Hosting my First Big "Holiday" Dinner! YUM!

Wait, it's not holiday season yet!!! Well, my husband is deploying again for 8 months +. He missed all the holidays last year, too, because he was gone for 7 months...he just returned in March of 2012. So he's gone for 7 months, home for 5 (of which he was probably gone a month and a half of that time) and now he has to leave again. *sigh* I swear, I have yet to figure out if I actually like him since he's been deployed almost all of our marriage. ::wink wink:: Our 2 year anniversary is this September. Anyway, that's not what this post is about - just the explanation for turkey and all the fixin's in August!   I've cooked plenty of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, but never for 11 people...but yesterday I did, with Mom's help! It's usually just me, Hubba Hubba, and kiddo, so a much smaller scale. Not to mention that neither of them like some of my awesome, traditional recipes like sweet potato casserole and carrot souffle...so I don't make them for just myself. An alternative to dinner for 3 is going to another family member's home for the holiday. I help cook, of course, but it's usually just one dish because they are the host and want to do the majority of the work!    We started our work the night before. I baked my home made apple pie (my first time doing it lattice style!), we did all the chopping and combining for the dressing (or stuffing, as most of you call it), and deviled eggs. It was hard not to just eat them all! The doggies wanted to help so bad! Here they are begging for food, and Mom giving them the "You're freaking crazy if you think you're getting any of this" look! Mom isn't really a dog person, lol.

I'm crazy novice at hosting get togethers. I should really look up hostess tips for ideas of those nice extra touches that probably never even occurred to me. I had deviled eggs out as hors d'oeuvres and set up a coffee bar. Mmm...coffee!

I love my little cream holder! Only 50 cents from Goodwill!

I got to use all the leaves in our new table, and Mom even bought me some beautiful place mats that I had been eyeballing because they matched my kitchen hand towels! I still don't have my 'captains' chairs, so I just used the pretty ones from our office. I think they went well with the setup!

Instead of feeding 3 people, I had this hungry crowd plus several more who aren't in the photo!

And here's what they got to eat!   Learn how to make that menu here!

From left to right: Dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn, turkey, carrot souffle, and green bean casserole.

Not bad looking for my first attempt at a lattice top pie! I also made some of my caramel filled brownies...I even substituted york peppermint patties in another batch for some more variety!
In the end this is what it was all for:

 My Chief. Leaving again for 8 months, but leaving happy and full! ;)