Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! Or Thursday for my non US friends 
We had a great day and it went by so fast! First off, John and I had a nice quite breakfast and then headed out for our 5k for Alissa’s Thanksgiving 5K. We both walked it since I am not running anymore. It was a little chilly, mid to upper 30s, so I bundled up.
After we got back, it was time to prepare a few other things to bring with us for dinner. Alton Brown’s Corn Bread Pudding.
This stuff is so good – I love it! John made up a dutch apple/cranberry pie to bring.
Our first order of business on the way to my sister’s house was the eggnog latte though. I would not let myself have one until today and I was ready!
Yum. We tried another local coffee shop, but they didn’t have egg nog lattes this year. What is up with that??
So, we had to head to Starbucks. $4 for a tall eggnog latte, and John’s was even more as a grande. It is getting too expensive to go to Starbucks, especially for the quality of the espresso. Booo…
We arrived at my sister’s to meet Turkey-zilla! My BIL raised turkeys this year and they all grew huge! This bird is 36.5 pounds. Yes – 36.5 pounds. It was too big for the roaster:
We just could not get over how big this bird was! I think it will still be being eaten come Christmas. This is the difference between a feed lot bird and a hand raised bird.
The table was set for 10:
My niece made the ‘place cards’ for everyone:
Each of the nieces also made the centerpiece decorations. Potato turkeys!
The turkey came out of the oven (5.5 hours of cooking time) and we all laughed again at how big it was. Next to a quarter for comparison 😀
We couldn’t even get it out of the pan to get the juice for making gravy. We had to carve in the pan and ladle out the drippings.
John’s carving skills were tested with this bird.
That is one giant leg!
Everyone ready to eat!
This was one breast of the turkey and the legs:
We had the usual suspects of green beans, mashed taters, gravy (which I made), cranberry bread (my mom’s). Plus some sweet potatoes and crescent rolls.
My beverage today:
Love this stuff and I have it once or twice a year.
After dinner, it was hunting time for some, football time for some (me and John) and naps for others:
Then came dessert time! We had several pies, including pumpkin ones made by my dad and John’s apple/cranberry pie:
And game time! This was Imaginiff
Then we played some Star Wars Trivial Pursuit.
The questions were really too hard, though, and John was the only one getting any right LOL!
A good night was had and I didn’t get stuffed, although I did eat too many mini Reeses peanut butter bells. I never eat these or the mini cups unless I am at Colleen’s house and I am powerless against them
The day ended up even better because I am one game up on the football picks for the week already!
Question: What was the biggest turkey you have ever had?
I think we’ve had a 20 pounder turkey before, but that one you had wins! 😛
Just catching up and LOVE the photo and article. Are you signing copies?!? 😀
Thanks for mentioning the Turkey 5K …I ended up doing it walking after all. Your mentioning it was motivating for me.
Thank you for sticking to your new healthier life. When I say I’m grateful for friends in blog land that lend their wisdom and support throughout the journey you’re in the top 3. Lori, you’re so inspirational and I’m grateful.
Have a great weekend!
Thanks Leah!
36.5 lbs????????????????????????? WOW…that was one big bird. (just think, you lost 3 birds worthe of weight!) Looks like such a great Thanksgiving. (and after reading this, I am so craving turkey!) Have a wonderful weekend Lori.
Lori – see an 11th place for a pony in that pic! 😉 What a wonderful day & celebration. Everything looks amazing!!! That turkey – WOW!!!! I love the additions by the nieces – too cute! Those centerpiece decorations – love!
A wonderful time for you – loved the family pic! I bet a lot of people felt like the dog by the end of the evening! 😉
That’s the biggest bird I’ve ever even heard of! Crazy, but looks so delish. Happy post-Thanksgiving weekend!
I don’t make very big turkeys as there are not that many of us to eat it.
It looks like a wonderful time was had by all. I especially love the potato turkeys. So cute!
That was one big bird! I think the biggest I’ve ever cooked was a 24 pounder. This year, we did a turkey breast – about 3.5 pounds. Looks like it was a fun day!
What a fun family-filled day! Our turkey wasn’t as big as that but it was a fresh organically raised farm turkey. Delicious!
YOW-ZA! 36 pounds! Holy BIG BIRD! I thought ours was big at 18 lbs but…gosh! It was your birds baby.
The pie john made sounds EXCELLENT! Is he going to post the recipe 😉
Looks like a super fun Thanksgiving! I absolutely LOVE the decor that your nieces made 😉
Does the one I married count??? LOL! Couldn’t resist. Been married to him for 34 1/2 years, so guess I’ll keep my 160 pound turkey!
Lovely table and lovely people around it! Glad your day was spent with those you love.
We need 2 turkeys for our Thanksgiving, and they add up to about 40+ pounds. It would probably be nice to get it all in one turkey and one oven! Were those garlic string beans with bread crumbs? Our family LOVES those! And the sparkling cider? We buy at least 3 3-packs from Sam’s because all of the kids love it so much.
HI Lori!
Wow! What a big bird! No the one on the table not John lol! Everything looked wonderful. So glad you had a nice day. When it comes to Trivial Pursuit (i love the game) The Young Players Edition is the one to play. You can answer i higher percentage of the questions but its not too easy that it feels like grade school. We like to play in teams too instead of one on one. Hugs! deb
Holy cow I think we would eat that turkey till Thanksgiving next year 🙂 I never made turkey myself.
Looks like you had a great day surrounded by family.
About my house: it’s one of a block of 6 houses. Very common how houses are build here. Stand alone houses are expensive here in Holland. It looks like it’s attached to the neighbours on the right, that’s correct but it used to be part of our garden but a few years ago we build a garage for Romano at that spot.
That’s one massive turkey! I could have leftovers for a year! 🙂
That is one big bird. I think 20 pounds is about the largest we have enjoyed.
ooooooh, I have you beat!! LOL My turkey weighed 39.5 pounds!! It took up the entire oven.
Wow – an even bigger turkey! You will be feasting on that for a while LOL
Nice lookin’ turkey! And the decorations are cute. 🙂
O.M.G. That turkey is five times the size of my cat! It looks huge…and tasty! What a beautiful family you have. Thanks for sharing.
you had me at how LOVELY your turkey looked.
I did whole foods for everything…even had the turkey presliced 🙂