We invited Steve's parents to come visit for Thanksgiving this year. We wanted to have it in our new home and wanted to have family there. They agreed and came the Tuesday before until the Monday after.
It was a really busy, full of work week so I don't have a whole lot of pictures. Steve and Dad Wheeler spent most of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday working through a super-long list of projects for around the house. They both went to bed so tired each evening. By the time they left, they had put up curtain rods around the house, put together shelving and installed it in the storage room, organized the garage so things weren't on the floor, put together all the baby furniture, bought and installed shelving in my craft room, put up the Christmas lights, plus a host of smaller projects.
Mom and I spent Wednesday and Thursday preparing and making food for the big feast. Kate, my sister-in-law, brought rolls and mashed potatoes. Mom made two apple pies and crusts for the two pumpkin pies. She and I worked together on everything else. We had turkey and gravy (Mom really liked the gravy!), homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, cornbread, salad, corn, carrots, and green beans in addition to the things already mentioned.
We also had a chocolate pecan pie for dessert. I had such a hard time with it! Wednesday night, I apparently heated the chocolate too much and it was all lumpy so I had to throw it out. The next day, after talking with Stephanie about what I had done wrong, I tried again. This time, the chocolate was nice and smooth. I added the other ingredients and poured it into the pie crust only to discover that I had completely forgotten the eggs! I tried pouring the filling out of the crust, but it was so thick and sticky that the pie crust just fell apart. I had to pick little pieces of pie crust out as best I could, add the eggs, and pour it into a new crust. Luckily, a little pie crust in the filling doesn't ruin it completely.
We really enjoyed having everyone here for the holiday. We also appreciated all the hard work that Mom and Dad put in while they were here. I'm sure that they will reconsider the length of the stays in light of the fact that we put them to work, but I hope that they'll come again for just as long.
