Bella Lime : Gatherings

It's that time of year again...

That time when my parents head down south for some sunshine and relaxation... but before I stuff my face with ice cream and chocolate because my mom has gone away for 5 months, I wanted to share with you lovelies how we celebrated my mom before they headed out.

This year I hosted it at my house and made a feast with all the trimmings except for ice cream and chocolate because I will need those to drown my sorrows. We invited my mom and step dad's good friends to join us as well as my uncle. It was such a pleasure to have all these wonderful people who I have known almost all my life together to celebrate my favourite person.

I found that even though my hubby, brother and I had to work our little butts off preparing for this get together it was so worth it. I loved sharing a meal with everyone and hearing all the different conversations and laughter. I will definitely be opening my home up and having more gatherings perhaps more of a "potluck" style from now on.

The menu included:

Turkey roasted with a rub that included rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic and butter
Applewood smoked ham,
Nonni stuffing, with bacon, onion, celery and apples added
Sweet potatoes with a touch of syrup, garlic, salt and BUTTER
Mashed potatoes
and of course BIRTHDAY cake ( confetti Angel Food cake) YUM

My step dad doing the honours of carving the turkey

I am smiling here because the business of preparing the turkey is long behind me. I felt AWFUL pulling out that poor birds insides and neck. I kept apologizing to it as I was pulling each piece out. It gave new meaning to having your head up your butt...( sorry) but honestly what a terrible place to store everything!!!! And don't even get me started on how awful it was to separate the skin on top of that poor bird and then stuff onions, bacon and apples into that space.
I feel like I need to apologize again to that Turkey. SSSOOOOORRRYYYY!
You were delicious though!