A Time to Give Thanks...and Eat

This time of year is always so exiting in the Keyes house.  With all of the birthdays and celebrations it can become such a blur.  This fall has been exceptionally festive with our new addition to the family in October.  That was immediately followed by Levi's birthday, our anniversary, Kevin's birthday and of course Thanksgiving.  In the past we have hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house for some of our close friends and have also traveled north to visit our families but this year we decided to change it up some.

Jenn's parents came to visit the week prior to Thanksgiving so it only seemed right to share our celebration with them.  Jenn and her mother prepared all of the food (while Rein and I went to the Gator game).  I'm sure it was special for Jenn to be able to cook with her mom in her own house and share recipes.  At the table we all took a moment during prayer to reflect on this past year.  There were moments of great distress such as when our good friends the Ferrells moved or the passing of Jenn's grandfather and my own father.  Then there were moments like the birth of Wyatt or Tyson starting school when our spirits were very high.  Even when our lives were filled with great sadness it was always such a joy to have our families brought closer together in light of the sorrow.  We are so thankful for the time that we do have with our friends and family.

Jenn, her Mom and Tyson prepare the brine for the turkey

Try cutting the turkey breast this way and every piece is thick and juicy 

On the ACTUAL Thanksgiving day, we were invited to the DiFranco's wonderful home in Jacksonville.  To say 'friends' or even 'dear friends' doesn't quite live up to how we feel about them.  They are the closest thing to family we have here.  They are really the kind of friends that we could have shown up unannounced on Thanksgiving day and they would welcome us with open arms...and that's what we did.  Ok, ok, we didn't just show up unannounced but we did sort of invite ourselves.  But of course they opened their doors and fed us with an enormous amount of food.  Luigi had been prepping his meal for at least a week or more and the food was amazing.  He makes lasagna from scratch using his mother's recipe and it was honestly the best Italian dish I have ever had.  Luigi even gave us a huge container of it at the end of the night and I ate this for breakfast lunch and dinner and lunch the following day.  Amazing.

The boys were super excited to go to "Uncle Weegi's" house not just because the DiFranco's are fun, or because they have been their first visitors after they were born, or because they have a pretty awesome house (complete with a waterpark in their subdivision when the weather is warm).  They wanted to see Sophia, their one year old daughter.  Sophia is a lot like Tyson in the sense that she seems older than her years...or year in her case.  For just being a little over a year old she has the mobility and dexterity of a 2 year old.  And she's really cute so the boys were all over her.  It was great to watch them interact and they played all day long.  After dinner and dessert we all sat around the fire and made smores.  The weather could not have been more perfect.  As we drove home that night Jenn and I wished that we lived closer to the DiFrancos but the drive to Jacksonville seems shorter and shorter each time so I imagine we will be making more trips out there.

The Turkey Cake

Notice the Levi slobber