Thanksgiving at my mother-in-law’s house was filled with wonderful food and lots of family fun. My mother-in-law, Diane, always makes hosting a huge family party seem like a breeze which amazes me.
Diane and her mother spent all day on Wednesday prepping food for the big Thanksgiving Day feast. Their hard work paid off and everyone went to bed with full bellies.
After our morning turkey trot 10K, my fellow turkey trotters and I showered before heading into the kitchen for some last-minute prep work.
The guys handled the salad which turned out fabulous. It was packed with avocado, glazed pecans and butternut squash. For me to even take the time to comment on a salad on Thanksgiving means it was really something special. Yum!
Everyone started arriving at Diane’s house around noon and we immediately dug into the appetizers.
The shining star of the appetizers for me was Chris’ pull-apart garlic bread. Just look at this bad boy:
Unreal.
Chris found the recipe on Pinterest (where else?) and it was so incredibly buttery and cheesy that I couldn’t stop going back for more.
At around 2 p.m., it was time to dig into the feast!
For round one, I loaded my plate up with salad, sweet potato casserole, turkey, glazed carrots, stuffing, pineapple soufflé, corn pudding and pickled beets.
Round two included second helpings of sweet potato casserole, stuffing and carrots. Yum!
As always, Sadie camped out between me and Ryan and managed to finagle a few bites once we were done.
I also had a few glasses of Apothic Red wine throughout the day. Diane saw my blog post from last weekend when I said how much I loved it after I tried it at Tuscany at Mohegan Sun and bought a few bottles for everyone to enjoy yesterday.
It was such a nice surprise!
After our Thanksgiving feast, everyone was too stuffed to immediately dig into dessert, so we headed outside to play corn hole and other yard games for a few hours.
Soon enough, the pies started calling to us from the house.
I filled my plate with a small slice of pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake. Plus lots of whipped cream!
Yesterday’s Thanksgiving feast was incredible and I went to bed feeling incredibly grateful to be able to share the holiday with people I love very much.
Thank You to YOU
I also must take a minute to say how grateful I am for all of YOU. Thank you for reading Peanut Butter Fingers and allowing me to share my life with you every day. You make me laugh and smile and I cannot tell you how much your support means to me. I am very, very grateful for you. Your kindness means more to me than you can possibly know.
Big Sadie hugs are coming your way!
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Oh my gosh, your thanksgiving looks so yummy with all of that food and desert. Sometimes I wish my family had big thanksgivngs so that I could try lots of different dishes. ALSO can I tell you how jealous I am of the fact that you were outside in dresses and shorts yesterday? It’s FREEZING in Washington. What I wouldn’t give for a little sunshine…
Is that Vienna from The Bachelor in that group picture!?
ha! no! no relation to vienna.
Looks like you had an amazing Thanksgiving spread! No wonder she was so busy the day before, a lot of work obviously went into it.
What an amazing day you had! Thanks for sharing it with us, I want to eat all that food throught the computer screen! Haha
Sweet potato casserole is my very favorite. Love how you and your sis were color coordinated.:)
Looks like an amazing feast and a fun time with family! Sweet potato casserole was definitely the highlight of my meal. Oh, and Apothic Red is by far my favorite wine.
Ahhhh, I see Ryan is celebrating Movember? He’s got a pretty impressive beard there! Looks like you guys had a great time, so happy to see it!
he is! it’s his third year participating. 🙂
Wow, looks like a great Thanksgiving! You are blessed to have such a great in-law family. That was special of your Mother-in-law to get that wine. A REALLY thoughtful thing to do. Blessings!
I’d you don’t mind sharing I’d love to have the corn pudding and the salad (the one the guys made) recipes!
she actually bought the corn pudding from a local grocer (morton’s) and my mother-in-law made up the salad. she said it included: romaine lettuce, spinach, 3 avocados, 3 diced tomatoes, 1/2 red onion (sliced thin), blue cheese, roasted butternut squash and an orange poppyseed dressing. it was fantastic!
Yours was the first blog I ever read. Thank you for making me love blogs…and vizslas. And for making me want to have my own blog!
What an awesome feast!
I am so thankful to you!!! Your blog is always a great pick-me-up, source of inspiration and continued push to be a little bit more healthy while not making me feel judged if I slip up.
This year I was also thankful for an amazing internship opportunity that will truly launch my career in the right direction- but I will have to work 24 hours a week on top of a school schedule and commute to work 1.5 hours each way. It’s a lot, but I love what I’m doing and I love my school. It’s going to be an incredible semester! When I was thinking about my schedule it didn’t seem like fitness fit in anywhere! But that’s just not the answer. I’m going to have to stick to my resolve and keep reading fitness blogs as well as JUST DO IT but I WILL NOT give up fitness for success.
Wow kind of a rant but I’m trying to tell everyone about my resolve so that I stick to it!
