Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving 2010 was a little different. We were not able to travel and spend time in Memphis with my family but we did get to spend time with good friends. Paul and Kara and Rawls traveled from Charleston to spend Thanksgiving with us in Nashville. Steven was privileged enough to spend Thursday at the hospital working while we spent the morning eating cinnamon rolls and watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Starting Friday, Steven was free to spend the weekend with us. The Link family dinner was Friday. Steven was itching to cook his first turkey so for his birthday I gave him a cordless remote grilling thermometer and he and Paul were able to open one of their Christmas presents early... a personalized iron to brand their first turkey. Since Steven and I did not get to experience the traditional Johnson holiday menu, we added it to the Link holiday menu resulting in a MASSIVE but DELICIOUS feast: 2 types of turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, deviled eggs, home made mac and cheese, dumplings, rolls, sweet potato casserole, squash casserole, broccoli and rice casserole, 7 layor salad, a cranberry mold (which I melted before dinner...darn!), pumpkin bread, fudge pie, chess pie, pecan pie, jam cake.... OH MY GOODNESS, I AM FULL AGAIN JUST THINKING ABOUT IT. It was delicious!!!!! I will have to say Steven's first turkey was excellent. No lie... the BEST turkey I have EVER put in my mouth...sorry DAD but Steven's process of smoking a turkey in a gas grill has just performed as good or better than your green egg... Saturday morning, we packed up and spent the night at the farm so Steven could hunt and Paul could watch.In the pictures you will see John Parker and Rawls playing...Paul and Steven smoking a turkey on a gas grill...the final brands on the turkey...me and Kara in the kitchen cooking and looking beautiful in the process...group pics at the Link's house after dinner...and finally John Parker with his large train track and deer that Steven saw while hunting Sunday morning. Thanksgiving was a little different this year but we had a lot of fun and made some great memories.

Funny Pic

Steven thinks that it is funny that my belly is large enough to now use as a place to prop snacks....Puppy Chow....Yes, I have gone through an entire box of chex mix cereal after it was converted to one of the best snacks EVER!

Steven's 30th!!!

I just realized that I never posted pictures of Steven's big 3-0 birthday. First a couple of good friends got together and went bowling...one of Steven's favorite activities. It is pretty funny that all of the pictures from the bowling party were of people's backsides as they threw the ball down the alley... I am not in any of the bowling pics because I did not bowl due to my "condition".
Then on Sunday night, family got together at McNamara's Irish Pub and had dinner and Snicker's Ice Cream Pie!!! I definitely participated in the Snicker's Pie part of the celebration...YUMMY.

William's Nursery

The nursery is READY. All we need is a baby.

An Early Memphis Holiday

Yes, you are reading correctly... We celebrated the 2010 Holidays in Memphis ALREADY. Last weekend, November 5-7, was the last time the Link's would visit Memphis without William. Since I am now only 6 weeks!!! away from delivering, I need to stop traveling so far from my doctor. KJ and Pop will be visiting Nashville (once for John Parker's birthday and once for William's welcome) and we will have our little Christmas with the Johnson family on December 21st, the night before William arrives (if all goes as planned) but we wanted to have a Holiday celebration in Memphis too. So, KJ put up her Christmas tree and we had dinner Saturday night together. Sarah, Madison, Mimi, and Linda joined us for Pop's delicious stuffed tenderloin. And if you notice, there is a picture of John Parker with Target and Toys-R-Us magazines in his lap RESEARCHING what to ask Santa to bring him for Christmas. SO CUTE!!!

Halloween 2010