolls, that were light as a fart!  They were a big hit!

Abby just looked so cute in this picture I had to include it, and this one of  Eric:

Then it hit! The turkey was not done!!!

 I, Anne, hereby promise from here on out to only get Butterball turkey with the cheater red temperature thing that pops out!  Yes, I did call my Dad in a frenzy of freaking out! My meat thermometer was not cooperating!  That all had to be said first.  I was freaking, because my children did Thanksgiving this year!  I just had to check the turkey!  That is ALL I had to do, and I failed! 
We took that bird out and said, we didn't care if we died of salmonella we were eating!   And eat we did! A ton of turkey, mashed pots, yams (okay not a lot of those, but we tried it), stuffing, peas, carrots, rolls, and cranberry sauce.  We ate and ate and then ate some more!
It was a great meal!  I am very proud and looking forward to another meal and another prepared by my children!  I think I can make it so I only cook 50 times in one year!