happy thanksgiving

wednesday night before thanksgiving is always pie night at the fellona's. this a tradition in mike's family and his dad is actually in charge. so keeping up with tradition, mike is in charge now too. as you can imagine, the 5 kids had fun trying to help!

and so did brian!
all the fellona's- plus tate!

can you tell which pie crust was made first when patience was still at it's highest?!

mike works for NATO and american military members do not get thanksgiving off. in fact, the only holiday they get off is the 4th of july! (besides the holidays that are celebrated in spain, such as christmas.) so we had to eat thanksgiving dinner after work- at 530pm, since most of their guest were working that day.

this schedule made for a very relaxing day- mike and brian went out at 8am for a long bike ride and sara and i went out for a great walk. we had the afternoon to prepare without feeling rushed and even got to watch the macy's day parade with the kids. i LOVE that parade!

here is tate, setting the mood for dinner...

brian was in charge of the turkey- he impressed us all!

on our walk, sarah and i found these beautiful leaves, brought them home and created this wonderful centerpiece!

brian went out into the front yard and picked fresh bay leaves off the tree to use for the garnish on the turkey- it was perfect. (who just has a bay leaf tree anyway?!?!)

i love this picture- mike was skyping with his family in the states and walked with the laptop over to the turkey to show them how fabulous it looked!

our amazing hosts- somehow with a house full of 30 guests, they were still smiling!

let's eat!