(An Early) Thanksgiving

I know, I know it's Friday, but I'm not posting a Photo Friday. I meant to get this Thanksgiving post up yesterday, but the day got away from me. The ironic thing is I titled this post before Thanksgiving, but now it's a late one. Just roll with it. Allow me to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving (one day late)!!!

My parents made the long drive out east to visit us last week and we had an early Thanksgiving. I should say before they even arrived they spend the weekend with Scott and Amy in DC. Then they drove south to meet us Monday night. We took them out for pizza at our favorite spot. Also in town that night were the Carolina Panthers playing the New England Patriots. We definitely didn't go to the game, but it was still fun to watch on TV while knowing the game was just a few miles away.

We had a fun couple days with my parents. We cooked, we shopped and we just spent time together. Remember earlier how I mentioned the baby is the size of a mango? Well we found mangos at the grocery store so we just had to take a picture. I agree, it's a bit dorky, but a fun memory!

On top of that we parked in the "Expecting Mother" parking spot when we went shopping. First time for us, but I know Joe's looking forward to taking advantage of this privilege in the future. Notice how the parking lot has many available spots. If the lot was full we would not have parked in this special spot. Plus it was Buy Buy Baby so there were like five "Expecting Mother" spots anyway!

This year Joe really wanted to try a different type of turkey. We wanted to try a brine recipe to soak the bird in over night before roasting. He searched online, found a recipe and we tried our first brine turkey this year. Here is the recipe we used.

Apple Spice Brine
adapted from here

Ingredients
1 gallon cold water
2 quarts apple juice
2 quarts orange juice
2 cups salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
10 whole cloves
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg

Directions
Simmer all ingredients except water in large pot for 15 minutes or until salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to col. Add water. Place poultry in large plastic container, pour brine over top. Let sit in refrigerator for 1 hour per pound. Thoroughly rinse all brine off bird before cooking. Makes enough for 20 pound bird.

The turkey turned out delicious. Here's Joe carving the bird like always. We had to pull out the festive hats from previous Thanksgivings together. They've now become a dorky tradition that we all love.  I should also mention the rest of our meal was delicious also! We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, edamame succotash and cranberry relish. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help.

Of course we took a few traditional family pictures. The lighting in these pictures wasn't ideal, but I didn't have anyone else helping out to take the pictures. I actually stood the camera on a ledge, set the timer and ran. And I did that over, and over again...

In time the fun hats came out and we had a lot of fun with them.

Maybe a little too much fun... When we took a look at this picture I think we were all crying laughing. Too funny!

On Wednesday we explored the city a bit. Well, but city I mean local breweries and restaurants. We did kind of a mini bar/brewery tour. First we went to Heist Brewery in the NoDa district. A place neither Joe or I had ever been, but we heard the food was great. What better time to try it out? We definitely agreed with the recommendations, the food was very tasty.

And later on we went to Olde Mecklenberg Brewery to order yet another flight of beers. Maybe not the most ideal outing for a pregnant lady, but it was a lot of fun to spend with family.  I really love this picture of my parents. Thank you both for making the trip to visit us. We'll see you again at Christmas!