Thank you again for your awesome blog 🙂
What a great Thanksgiving!
It is so funny to hear the different names that people have for the “corn hole” game. Here in Iowa we just call it “bags.”
oh my goodness, that is quite a spread! Haha we definitely had fewer dishes, but only 7 of us! Glad you had a great Thanksgiving!
Whats the one that has blueberry swirled into it? That looks great!
This sounds like SUCH a fun day!! I love your dress and the kitchen you guys are standing in is to die for! I love that you played corn hole after your feast… Love everything about your day, especially the garlic bread 🙂
All of that food looks amazing…but that pull-apart garlic bread is something else! Please tell me it tasted as delicious as it sounds. If so, that’s being made for Christmas 🙂
wow that looks like an amazing spread! I love how you guys in America have sweet with savoury…totally making sweet potato casserole at Christmas this year!!! Also pecan pie is you best invention ever, I’m making it an Irish pudding staple! 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving, Julie! I am IN LOVE with your MIL’s kitchen…. I can’t stop staring! *wiping the drool*
it’s amazing! they renovated it a couple of years ago and it’s amazing!
Wow!!! That is quite the spread. Your mother in law sounds amazing. Lucky you. Have a great weekend with your family.
What a fun-packed day! Glad you had a great Thanksgiving!
Your Thanksgiving feast looks incredible! Thank you for sharing your life with us!
We totally skipped making a salad this year! Between the other sides, it wasn’t really missed, but if it had been there, I would’ve eaten a bit. Looks like a great day overall, too! 🙂
We drank Apothic Red last night as well! Normally I’m not a fan of reds but I loved the Apothic Red. Our friends said the same thing. I had planned on buying Hot to Trot, which my mom recommended, but they were sold out. I will most definitely buy Hot to Trot again.
Sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
That is quite a Thanksgiving spread! So glad you had a wonderful day!
The garlic bread looks amazing! Can we get the pintrest recipe??
I second that. I would love the recipe if you would post it Julie. Thanks
here ya go: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/05/bloomin-onion-bread.html
This is literally my favorite blog to read. Ever. Thank you for sharing your life with us! 🙂 <3
Wow! Looks like an absolutely amazing Thanksgiving. 🙂
Ahhh that food looks amazing!!! Hope you hada great day. I’m thankful I foun your blog bc it inspired me to start my own 🙂
Looks like you had an awesome Thanksgiving! That garlic bread really does look unreal. Oh my gosh. The desserts look fantastic too! 🙂 Have a happy Friday!
Lovely! Holidays are about family, reflection and good food!!! Glad to see you enjoyed yours.
Great pics! The food looked awesome and so did the company!
What a beautiful plate of food! And, that’s a very sweet note to all your readers. I am also so grateful for my readers – they may not know how much they positively affect our blogs and lives!!
Thank YOU for sharing your life with us….the ups, the downs, the good, the bad and everything in between! 🙂
Well thank you for writing an amazing blog! Well, you make me wish we had Thanksgiving over here! What fun and great food! Ps. I can’t believe you let Sadie eat off your fork but! ARGHHGHGHDFJHJDFBFJV that freaked me out 😉
I second, third, or fouth the request for the garlic bread recipe!!
haha! here it is: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/05/bloomin-onion-bread.html
Happy Thanksgiving, Julie! 🙂 Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
That is a HECK of a lot of food! But its so nice that you were able to share the holiday with family and friends. And how nice of your mother-in-law to get the wine you liked.
-AJ
FitTravelerAJ.blogspot.com
Nice spread! Cooper was planted at my side too…and he of course got to taste everything!!
Looks like a wonderful Thanksgiving! Glad you enjoyed the time spent with family. 🙂
Happy Thanksgiving!! Such a fun, food and family filled holiday!!
What a beautiful thanksgiving, I love reading your blog every day. It always puts a smile on my face 🙂
Is Ryan celebrating No Shave November? I’m impressed with his beard.
oh yes. it’s his third year participating!
Wow! You had some incredible eats!!!
Glad to see u had a wonderful (& delicious) Thanksgiving, Julie!
That’s some gooood food! And, I love your dress!
Looks like it was an awesome Thanksgiving! Your spread is very impressive. I’ve never seen anything like it!
Happy Thanksgiving, Julie! Thank YOU for your amazing blog. You {and your Sadie pictures, of course!} add so much sunshine and smiles to my day!
thank you very, very much, dallas!
I’ve been seeing those pull-apart breads all over the place and they always looking amazing; I’ll have to try it myself!
Glad you had a great Thanksgiving!
I love Sadie! Happy thanksgiving!
It’s such a good idea to take a break between eating dinner and dessert! I’m always too full for dessert but don’t want to miss out on the delicious treats!
That is a massive spread of food and everything looks so delicious. I may have drooled a little bit at the sight of that pull apart bread 🙂