"A person without any friends is like a tree without its roots." -Unknown

"The language of friendship is not words, but rather meanings. It is an intelligence above language." -Thoreau


This year was the 6th Annual Friendship Thanksgiving at Casa de Morello's. Otherwise known as Chris, Christina, and Riley's house! Wow, six years...although Derek and I hadn't been apart of all of them in the past, we have been honored to be apart of at least the last few. Last year the both of us got sick off the family Thanksgiving dinner that we had a couple days before friendship thanksgiving, so we sadly skipped out. This year the celebration was the weekend before the traditional holiday so we were really excited to join the crew again and have a blast! And that we did!

So many things to be thankful for and many of them were in that house with us that night. First off, Chris and Christina, our hostesses extraordinaire, did such a fabulous job, once again, on creating such a warm, and festive atmosphere. Starting with a transformation made within their garage. Fabric softened the walls, while small white lights brightened the space with a just enough glow. A long 10 foot table was draped with Harvest time inspirations and a splash of sparkle here and there.

The minute we walked into the house, we could feel this great energy coming from all of our great friends...there was lots of talking and laughing and catching up going around. Everyone mainly congregated around in the kitchen and natural dinning area, so it was nice to also be in the midst of the final cooking preparations:) Smelling all of the different, yet complimentary aromas wafting from the oven and stove...mmmmm! The main course was the herb-rubbed turkey which was prepared by our lovely Christina. It was yet again DELICIOUS and not a bit dry. However, I'm always more partial to the dark meat, especially the drum leg! I refuse to play around in this situation...

In addition to the beautiful bird, each one of us ladies prepared a side dish or two. It doesn't happen very often in groups where you get together with different contributing dishes and everything works and is so good! Well, once again it happened here in this group! Everything was fantastic! I also made a beautiful salad as my dish. It was a pear and blue cheese salad with arugula and watercress, toasted walnuts, and a sweetened mustard vinaigrette=yum!

The rest of the evening was all about spending time with each other, laughing like crazy, warming up with the tradional pumkin pie shot, made by Mr. Morello himself, and just having a great time together! There were many kids there as well, sons, daughters, nieces, etc. and they had just as much fun as we adults did. Riley is such a natural character that he entertained some of us up until it was time to say goodnight. Maybe all these little ones will grow up one day and have a friendship thanksgiving of their own together...

Health...
Friends/Family...
Love...
Laughter...
Food...

...for these things I am THANKFUL!

"People may not remember exactly what you did or what u said, but they will always remember how you made them feel." -Unknown