Thanksgiving

This year Thanksgiving Day started unlike any other for me. My friend and I got to participate in the ninth annual Drumstick Dash which is a fund raiser for Wheeler Mission Ministry in Indianapolis, Indiana. Here we are when we got to the parking lot. We were all cheerful and bright eyed. After an hour of waiting in the brisk November air for a shuttle from the parking lot to the event we were a little less bright eyed to say the least.
In fact we were on one of the last two shuttles and the roads were already blocked off for the race by the time the shuttle picked us up so they dropped us off a couple of blocks from the starting line. Rather than fight through this mass of 15,000+ people to get to the start we decided to just jump in where they dropped us off. We were not running competitively anyway, seeing as I am really out of shape and Jess gets shinsplints really badly.
The crowd was pretty overwhelming at times. I have never participated in an event like this so it was a completely new experience for me. It was very exciting to be a part of something with thousands of other people all working together for a worthy cause. Wheeler Mission Ministries is a non-denominational, Christian, social services organization, which provides critically needed goods and services to the homeless, poor, and needy of central Indiana without regard to race, color, creed, national origin or religion.

And here we are post race proudly sporting our Drumstick Dash shirts, ready to head to our respective family Thanksgiving gatherings. What a great way to start the holiday! Thanks for doing it by my side, Jess! Love ya!

The rest of the Thanksgiving day and weekend has included gatherings at my Grandma's house (which is always a full house) and my inlaws which is a smaller gathering but with an awesome spread! My MIL is an great cook. Here are links to the foods that I personally made for this year's Thanksgiving feasts.

Food:
Pigs in a Blanket
Pumpkin Cookies
Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad (this one I actually use the Aldi version of this and add a bag of frozen peas and carrots, extra bacon bits and a cup of shredded cheese)

Pumpkin Mousse Pie (I used cheesecake Jello instead of vanilla - Yum! Would have been just a bit better if the guys hadn't let it sit out so long, it was a little more like pudding than like pie by the time I ate it. But still good. ;-)
S'mores Pie (this called for you to make your own whip cream and I just bought mine because Meijer was out of whipping cream. It worked just fine. Everyone loved it!)
Pecan Bars (delish!!)