Turkey Day

I have been meaning to post about Thanksgiving since it happened.  It was a Thanksgiving of firsts for Gates and I.  Our first to be married AND our first to have people over.  We don't have our good china together yet, but I think we made a solid effort on the table.  Here's what it looked like - before the food, of course:

It's such a joy to just have the things that you need to set a table.  That's definitely new to me.  A special shout out goes to my sister, who gave me those great placemats by TAG.  I love TAG. 

We got our turkey and ham from the honeybaked ham store and my parents brought dressing.  We made the sweet potatoes and the creamed potatoes.  Actually, it's a bit misleading to say, "we," as really I went to the Cathedral for the Thanksgiving Day service and Gates made the side dishes.  (He did a great job.)  My sister brought her husband and her newborn daughter, and Sister Schubert graciously provided the rolls.

And...I made cupcakes for the occasion:  Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes with Cinnamon Buttercream as the frosting.  I was a bit disappointed with the cake, because it to be more spicy, but I loved the buttercream.  Everyone who was not me thought that both the cake and frosting were delicious.  I used the recipes found here.  Next time I want to use this recipe, as I think it has more of the flavors I was hoping to taste.