thanksgiving. (minutes per mile)

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope yours was as crazy-fun-delicious as ours. Anthony and I hosted about 20 people — too many to fit into a single photo!

Let’s start with the turkey!

Anthony and I took it “easy” with an 18-pound bird that we baked. My mom helped me carve it!

While my mom and I were carving, Anthony was crafting. Cocktails!

15 glasses of this New Brunswick drink ensured that all the adults kicked off the evening right.

Per usual, my family made sure there was enough fried food to justify ourselves as Southerners. And enough Ranch dip — an Ohio tradition my parents brought with them!

We’re not just talking about fried okra. We’re talking fried mac ‘n’ cheese…

and, of course, a fried turkey.

My family has celebrated Thanksgiving with the Smith family for more than a decade — and the two dads are always in charge of the deep-fried fun

Another tradition is to play as many games as possible. In recent years, Anthony’s put us all to the test with a blind wine tasting event.

Because when you wear a scarf, you become a better wine drinker.

This year we had a shiraz, malbec, cabernet sauvignon, and pinot noir.

We had to guess the varietal and price range of each. It was pretty tough to tell which was which!

And that’s why I had to keep sampling all of the wines in large quantities throughout the evening. I did take a break for a bit of hide and seek…

This year’s turkey day was all about the kiddos. We went from having zero kids at last year’s Thanksgiving to having FIVE this year! I was almost able to catch all the babies looking in my direction at once…

My niece (who just started eating real food) is actually looking across the room to our kitchen counter. Can you blame her?

It was a feast. (That darker piece of meat on top is a fried slice of ham. Yeah, that happened too.)