our "first" thanksgiving

S and I have been married for five whole years, but never in that time were we not with one of our sets of parents for Thanksgiving.

This year, thanks to strange work schedules and family health concerns, we found ourselves for the first time in Nashville for Thanksgiving and charged with the task of preparing our own feast. No pressure!

Well, despite a few stressful moments and missing our families tremendously, our first Thanksgiving turned out beautifully. Sam's sis E and her fella C even joined us after the afternoon meal for wine and dessert.

We used our china for the first time EVER and settled in to making a few family traditions of our very own. For example, Billie Holiday makes one heck of a Turkey Day soundtrack, brining the bird really does make a difference and pecans and sausage will forever appear in our chosen dressing recipe.

Here are a few snaps of our spread and the holiday weekend. Hope your holiday was both love-filled and delicious.

1-pan roasting brussel sprouts with Benton's bacon/2-sausage, pecan and sweet cornbread dressing/3-KJB's au gratin potatoes and Papa's deviled eggs/4-a peek at the spread (and the bird!)/5-glazed apple tart/6-THE TURKEY PLATE

7-the table/8-a much needed post meal walk around Bicentennial/9-catching a movie in Green Hills/10-S taking the tree search seriously on12 South/11-Bigfoot sighting at the tree lot/12-The Griswold Family Tree en route to our pad.

(top original image via smitten kitchen)