This weekend, we're getting ready for our first holiday houseguests - Jacob's mom Cynthia, his sister Kuma, and niece Komari (she of the total cuteness who has been featured on this blog many a time...) are coming for Thanksgiving! Since we lived in a "funky" (tiny) studio apartment in Los Angeles, we're both really excited to be able to actually host family for the holidays for the first time. (And my family is coming out for Christmas... we are lucky lucky lucky to have moms who want to come and make sure their kids are livin' right.)

So, here's what I'm thinking of doing for Thanksgiving dinner:

turkey, of course (gonna brine it the Alton Brown way)
dressing (Cynthia is doing this - yay!)
homemade Mac and Cheese
mashed potatoes
creamed spinach
maple/tarragon sweet potatoes (recipe from my mom - yummy)
broccoli salad (recipe from my aunt Shari)
cranberry chutney (also my mom's recipe and SO good)
buttermilk biscuits

desserts:

chess pie (recipe from me! it's linked here on my blog in the sidebar)
chocolate cake (by Cynthia - her chocolate cake is ridiculously good)

I'm nuts so I will probably add something else to the menu at the last minute (besides little appetizer things to much on during the day). I've been eyeing the whiskey-glazed carrots at Pioneer Woman Cooks... oh what the heck, I'll make those too... we'll have all the ingredients here anyway.

Charlie will get a braided bully stick, upon which he will feast until he decides we want to steal it and goes and buries it in our couch. That's how he rolls.