2013 Thanksgiving in Nashville

Thanksgiving this year was a different affair than we were expecting, but lots of fun and so laid back! Gail decided to stay in Ohio for Thanksgiving this year, so we were invited to Nashville to be with Kira and Andrew and his family. We committed to attending kinda late, so most of the dishes had been split up between all of the different women, but I feel like I got to make awesome things none the less.

Kelly and her husband Eric live in Nashville and they signed up to do a turkey which they were smoking. Kira was making the mashed potatoes, gravy, a glazed ham, asparagus, and the sweet potato casserole. Sarah whose husband and kids were also at Kira’s made the stuffing and green beans. I made the pies, bought ice cream to go along with it, made cranberry fluff, and brought spiced cider. Jolene and Wayne were getting as much grandkid time as they could squeeze in.

Grant and I left around 8am in the morning from Huntsville, since we were only going to be in Nashville for a day trip since there were already so many people at Kira and Andrew’s House, and we were too lazy to pack our stuff.

The pies I made, one apple crumb pie, one sour cherry pie, one spiked chocolate pecan pie, and a pumpkin pie.

Our drinks area, and the crock pot I brought with the spiced cider.

The edging on this pie turned out so pretty, the others ended up tasting fine,but not looking as pretty,but that is okay.

Sarah’s amazing green beans, I need to get the recipe from her.

Andrew made a fire in the fire pit so that Tru could roast a hot dog and eat it.

All of us made most of the food in advanced so here we are hanging out before it was time to eat.

Tru could make Alana laugh sooo much.

The main table we sat at.

Tru was running around very interested in everything.

Andrew was also getting a work out throwing Tru around.

Right before we started eating. The smoked turkey was amazing, I had never had a smoked turkey before.

In line getting our food, the dinner was so much fun and relaxed. It always amazes me how fast the food is gone.

But eating the food is a lot of work which makes for amazing naps.

We tried to take some family pictures for Kira and Andrew, but none were perfect enough since Alana was distracted and not having any pictures even if Sarah was great at helping to pose them.

We took some group shots for them which turned out really well.

A shot of us, not the best of all of us, but in the rest we were blinking or looking away so it will have to do.

Since Kira and Andrew were going to be in Houston this Christmas just like we were, the Fleshman family had an early  Christmas to exchange gifts as a family.

Henry opening some of his gifts.

This picture made me laugh so hard, Henry took it upon himself to open all of Alana’s gifts too. So, he wasn’t happy when Alana was going to try and open her own gift.

Then Henry thought Andrew was stealing his gift when really he was setting it up so they could play with it.

Watching everything unfold.

Andrew and Kira got the boys an inflatable ball pit, so here is Andrew working hard since they couldn’t find the correct attachment for his air compressor.

Toward the end of opening gifts Alana got some Mama time.

The Wack-a-Mole game was a huge hit since Henry was allowed to hit something with mallets.

The blown up ball pit.

 I am sure Kira and Andrew were finding spray plastic balls all over their house after this.

We had such a great time at their house, everything was so tasty and because it was all planned so well in advanced it was very low stress.

Around 9pm we headed back to Huntsville, and made it back in time to see all of the Black Friday shoppers already in lines at Target and other stores. We didn’t participate at all, and both relaxed since we had Friday off.

Thanks Kira and Andrew for the wonderful time, and I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!