Savannah, Georgia!

One of our "Horse Crazy" photos!

Spanish moss hanging from a tree downtown Savannah!

22 lb. Tom Turkey...looks done to me :)

What a beautiful place! We went to Richmond Hill, GA for Thanksgiving. It is a tradition. We stay with my husband's brother & his family. This year...the WHOLE gang went down! It was fantastic! God love my sister-in-law for putting up with all of us. 20 of us in all! And we all stayed at their lovely home! My husband and I along with the 2 kids got there on Sunday before Thanksgiving. My in-laws came in on Tuesday. And the rest of the family arrived on Wednesday. Here is how the whole trip went:

We left early Saturday morn...like 6am. We drove to Charlotte so that I could spent an evening with my very bestest friend Beth (Old Tyme Design--check out her cool blog!). She was at the Southern Christmas show so I got to do a little shoppin'!! We try to get the hotel before the OSU/Mich game so that Bart & Russ can watch the game, but this year it was an early game...so needless to say, I had to hear football onthe radio! Anyway Beth came over to our hotel to have dinner with us and we exchanged our Christmas gifts! Boy---she knows how to spoil my kids! She gave them a "He Fartsalot"....he can fart Old McDonald! (Everytime I turn around someone is squeezin' his thingy and making him toot!) anyway...it was a short but sweet visit! Then Sunday we got to Savannah around 1pm.

We just chilled out...baked cookies! Teri made great pasta! Then we crashed...went to bed by 8pm....I wanted to watch "24-Redemption but fell asleep as soon as I sat down! I was whipped! Monday morning, we went downtown Savannah! We always eat lunch at The Lady & Sons, owned by Paula Deen! DELICIOUS! If you ever get a chance to go to Savannah----GO!!! What an awesome town! You have to do the "On/Off" tour at Old Savannah Tours! And of course you have to eat at The Lady & Sons....get there right at 11am! Or you will have to wait hours! And you can not miss River Street! and then there is City Market! There is just too much to list! okay...back to my trip! So Monday we also ran to Bass Pro Shop & Camper's World! My hubby was in his glory there----we pulled in and they were taking a $260,000 motor home to get gas and asked if we wanted to ride along and then let him DRIVE!! I was a basketcase! He was in love---and not with me :) no----we did not buy it! But we can always dream!

So back to the house...I made my chicken casserole for dinner and hubby made an awesome salad! I promised my Godchild I would help her make Berry Blue Clouds...a jello dessert! They did come out pretty cool! Tuesday, I took my daughter and 2 nieces shopping and out to lunch while hubby, son & my brother-in-law ran some other manly errands! Tuesday when we got back, the girls and I made 4 pumpkin rolls. My mother-in-law got there and made an apple pie and cherry pie---God Bless her...she made her crust from scratch! I made 4 pumpkin pies and guess what....I rolled out the ol' Pillsbury crust! Thank God for Pillsbury! Then everyone else got there Wednesday. My hubby had to make his wings in the deep fryer. I made the sauces. We made 30 lbs. of wings! I made terriayki, hot, BBQ, & Butter garlic. I also threw together Beth's awesome beans!---Maybe she'll post the recipe on her blog!!

We also got some of the casseroles put together on Wednesday and cut up everything for our stuffing. Needed to make Thanksgiving as stressfree as possible! So we wake up on Thanksgiving...have a couple of casseroles to finish....a 14 lb turkey to fry and a 22 lb. yard bird to bake in the oven! Time to stuff the bird----the bird got all cleaned out after I went to bed on Wednesday. So he comes out of the frig...brother-in-law stuffs him and has an enormous amount of stuffing left...I tell him to stuff the front too. He asks "Where?" I say, "Under that flappy thing!" "Here,?" he points...."YES!!" So he lifts it up.......STILL FULL OF GIZZARDS! So he had to finish "cleanin' out" ol' Tom Turkey and finish stuffing him! I was laughing! I got the biggest kick out of it! I said, "Didn't you wonder where they were last night?" LOL LOL LOL!

Anyway....we got everything cooked and dinner was fabulous! We all added our own little tradional dishes! It was a colaboration of traditions! Another funny story...my sister-in-law made this pineapple cheddar cheese dish...very good! She asked how everyone liked it...and one brother-in-law says, "I didn't get any"...we all pointed out that he did and already ate it...he said, "No, that was my cheesy potatoes!"...so we teased him the rest of dinner about his "Cheesy Potatoes"!!

After dinner my mother-in-law got everyone together for a family photo! She got all the girls a "Horse Crazy" t-shirt to wear and all the guys wore black t-shirts. My kids were crabby because they had not gotten any sleep for 3 days...busy staying up with all the cousins! So they were refusing to get dressed....I was mad at them....needless to say, I'll be surprised if we are all smiling in ours!

And then Friday morning we packed back into the car for our drive back north to the cold snow! As much as I love the south, I gotta have my snow! Especially this time of year!

It was fantastic having everyone together for the first time in ages!

hey that leads me to another GREAT recipe!! My sister-in-law got me hooked on this many Thanksgivings ago! It has become a tradition! It is a recipe from her Grandma B!!

Pear Salad

1 lg Lime Jello

1 lg can pears, reserve juice

2 (3oz.) cream cheese

1 tub cool whip

Combine juice & water to equal 2 C. Boil; dissolve jello. Add pears (cut up into smaller pieces) and cream cheese. Blend. Fold in cool whip. Refrigerate until firm. YUM-MO!!! I can not eat enough of this stuff!!