This year is the first time, that I can recall, ever, that Hubs and I have hosted a major holiday with both sides of our family. Typically, ALL the family from Hubs side meets at one point of the day for the get together, then the same for mine. But this year, we hosted our parents and siblings (and their families) at our home for an evening of non-traditional Thanksgiving fun!
Non-Traditional, eh?? YES! And it was great. We opted for Asian styled food. Now, I can already hear some of y'all... "You've committed sin, how dare you forego the traditional meal??". Like this, my friend. Like this.
My sister brought an incredible Bang, Bang Chicken and Rice. We made chicken fried rice and Asian Chicken Stew (think almost Pho). My sister in love topped off the evening with an awesome Mango Sticky Rice. Mama showed up with an awesome Beef and Broccoli, a veggie lomaine that was so good i may never buy it take out again! Nana surprised us and even showed up cookies in tow! There were cheesecakes as well so have no fear. Some morsel of traditional thanksgiving feasting was provided! The food was bountiful and delicious!
Just to ease some of your minds as I'm sure they're spiraling over when our sweet babies will get that Turkey and dressing and mashed potato dinner?!?- They eat that throughout the year. We truly do love your traditional Thanksgiving feast so much that we enjoy it as a dinner (quantity scaled back of course) throughout the year. I usually weave bits and pieces of it through a meal once a week in the colder weather months. We indulge year round, so for our crew, we didn't feel we were missing out. Besides, did you not see the price of Turkey this year for good, quality birds?? This provided a budget friendly mix up of a traditional get together.
Besides food changes, we had planned to set out some yard games and a few small crafts for the kiddos, but due to the time time change and a cold front we wound up inside. We have a smaller living area than we're used to so we made sure the play room was ready for cousins after dinner. I also fou d some cute activity table clothes and place mats for the kids. It was all in all a relaxed and low key evening. Just the way we like holiday get togethers!
When it was all said and done, hubs and I enjoyed a bit of a fire outside post-kitchen clean up and shared a cup of spiced apple cider sharing gratitude.
And the day ended
with left overs the kids wanted to eat!
Oh, and we were all so present with each other, not a single person got any pictures! That's a bitter sweet win 😉