Thanksgiving in Tennessee

Hello Friends and Family,

Thank you all for your well wishes on our big announcement last week. This week we are back to our regular updates!

Way too much happened on our Thanksgiving trip for one post, so here is the second part of our big Thanksgiving adventure. We left off as we were driving from Denver to Jackson, TN.

After driving for two days we arrived at my parent’s house in Tennessee for Thanksgiving. It was so nice to have my brother and his family with us for the whole week!

It has become a bit of a tradition for me to cook a turkey for Thanksgiving. I say “a” turkey, because for some unknown reason some members of the family actually prefer oven roasted turkey.

After a couple decades of frying turkeys, I decided this year I would prepare smoked turkey. I lost count over the years, but I think I’ve fried over 60 turkeys since the first one in the fall of 2003.

I got up at 4:00am on a 30 degree Thanksgiving morning to get these turkey breasts on the smoker. Over the last 3 years I’ve smoked over 800 pounds of meat and Courtney says these Turkey breasts were the best thing I’ve ever made.

Early the next morning I was back at the smoker, this time with a couple bone-in pork butts.

While the pork was smoking away, we went over to my Aunt’s house for some family photos. Can’t wait to see the final images, but we took a couple during the shoot.

After pictures we headed home and waiting for us was a new book! Courtney’s best friend, Maggie Russell, illustrated this incredible cute children’s Christmas Book: “Blue Bruce the Christmas Spruce.”

It’s not too late to buy a copy for your kids or grandkids! Just look at that face! Obviously a great book!

Before we knew it it was time for the last dinner of our trip. My Dr. Pepper sauce was declared “too spicy” for a few members of the family, so I whipped up a SECOND sauce, this time one modeled on the sauce of my childhood: Howard’s BBQ in Lillington, NC. It’s an eastern NC sauce, so mostly vinegar.

At breakfast that morning everyone went around and shared the highlight of Thanksgiving and I assured them that their answers would change when they ate my BBQ later in the evening.

I was 100% correct. My brother declared it was the best BBQ he ever had and that my attempt at making Howard’s sauce was PERFECT. As much as I appreciate everyone who has ever given me a compliment on my food…when your little brother says it…you know its true.

Not everything was sunshine and roses, however. We got home late in the 4th quarter of the Iron Bowl, just in time for Mills to have his first experience being let down by the Auburn football team.

It was such a fun week to be with my brother and his family all week. It was the first time in several years it worked out for us all to have the same week at my parent’s house.

Moving Update

My parents are coming Wednesday and Thursday this week to help us finish packing and to celebrate Christmas together. The movers arrive on Friday to load all of our belongings into the pod.

We are sticking around for the rest of the weekend and leaving on Christmas Morning to start the drive to Colorado. We will spend Christmas night in Kansas City and have assured Mills and Willow that Santa visits the Westin.

We had 40 people come for our farewell gathering this weekend. I know there are more than a few of you who were away this weekend with family and we certainly missed you.

We will be back in Atlanta at then end of April for a wedding and are planning on leaving enough time to see some of you while we are in town, so stay tuned!

Until our next Adventure,

Austin, Courtney, Mills, and Willow

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