Thanksgiving 2010

For the past seven years we have hosted Thanksgiving at our home. My husband and I loved planning the menu and making everything so nice for our family and a few friends who have joined us over the years. This year, however, my cousin is getting married in Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving. We were in a quandary: Should we cancel Thanksgiving altogether? Go to a restaurant? Host our traditional Thanksgiving? Then a brilliant family member had an epiphany: We should have a very casual, nontraditional Thanksgiving featuring appetizers only!! We have always said that the best part of a wedding is always the cocktail hour. Who's with me on this? The pigs in a blanket, shrimp cocktail, sushi, bacon wrapped scallops, raw bar, crab cakes, "lollipop lambchops," etc. Delish! So, a Thanksgiving with fun appetizers would be filling, fun and fabulous! Not to mention, the clean up would be much easier than roasting a whole turkey and all of the trimmings. So, that's exactly what we did! Of course we had to have very traditional desserts. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without my mom's pumpkin or apple pie!!

Playing "Pin the Hat on the Turkey."

Naturally, I felt slightly guilty about having a turkey-less Thanksgiving, so I made one following the tutorial here. When I saw this idea I fell in love with it! Sooooooo cute!!!