Thanksgiving 2013

I can't believe Thanksgiving has gone and past.  This year has just flown by.

This time of year when all the holidays start, always is hard for me.  It being the the 4th year in a row that we will be spending the holidays overseas. I wish we could be home in the states spending time with our families and friends.  I envy all the people out there who are home and spending time with their loved ones.  Thankfully we have made our own Oki family here and they are great friends that have turned into family.  We are lucky to have met them and have them in our lives.  {I digress} We really have a lot to be thankful for, not only on Thanksgiving but everyday.  God is good and has continued to bless our family.

For Thanksgiving this year we got together with the Oki fam and had a huge potluck.  We had about 12 families and a handful of single marines and sailors.  This is the first time that we've joined the Oki fam on Thanksgiving, the potluck is something we do for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  However we don't usually go to Thanksgiving, we usually have a meal at our house for Morgan's single sailors.  Anyways, we volunteered to bring a turkey, mac n cheese, and 2 of my famous pumpkin cheesecakes. Thanksgiving was really nice.  All the other ladies/gentlemen who cooked pulled out all the stops, we had a ton of food.  We had a traditional Thanksgiving and had some Filipino dishes and desserts.  It was all so delish, I must of had 3 plates and 1 plate of dessert.  I purposely wore a flowy dress so I could eat to my hearts content.  Best idea ever!  Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

Morgan decided to smoke the Turkey this year

Put a fork in it, Turkey is done *drool*

Prep for my famous Pumpkin cheesecake

One of my cheesecakes 

Thanksgiving Buffet 1

Thanksgiving Buffet 2

Thanksgiving Buffet 3

With all the Oki Mommies

All the kiddies

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, Thanksgiving is over, Black Friday is over, and Cyber Monday is over.  Holiday season is seriously in full swing.

Our Thanksgiving was pretty mellow this year.  Well all the prep for Thanksgiving at our house was madness.  Since we live in a 1000 square foot apartment in Japan, you can only imagine how small our kitchen is!!!  Luckily we actually have an oven, most people that live off-base don't have that luxury.  This is our 3rd Thanksgiving on Okinawa and every year we have more and more guest and we manage just fine.  We just have to get creative with where we prep and store our food.  Man, do I miss the big fridges, deep freezers, double ovens, and kitchen islands!!  Haha I'm terrible! 

Anyways this year we had 5 of Morgan's Junior sailors over for dinner.  We've had his junior sailors over for the holidays every year since it's really expensive to fly home most don't and we don't want them spending their holidays in the barracks.  It was quite mellow, Morgan made the full spread this year and I took care of a couple things.  I'm so glad I'm married to someone that knows their way around the kitchen.  Not only does he know his way around the kitchen, he can cook the sh*t out of anything!  Me on the other hand, don't really have a feeling for the kitchen, I just like making desserts.  So we ate, and literally right after we were all done eating his jr sailors were practically all passed out on the couch! haha That tryptophan got to them quick!  I'll admit I was a little tired too, especially since we were up super late with the prep and cleaning up.

All in all a really good Thanksgiving.  I'm thankful for my lil family and our wonderful new addition this year.  I'm thankful my husband has a job and able to support our family.  I'm thankful to have great family and friends here and in the states.  I'm hoping that next year we'll be able to spend the holiday season with our families.  Now, on to Christmas!  I've actually got a lot of my Christmas shopping done!  Usually the day after Thanksgiving we decorate the tree and the house for Christmas, we didn't get to that this year.  So we plan on doing it this weekend, can't wait!  It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!

Amelia's School Thanksgiving!

Dinner is served

Sailors of 3rd Marine Division

Getting sleepy

Amelia Asleep

My butterball sleeping

My Famous Pumpkin Cheesecake, eat your heart out Cheesecake Factory!