Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a very big deal this year. Now that we finally have an apartment that can fit more than one guest, so we filled it up. Marin's two sisters, brother, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew all stayed with us. Marin prepared for weeks, planning itineraries, messing around with recipe books, and baking stuff to put in the freezer.

Almost everyone was there the night before Thanksgiving, so we had a pre-Thanksgiving light dinner: green salad, roasted red pepper soup, and pasta with butternut squash sauce. Thanks to Gil's parents for sending table decorations and enough paper plates take care of all the guests with very few dishes.Our high school friend joined us for dinner and a rip-roaring game of Apples to Apples. We stayed up so late that, the next morning, no one was in the mood for the family turkey trot on the shore of Lake Michigan.

The next morning, Gil and Marin's sister's family took the kiddies to see the Thanksgiving Parade downtown. They were a little cold, but not too cold. The Chicago parade doesn't get new parade balloons very often. The most modern balloon in the parade was Bullwinkle the Moose. The kids, who were expecting to see Elmo and Nemo, were a little perplexed.
Charlie is under the Lightening McQueen hat in the stroller.

Meanwhile, Marin spent six blissful hours (well, five and a half of them were blissful) preparing Thanksgiving dinner. Marin had never roasted anything before in her life, so it was a little scary to start with the Thanksgiving turkey.
Thanks to an excellent frozen bird, two days brining in salt water and brown sugar, Bobby Flay's relatively simple recipe, and a last-minute review of a video on how to stick the thermometer in the turkey, it came out perfect: tender, juicy, and full of flavor.
Marin loves to cook, but six hours of anything is a little much.

Marin's brother brought china from Marin's parent's house in Utah. Marin loved it because it was the "birthday china" she grew up with, which only came out on the most special occasions.
Thanksgiving Dinner Menu:

Appetizers:
Spinach dip in a sourdough bread bowl
Crackers with cheese and hummus
Gingerbread maple cookies

Main course:
Spring greens with pine nuts, cranberry relish, bleu cheese, and blackberry dressing
Cranberry Jello with strawberries and blueberries
White rolls
Steamed carrots and broccoli
Sauteed green beans
Sweet sauerkraut with onions and apples
Smashed red potatoes with bacon
Cornbread stuffing with sausage and apples
The best roast turkey in the history of turkey

Pies:
Homemade apple pie
Costco pumpkin pie
Banana cream pie
Chocolate cream pie

The kids enjoyed a different menu: pasta, apple slices, popcorn, cheese (except for Charlie, of course), and juice. They ate out of tupperware containers.
They ate for about 10 minutes and then ran off to watch movies.
Marin was a little tired of the kitchen when the time came to whip the cream from the pies, so her sister took over at that point.

We stayed up late again, playing games, and the next morning, we sent the kids in to jump in bed with the single people. Poor single people. But not that poor. We deal with this kind of early-morning enthusiasm every day.

Luckily, Uncle Patrick and Aunt Carole adore these kids.

We spent Friday morning at the aquarium and the natural history museum. We had Chicago hot dogs for lunch, and we went bowling in the afternoon at a scrappy bowling alley in Irving Park.

A Chicago dog is an all-beef hotdog that has every conceivable topping on it except ketchup. Don't ask for ketchup at a place that's famous for Chicago hot dogs or you'll get yelled at.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Don't worry. We'll get the Christmas pictures up by Valentine's Day.