Let’s say you were a fly on the wall at our Thanksgiving celebration…

This is what you’d have seen:

The table was set by Tuesday.  I’ve learned my lesson on this one: if you wait till Thanksgiving day to set it, you’ll be scrambling for silverware, not to mention glasses and plates!

Also completed ahead of time  -- this year, at least -- was all food except the turkey, the stuffing, and the gravy – which Tom (turkey and stuffing) and Peter (gravy) are responsible for.

I only captured some of the cooking in photos.  Ulli’s yeast rolls: (The link is to my Thanksgiving menu/recipe post)

Creamed onions:

Mashed potatoes:

And Tom’s signature stuffing, which takes most of the day to make:

But really, the day is about the people. 

First to arrive was Elisabeth and Danny.  Look at the beautiful flowers Danny brought!

Kat and Josh brought delicious hors deurves:

Look at that veggie tray.  See the turkey?  And that cranberry dish that they made up… who knew that cranberries, cilantro, and cream cheese tasted so good together?!

I love this photo of my girls and their guys:

And this one of Josh tasting his first radish! It was not a real big hit.

Pretty soon there was a whole gaggle of people at our house!  (Yes, “gaggle” is a Thanksgiving-specific term.  It’s a gobble-gaggle.)

Carrie and Noah, friends of Elisabeth’s, spend Thanksgiving with us each year. It’s always great to see them!

In addition to eleven people, there were three dogs.

(Or make that two dogs and a horse?!)

…and one very spoiled kitty:

It was great to finally have enough room in the kitchen to actually visit!

Josh, who works at Microsoft, brought his Kinect.  What a blast THAT was!

Elisabeth and Kat dance to “Toxic.”

Just before we ate, Carrie snapped our obligatory annual family shot:

Time to eat! Look at all this delicious food!

We are all truly thankful!

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.  Happy leftover day!